Handy GPS - Offline Maps

When you're on the maps page, pressing the "View" button at the top right will bring up a menu that includes the options "Standard", "Satellite", "Hybrid", and "Manage offline maps...". The first three are the standard Apple Maps layers, but the last one brings up the "Offline maps" page which allows you to download small regions of map tiles for use even when you have no signal from cellular towers or have switched the phone to aeroplane mode.

Before you select the "Manage offline maps" option, make sure you have panned and zoomed to the area of the map that you want to download. Then, when you open the Offline Maps page, the lat/lon extents of the current map view will be shown. The page will also auto-select a suitable range of tile zoom levels to download.

To download map tiles, you need to type or paste in the map tile server URL that you want to use (see below for examples), and enter a name for the map that you are about to download.

To check that the URL you entered is correct and that your WiFi or cellular data connection is working, press the blue "Test" button. This will attempt to download a single tile from the centre of the selected area, and if successful will display it at the bottom of the page, as shown below. If this fails it will display an error message.



Once you have tested the tile server using your settings, you can download the selected map tiles for this area by pressing the "Download map tiles" button. While the download is occuring, a progress bar shows the status, and the red "X" button can be used to cancel the download.

When the tiles have been downloaded, a message will pop up indicating that the download is compete. Then, if you press the "Back" button and press the "View" button on the map page, you should see your new map appear in the list.

Selecting an offline map on the map page will show it instead of one of the standard Apple Maps layers. If you do not see it, make sure you are looking in the right area and zoom in or out until it appears.

The offline map URL defaults to the Open Street Map cycle layer. However, you can enter any valid tile server URL. The only requirement is that you use {z}, {x} and {y} for the parameters for zoom-level, column and row. Also, many tile servers have a choice of three or more URLs e.g. a, b, c. Choose one of these only.

You can find a list of some of the available tile servers here.

Australian topo map servers

Topo map servers for other countries

Examples of topo maps from some of these tile servers are shown below. From left to right they are: NSW, Australia; New Zealand; Alaska, USA (CalTopo); and Washington State, USA (CalTopo).


If you copy and paste a tile server URL, make sure there's no spaces at the start or end or it will not work. Also, some tile servers don't allow zooming all the way in or all the way out, so if the map doesn't show up, try changing your zoom level. You also need a network connection to download the map tiles.

You can also watch a YouTube video on the offline maps feature.

Back to main page

BinaryEarth.net