Downloading Tips

[For android and Windows PC users] Here's some tips I've learned while struggling to get my new tablet up and running and in sync with my Gaia GPS cloud account: (1) BEFORE opening GaiaGPS account on your tablet/mobile device, go to your GaiaGPS cloud account on your PC, and click on 'maps', then click on the 'show archive' icon, (2) under the 'sync' column, toggle all your maps to 'OFF', (3) fire up your tablet/mobile device and open GaiaGPS, (4) making sure that your mobile device has a data-connection, go to 'settings', 'account,' and allow the device to sync with your cloud account, (5) after the GaiaGPS has completed syncing, then go back to into your cloud account on your PC, and turn 'ON' just one map under the 'sync' column, (6) then go back into your GaiaGPS account on your device, and ask it to 'sync' again.  Continue turning on the maps, one at a time, in this fashion, until you have sync'd all the maps on your mobile device that you want there. This method is particularly useful if you have (1) large file-size maps, (2) not a lot of bandwidth on your broadband, or (3) a less-than-powerful, i.e., not very fast, mobile device.  If your file sizes are quite small, and/or you don't have very many files, you may not find this a necessary process at all.

Also, if you've already been battling with locked-up downloads that just keep spinning and spinning, then you will probably want to 'force stop' GaiaGPS and uninstall it from your mobile device and reformat your external SD card (if that is what you are using for file storage) and start over again with the system outlined above.

Finally, I've also learned that it's best to keep your new downloaded maps to reasonable sizes.  So, if you have a fairly large area you'd like to incorporate into your map files, then do it in small chucks one at a time.  Under 6000 tiles and under 600MB works best for me.  What types of map layers you choose to use can also make a difference. For example, Gaia Topo maps are pretty small and fast to load.  I've managed to download the entire state of Oregon in just four manageable chunks. However, because I wanted to have range and township quads available to me, for some areas of travel, I'm also using USGS Topo maps, and it took me 23 chunks just to give me access to southwest Oregon alone.