Make sure you don't get lost when your internet connection does

As the world becomes increasingly dependent on internet connectivity, it's becoming all the more terrifying to do without that connection. While you'll probably survive a short trip out of town without your favorite Spotify playlist, the same can't always be said for navigation. Getting lost in a strange place, surrounded by unfamiliar landmarks and people—or worse, surrounded by nothing and nobody—can be absolutely terrifying at times. It's even worse if you're in a foreign country where you don't speak the language to ask for directions.

Fortunately, with a little forethought, you can simply whip out your phone and navigate your lost self out of this mess with Google Maps' offline maps feature. After all, Google Maps is one of the best apps for Android. So, let's have a look at how to do just that.

Whether you're on Android or iOS, you can download Google Maps through the app to make sure you don't get lost when you're navigating through the boonies where the signal is sparse. Before we begin, there are a few things to know. The most important thing to know is that you will have access to navigation features when using offline maps—there wouldn't be much point if you didn't. However, you won't have access to nifty Google Maps features like Street View, traffic updates, public transport navigation, bicycle routes, or Google's Busy areas feature.

Additionally, you will need some free storage space on your device to download the maps; the bigger the map, the more space you will need. With that out of the way, let's look at how to download Google Maps for offline use.

If your internal storage is full and you need to save offline maps to a microSD card, read this guide to the end and change the storage location first.

If you update the storage preferences after downloading any maps, Google Maps will delete any maps you have already downloaded. Unless your internal storage is very limited, you might be better off leaving offline maps on your internal storage.

There is a size limit to the amount of map area you can download—not in terms of data, but physical map area. If you find that the selection rectangle starts to shrink when you pinch to zoom out, download as much as you can and repeat the process to download additional maps. Downloading multiple overlapping maps is the easiest way to save offline information for a large area. Plus, you can download as many offline maps as your storage allows.

Now that you've downloaded your first offline map, let's look at some ancillary settings you should adjust to make the most of the offline maps feature. One crucial factor is that offline maps expire after a year, meaning if you do not update them—or enable the automatic update feature—you will no longer have access to your offline maps after a year. With that, here are some options that come with offline maps.

Firstly, you should label your offline maps. This can make it easier to identify which map is which if you ever need to clear some old maps out. You can rename offline maps by going to the Offline maps page— see steps four and five of the download process—and following these steps:

As mentioned previously, offline maps need to stay updated. While Google Maps allows you to manually update maps, unless your internet access is very limited, it makes the most sense to allow automatic updates to downloaded maps. To enable automatic updates, navigate to the Offline maps page and take these steps:

And that's it. Your maps will automatically update. No more worrying if your downloaded map is the latest and most accurate.

Next, let's update your network preferences to ensure offline maps only update when you want them to. While on the Offline maps settings page, follow these steps:

If you are lucky enough to have a phone that still includes microSD expansion, Google helpfully includes an option to allow you to save offline maps to your expandable storage. To enable microSD storage for offline maps, go to the Offline maps page and proceed as follows:

While you're on the Offline maps settings page, you'll notice there's one setting we haven't covered yet. Automatically download recommended maps is an option that will automatically download maps that Google thinks you could use. It uses frequently-visited places as well as your home and work addresses to determine which maps to download.

We haven't touched this setting because any option you don't have direct control over is never as reliable as it needs to be. If you want offline maps for your work or home neighborhoods, your best bet is to download those maps manually through the process described above.

You've now downloaded offline maps and set them up to automatically update how and when you like, but when you're done with your trip or move to a new town or city, you certainly don't want those unused maps eating up storage on your phone. Most offline maps are under 100 MB, but they can be over a gigabyte in size.

Let's look at how to clean up your offline maps catalog by deleting those dusty old maps you no longer use. To delete offline maps, navigate to the Offline maps page (step five in the How to download Google Maps section of this guide) in the Google Maps app and follow these steps:

Most of the time, getting lost sucks...but sometimes it's an adventure. As long as you know you're safe, getting lost can lead to discovering new places and getting to know your country better. Offline maps can act as a safety net in situations where you want to do a bit of exploring without the risk of getting lost in a dangerous sense. If you're not the type to go off exploring without a plan, Google can help you plan your trip so you can focus on enjoying yourself.

Julian is a freelance writer with a passion for tech that enriches the human experience, and teaching others how to make the most of their gadgets. As a lifelong techie and Android user with background in product design, Julian has pedantic eye for function over form—an ethos that you'll spot if you ever walk past his cluttered workspace. When he's not clacking away at a keyboard, you can find him gardening, enjoying the outdoors with his family and pets, or playing a PC game.