Gaia GPS allows users to download an unlimited amount of offline maps, however, some map sources have different map tile limits for each individual offline map. Tiles are the individual digital images that make up a digital map. The size of individual tiles varies depending on the map source.
- When an offline map download is greater than the map source's limit the map tile count and download size with be displayed in red.
- Most map sources will allow you to complete an unlimited amount of downloads of the source - so you can complete multiple downloads to get a larger area
- It's okay if your map downloads overlap, as the app will know not to download the same map tiles twice
Map Sources with a 100,000 tile limit per download
| - Gaia Topo | - National Map | - US Topo |
| - Australia/NZ Nautical Charts | - New Zealand Topo | - USFS Classic |
| - Austria Labels Only | - NOAA Charts | - USFS MVUM |
| - Austria Topo | - NPS Visitor | - USFS Timber Harvests |
| - Aviation: IFR - TAC | - OpenCycleMap HD | - USFS Visitor |
| - Aviation: IFR High | - Outdoors | - USGS Aerial |
| - Aviation: IFR Low | - Landscape | - USGS Geology |
| - Aviation: VFR | - OSM Traces | - USGS Topo |
| - Aviation: VFR - TAC | - PLSS Grid | - Canada Topo |
| - British Columbia Forest Fires | - Public Land |
- Historic Topo 1900
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| - Canada Topo West | - River Charts |
- Historic Topo 1930
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| - Contours | - Satellite (MapQuest) |
- Luxembourg 1907 Topo
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| - Features- Spain IGN Topo | - Spain IGN Topo |
- Luxembourg 1927 Topo
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| - Finland Satellite Imagery | - Terrain HD |
- Luxembourg 1964 Topo
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| - Finland Topo Maps | - Toner HD |
- Luxembourg Aerial 2013
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| - France IGN Topo | - Topografisk Norgeskart | - UK Historic 50s |
| - Luxembourg Land Parcels | - Transport HD |
- UK Streets 1:10K
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| - Luxembourg Topo | - US Private Land |
- US Wildfires, 2000-2016
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| - Mobile Atlas HD | - US Shaded Relief | - USFS 2017 |
| - NatGeo John Muir Trail | - Backroad Mapbooks Canada | - Watercolor |
| - NatGeo Trails Illustrated |
Map Sources with a 10,000 tile limit per download
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- Shaded Relief (ESRI)
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- Slope Angle - Avalanche
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- World Imagery (ESRI)
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MapBox Sources have a 10,000 tile limit per download with a combined limit of 160,000 tiles for all MapBox sources
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- Satellite (MapBox)*
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- Satellite with Labels (MapBox)*
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- Satellite Topo (feet)
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- Satellite Topo (meters)
- SwissTopo
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*Note: An aggregate of 160,000 tiles from all MapBox sources can be set to sync per account. Archiving older MapBox based offline maps to your account on gaiagps.com will let you download new offline maps from the MapBox sources.
Comments
16 comments
When attempting to download multiple Mapbox Aerial sections ,10k tiles at a time :( , I was surprised to learn I am only permitted 160k Mapbox tiles total for offline use, per account not device. 160K tiles is not that large of an area, especially at a higher resolution like 16. I purchased 5 years of a subscription primarily for the excellent aerial maps. I have no internet connection at my house. Now, I have to drive into town for the Starbucks wifi every time I want to move an online map to my device? And then wait for hours and hours with the extremely slow transfer speed? This forces me to delete other MapBox maps that I need and choose which Mapbox maps are MOST important while deleting the rest. This Mapbox limitation is not prominently made known in the advertising but rather discreetly hidden. This is not fair to your users.
@mikebouse
Thanks for your feedback and I have edited this article to highlight the combined tile limit for MapBox sources.
Can you explain why there are limits on #of tiles per download if eventually I can download it all anyway over multiple (THOUSANDS) of downloads. I was pretty irritated to find this out after I picked up a new, shiny and expensive 256gb SD card. Can you update us on if this restriction will ever be removed?
@candymansk8r
I'm sorry for the frustration caused by the individual download tile limits.
The individual download limits are used to discourage large, costly downloads; though it is still possible to piece together multiple small downloads. Some of the map sources such as the MapBox, ESRI, and NeoTreks map sources have a reduce limit due to the licensing cost associated with their offline use.
We are working to optimize the download size of the Gaia Topo layer so larger areas can be downloaded within the limits.
FYI:
"Satellite with Labels (MapBox) on my Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 is limiting me to 1,000 tile download limit. the display turns red and throws be an error message when i click download. Above it says its should be 10,000 tiles.
For my purpose, I swapped over to "Satellite (MapQuest)" and did my download there, which worked fine.
@rickb
It sounds like you might be reaching the 160,000 combined tile limit for all MapBox source. Can you click 'Submit a Request' above to contact the support team, and include a screenshot of the error message?
At the time I typed this i only had 86,195 tiles downloaded total of all map types (not including cache tiles which I'm sure is way less since I cleared the cache several times since download the app a few days prior. I will see if i can get some screenshots posted up.
Within the iOS app, is there a way to see the current total combined tiles downloaded (and perhaps along side the total limits)? Looking under Settings > Map Downloads or Settings > Storage, nothing indicates downloaded tiles.
+1 vote for increasing the limits of combined tile downloads. Driving a relatively short looped overland adventure around my state (Oregon), I'd like to have fairly detailed off-road areas for offline use. With the current limits, I'm not able to download even half of the trip's maps.
Thank you!
Screenshots have been sent.
@adam
Thanks for the feedback.
There's is not a way to see combined map tile counts (although you can see tile count for individual maps). If you're interested, you can open a new feature request for that option.
If you are looking for high-resolution satellite imagery and running into tile limits with MapBox (Satellite & Satellite with Labels) -- I recommend the ESRI World Imagery map layer which does not have a limit on the number of tiles you can download overall.
@rickb
Thanks.
Thank you, @Nathan .
Am I doing this right? Or using the best process? In order to pre-download maps for a short road trip (mostly on trails), I’m creating multiple Areas. Each Area download includes Gaia Topo, NatGeo Trails Illustrated and World Imagery. I chose the sizes of the Areas based off of the limits listed above (completely, and unfortunately, avoiding any MapBox or street views of any kind).
For an approximately 300 mile road trip, I needed to create eight separate areas. Ideally, only needing to create one area for the entire trip would be great. Especially for an even larger road trip.
Thank you for the help!
@adam
I'd suggest that you follow these steps to download maps for offline use rather than creating an area. That way you won't have the multi-colored squares covering your map.
Also, if you have a route saved for your entire road trip, you can use the 'Download Along' feature to download an offline map that follows your route.
Thanks for the tip, @Nathan . The suggestion you provided was my first process. However, in order to download all the necessary Maps at the resolution I wanted, I would have needed to create and download dozens of individual Maps. That would have taken much longer than doing the Area process. But, since creating an Area automatically downloads the necessary maps, can I just delete the Areas and not delete the Maps? For example, when I deleted the Areas (the exact ones from the screenshot above), these Maps remained:
On my road trip last weekend, we actually explored backcountry outside of the downloaded maps area. This made using Gaia difficult. If there weren't limits on tile downloads, or at least if the limits were significantly raised, then there would have been no issue. I'm not looking forward to downloading maps for an upcoming 1000+ mile road trip. (I can't use the "Download Along" feature since I won't know exactly where we're headed.)
Regarding your note: "That way you won't have the multi-colored squares covering your map." Why isn't there a way to hide Areas without also hiding Tracks? (Feature Request added a year ago: https://help.gaiagps.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115006989527-Map-Overlays-Toggle-My-Areas-should-be-separate-from-My-Tracks )
Thanks again!
First, I'm a NEW user that has learned a few tricks that might help. My primary use is back country roads and general exploration. Some fishing, camping, hiking, general wilderness site seeing.
I like to choose map sources from the first list above that don't have a max combined download limit for these large open areas.
I have found that keeping my downloads to zoom 14 or 15 is enough for me to explore large areas I've never been to. By doing this it keeps my downloads to lower tile counts and thus greatly reducing download size per each region.
I also box in complete states at zoom 10 (Oregon at this level is like 600 tiles) which is prevents getting "lost" on the map interface if I accidentally swipe outside my downloaded region while offline, I can just zoom out.
For reference, I think I have download half of Oregon (from Coast line to a vertical line stopping at Bend, OR) at zoom 15 in Gaia Topo in like 5 seperate downloads and I think each download is around 50,000 tiles each. I also did this for USGS Topo and MapQuest Satellite. I found going to zoom 16,17,18 is just too much resolution for general exploration when each level of zoom higher is 4x the data/tiles.
Thanks @rickb ! I'll dig in a bit further with your suggestions. Appreciate the help.
@adam
Areas
Yes, you can delete the area and retain your offline map that was created from the area.
Tile Limits
Like @rickb mentioned, I recommend Gaia Topo for when you need to download a large area because it has a smaller download size.
Hiding Areas
You can toggle the visibility of each area individually through the Saved menu or you can move all the areas to a folder and toggle off the visibility of the folder:
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