PSA: Updates for offline maps on Windows Phone now available

Offline map data is a Windows Phone feature you don’t appreciate until you really need it. While you’re probably in data coverage most of the time, those few times you’re not really make you love having access to your maps. Today we’re looking at an update for offline map data on Windows Phone!

Want to update? Of course you do. Head to settings > applications > maps > check for updates to have your phone check for updates. We’ve got reports of regions like India, California and elsewhere picking up new maps. The update size will vary depending on what maps you’ve elected to download for offline use.

Why download maps? The offline map data allows you to search for places and get directions without using a data connection. It’ll also help you save money by not consuming precious data through your carrier.

Download maps on Windows Phone for offline use? Let us know where you are in the world and whether or not you’re seeing updates!

Thanks for the tips everyone!

219 Comments

Philippines and Australia have updates
The detail of mapping provided by HERE Maps outside the US is just amazing. HERE Drive+ has repeatedly saved by bacon on many long-distance trips to remote areas in the Philippines. No signal? No problem! A friend of mine who also sports a Windows Phone has had similar experiences.
True! No data plan, no wifi, no problem. HERE never failed me once on Metro Manila roads.
If I pause update then it will restart from scratch or from where I left?
Agree, Here Drive used offline in UK and Italy, awesome and free ❤ But, will download the Maps, could be useful. 190MB so need WiFi.
Yes. Even Province. :-) Love Here Maps. and so so for Here Drive. I use Lumia 720, no Here Drive+. :-) Here Drive + will be available for us 720 and 520 users upon receiving 8.1 ryt?
Yes, comes with the update of 8.1 on all devices not only Nokia but also for Samsung Huawei aee.
China sucks!
Nokia HERE Maps never failed me at Torres del Paine, truly in the middle of nowhere. I looked through the glass of my Lumia and saw everything, but my trip fellows with Androids and iPhones couldn't say the same... BTW, there is no signal at Torres, and there can't be; it's a national park.
Offline HERE maps sold my friend on Windows Phone. I love it. My family with iPhones were trying to figure out how we were going to get around when we were in vacation and my dad suggested a physical map and i was all " why don't we just use HERE maps?" And they were all :O
+1520
Love offline maps, they're so convenient! And never have to worry about losing my way, just because I don't have a data connection. :)
For me too, offline navigation was the reason to go WP. I'm biking a lot (mountain bike & race bike) and data coverage is not always as good as you'd want it to be,
You're screwed if EMP goes off lol
I've seen more fires than EMPs in my life... How your paper map is doing?
Google Maps works offline now! :/
No Navigation. :-P
It works for entire countries does it? Or just crappy little segments covering a city?
+720
+920!
Texas and New York received updates.
Yay TX fuck NY!
+920
updates for Florida , Illinois, Iowa in US
I presume most of us would use Nokia Here maps, which already does offline maps, but this is awesome anyways!
This is for that too ;)
Anyone else having issues with Here Drive+?
Freezes up a lot and the time between freezes is becoming shorter. My only solution is uninstalling Here Drive+ and reinstalling it again. Started happening again (Wondering if it's just me...)
Just reinstall it. The map data will still remain on the phone as it is used for other Here services.
The updates are for those offline maps that Nokia Here maps uses.
Duh.
Not duh for ALANMAN87...
Virginia, Maryland and D.C all have updates.
HERE YOU GO :D
India has updates :)
Finland got updates too with the 126,3 MB size
Michigan here with a 174.7 MB update:D
I'm currently travelling in Russia with the Offline Maps. Without I would be lost or ruined by the roaming fees. Everything works fine and the self positioning feature works mostly very accurate.
Can this map update be saved on SD card?
Yes you can through Nokia Storage check Posted via the WPC App for Android!
Yep, via Lumia Storage Check on the 'Maps' section you can change when you store maps.
Download storage check beta, then you can choose to save to sd card from it.
don't see anything new in mumbai, sucks.
Updating Colorado now.
India got update... and OH, MI, IL too.
I've just updated the map data (Argentina) and now Here Maps is closing rigth after I open it, any ideas? (NL 920, 8.1 DP)
Had the same issue too (I'm also from Argentina), I tried deleting the existing map and downloading it again. After that Here Maps is working fine once again! Hope that was useful!
That was exactly what I've done and it also work fine for me. Thx!
Have the same problem. Gonna try that. Thanks.
New Delhi with 34 MB map update
Any improvements in the details?
I can now see Starbucks, Haldiram. These were recently opened and glad I can see them in map :)
:)
Malaysia get a 35.2MB updates :)
Maharashtra / Goa with 45.4 Mb !! Srprashant91 please check again
Any changes you see
Updating here in Brazil.
+720
~127mb for Brazil.
Saskatchewan has a massive 154MB update compared to the 96MB that was installed!
Morocco Africa updates with 84.5MB are available
Already updated. Here in China.
Singapore / Malaysia / Indonesia - Updating 77MB in total
I really enjoy the offline maps, data is precious...
I see the update for Califorina as well .
I just wish my hometown (in germany) wasn't so full of errors in the map data. If there was only an option to report those errors!
We have cutten roads here on Turkey ;)
@rahx There is a way to report errors on the Here map... Simply use the desktop internet version of Here. You will find a link to report errors for roads layout and PoI... I did it for my local map in the UK and a few months later it was corrected...
I used that like two years ago in my town where they invented a lot of roads. But with this update the problems are still there, so sad. Here in Costa Rica, there should be a way to fix it faster and get the fixes faster also.
Hi rahx, I'm Pino of the HERE team. We're constantly updating our maps, but if you still find mistakes, please report them on Twitter (@HERE)
That's really nice to see you HERE/Nokia guys checking for feedbacks!!! Thanks, Pino!!
Not only does it save data but battery. Pulling map data ota consumers a ton of battery because you're using your data connection
Yeah this is good because here maps is not nice to my battery.
Nothing here in SoCal..
No, I'm not in data coverage most of the time so I really love the offline maps (55 MB update for México).
Indiana/Illinois updated.
Kansas, Nevada and Hawaii too.
Malaysia got updates... 170.2MB
Cali and Nevada done, but the park down the street is still a dirt lot in the satellite view...
got it, Thanks for the heads up.
Washington, Idaho and Oregon updated.
North Carolina has updates
Still annoyed that Google stole the downloadable offline maps idea. Must have been a good idea. It was quite nice having that as a Windows phone only thing. Seeing an update for California, downloading now.
Hi metallikunt, I'm Pino of the HERE team. I just wanted to point out that our offline solution is far more advanced than the competition. With HERE you can search for addresses and POI, plan routes and navigate without connection. With others you just get a digital version of a paper map.
Eat that Google!
Thanks for the response. I plan on sticking with HERE maps for sure. Not a fan of Google either way. I always mention the HERE offline maps when people ask about my phone. Such a great service to have. Keep up the great work!!
Can i download offline maps on sd card on my L1320? I have Lumia Storage Check app and it allows to download it on sd card. But little question here, will it works after downloading on sd card??
Yes.. It does work.
India is on the update list as well Posted via the WPC App for Android!
Indonesia got update too :)
Thanks! Updating my Philippine map right now. :)
Malaysia maps got update in the list. Downloading now.. total of 170.2 MB...
Pennsylvania updated
Too bad the location accuracy is off with both Bing Maps AND Nokia HERE Mapping. No matter what I do, when I try to pinpoint my location, it always shows me at an address two or three houses down the street! (I live at 139 but it says I'm at 143)
Now how can we expect to find a location if the address is going to be off? Is there any way to calibrate this?
Does it stayed fixed on that location that's a few houses away or does it bounce around a bit? I had it bouncing around on me on my old 822 and a hard reset fixed it.
It stays fixed to that address. No bouncing. Visually, my position is correct on the map... But the address displayed is all wrong. It's been this way before I upgraded to the 8.1DP and it's still the same now, even after a hard reset. -1020
It's sad, because Cortana doesn't even know my correct address. :(
Maybe the number of your house is wrong. Think about that.
New Zealand updates downloading now
i'm from PAKISTAN..i can't see any map option in settings(applications)...why i'm not able to see map option can anyone tell me about this???
You can also go to that settings from the HERE Maps or Drive. Also the pre installed Maps app also has it in its settings. No idea why its not showing up in your built in settings.
HERE Maps is not working..when i open the app it crashes or returns me to home
i reinstalled the app thousand times but problem still here's...also there is no map option in setting (applications) why i cannt see map option ay one have an idea about it??
Hi Zohaib ZJ, but we currently don't have maps for Pakistan, that's why you can't use HERE Maps at the moment. But no worries, this will be fixed with Windows Phone 8.1
hmm i hope so...but i recently checked the features and serivce availability at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/basics/feature-and-service-... PAKISTAN is in the list of MAPS...so what about this guys
Is there some sort of notification the general user gets for these?
I think the here suite does notify you in startup when there are new maps available. But I'm not too sure.
It should behave like store update; auto updated if the option is set otherwise notify user for an update. Perhaps they can make map data available as a separate app and let store manage its update. Not sure if WP Store allows dynamic on-the-fly packaging; so in this case user only get update for countries that are updated among those they downloaded previously. Or perhaps they can simply publish map data for each country individually. This way it would be simple, cleaner and verbose.
Hi guys, thanks for your feedback. We are currently rolling out a similar feature: when you start HERE Maps, you will get notified that new maps are available for download.
Connecticut, New York and Puerto Rico updated...
'HERE MAPS crashes when i open the app,it kick me off to home that's why i cannot use maps..other map apps shows maps are not avai;able on this phone what should i do ..what is this can you please tell me..i'm from pakistan..
Wisconsin also receives an update.
Maybe reinstall the application, delete all stored maps and download them all again
i reinstalled the app thousand times..from where i delete stored map,there's no map option in settings (applications)..i cannt see any map option so what to do from where i delte maps etc or download new one's...HERE maps also not working..when i ope anyother map app it shows Maps are not available on this phone
Zohaib, I had correspondence with Microsoft Pakistan employee in 2012 and this very topic came up. The reply was: Bing and Nokia maps are not available for Pakistan due the "situation in the country". I don't know what does that mean? I guess Pakistan is the only country with no map coverage from Microsoft? Even if you go to //maps.bing.com/, you won't get the maps (no labels whatsoever) within Pakistan area. There must be other reasons for singling out Pakistan like that but this is how it is. (Similarly, I met some Pakistani MVPs in SharePoint conference and found that MVP program is not offered for Pakistan! They had to apply from other countries to registered for MVP program). Google, however, doesn't comply with "government strategies" so they offer updated maps for Pakistan down to the street level. The project I was doing back then was about some demographic analysis. Eventually, I got maps from official 'gov.pk' resources.
hmm i agree with your coment but i recently checked this http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/basics/feature-and-service-... service and features availability PAKISTAN is in the list of MAPS...in past pakistan was not but now it is showing PAKISTAN in the MAPS country list...what is this?? another problem is that i cannot see any MAP option in SETTINGS >applications...why i'm not able to see this option..when i go to storage sense i tap on maps there i see the opton for manage maps but in settings it won't appear,you know about this???
I was with the same problem in my mother's Lumia 520. The problem was the low quality SD card. Format the SD card and everything come back to normal. I recommend to buy a class 10 card to prevent that. Kisses.
what SD card problem???i'm using SANDISK class 10 SD card 16 GB,i don't think so it is an SD card problem when there was no SD card in my phone problem was still there.
450 Mb for Australia and over 500mb for UK
The UK update was about 225 Mb, however the total map size about 522 Mb.
Hawaii updated!
On a side note, why hasn't anything been done of the downloading maps screen. It's still required to be on that screen till the updates are completed. Background update support still lacks in 8.1 dev preview :/ (came here to say this, now heading back to resume download)
Yeah, that is pretty annoying have to turn off the lock screen timeout (mine is on 30 seconds) when downloading/updating maps..
Download works for me under the lock screen just fine as long as I don't navigate away from the download screen.
Georgia (USA) 198mb update
UK updates available as well
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK totalling about 800 Mb.
Updated for Kerala also available...
Do you notice any improvement in kerala ?
Argentina maps got updated too.
hey....whats the size of whole India map update.....anyone can tell?
273 MB!!
Wondering what they actually updated. Every time I updated for Malaysia and I didn't see any changes in the map itself. Some routes are still wrong even after a year and most important is that they not yet updated our new Penang second bridge into it.
Why there is no map for japan in here maps? If it is there, please guide me! Thanks in advance
Streets are still wrong in my neighborhood...
Minnesota
Update here in Croatia.
Updating maps of México.
California maps updated. It actually includes the new offramp configurations at the 405 and Wilshire in LA. Google Maps hasn't even gotten to that yet. It's evident by the amazingly awful offramp/onramp merging they used to have.
It is unfair for all Cambodian users. Nokia does not bring us the Cambodia maps at all so that we had to use other third party apps. I hope it will available soon in my country as it is the most must-have app
Already updated mine. -Philippines
Maps for Germany received updates. Same goes for Austrian maps
The Netherlands have a 240mb update
On my Windows Phone 8 only 26.4 MB.
How come when I check for update, it says "checking for updates" for the past 5 minutes.
Problem with your connection? The process of finding and downloading are very quick.
are updates for the map of Chile and the USA ones
Greece is updated ( 52mb ).
Updates are available for Ontario Canada, saved on my Lumia 1520 128 GB SD card
El Salvador updated too!! (42.3MB) (I wonder if there is anyone else here from El Salvador... or maybe Guatemala, Honduras, etc.) Edited: No changes in the map. Here Maps sucks in my country. I use the map creator in my PC and I correct errors in the maps of my city, but I can only see them from the website.
UK maps updated, lumia 720 here drive + crashes after map update, going to try the uninstall - reinstall of map
Rhode Island and Massachusetts have updates :)
Total 750mb dl'ing now
One thing hate about the update is no background downloading! Its frustating >_
You probably on a WP 8.1 DP, that's why I hold the 8.0 until 8.1 is officially release to public
Haahhaha seriously? Because just that little thing you hold on 8.0? Oh man, there are so many new excellent features in 8.1.
well... alone with the new excellent features they also come with a bunch of bugs like these http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8-1-preview-developers/274574-... I'm not an earlier adopter so I'll just wait .... :) -
I got updates for France & Belgium
Turkey has 171.9mb s of update! Wow, when I downloaded them, they were 300 Mb ;)
Louisiana update available. 123Mb.
Jammu and Kashmir update also 53.2MB size.
Indonesia, 67MB
What's the update?
Slovakia too
Anybody else use HERE Drive+? It still has my commutes, but the route changed. Is this coincidence or has anyone else seen this?
Kenya Update available 13.2MB
Denmark is updated.
Updated Uk and Balearics. The way to go.
Slovakia received some 34MB up update.
Here in Zimbabwe we are stuck with old maps of the 90's. we have been updating them on HERE map creator since 2012 but the updates are not being implemanted. HERE drive doesn't work " area not yet covered" error. Google maps are upto date, only that they are not offline.
Malaysia map updated. But unfortunately no change for the state & city where I live. Oh well, an update is still an update.
+Romania
There is no maps option in my settings application tab. :((
Getting updates for Germany (808.2 MB), Switzerland (171.8 MB) and UK (522.7 MB)
I received updates for Madrid Spain too.
I alerted WPCentral to this last month, and now Here we go again ;-) US and Canada maps are updating. I have seen updates every month now since the fall. This seems to be the new normal.
I only can do this in the evening as I don't have access to a WLan right now. I hope after the update, my office building isn't a building site anymore;-)
Updating, UAE
Lumia 1520 on wp8.1 dev preview: How do you transfer maps to SD card!? Can you only do it using the lumia storage check beta? It definitely is gone from the final release? Any help please? :)
I'm from the Philippines. Update size is about 94MB. Done :)
Well I'll be damned!! There's even an update for the Portuguese map.
Lesotho (46mb), Mozambique (60mb), Namibia (50mb), South Africa (199 mb) and Swaziland (43mb) updating.
Sweden got the update. Gå till inställningar/kartor och tryck sök uppdateringar. 24 eller 22 mb.
I never used the map app before ... Maybe its time to check out.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark got updates.
I'm in India :) and I did get the updates :) -Nokia Lumia 920 (WP8.1 DevPrev)
Update Bangladesh maps
Poland also. I use Nokia offline maps since the beginning (they were paid at the very beginning). Now screens are much bigger and map are much better. But yesterday I've found that some smaller streets in my city (one of the biggest in PL) are not marked as one way. It is a problem, I've to set midpoints to get proper route to the place I don't know (Google and polish local map service have proper information). There is one thing I don't like - routes planned on PC and saved in favorites are different on my Lumia after sync. I've to correct it on my phone by hand. I think there are different algorithms for fastest, shortest and so on tracking between PC and mobile aps (to be strict they don't work at all). It's very annoying.
Iceland, Netherlands and Belgium updated. Love offline maps!
I'm in France and I have Holland, Belgium and France's maps, all of them have been updated.
I've also been to US twice, visiting NY, Washington, Miami by car, all the time using Here Maps and no data spent with my carrier.
Amazing!!!
And I have been using the Lumia 920. No problems at all. Great device.
Ireland and UK have updates as well.
Austira, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Italy all got updates...it's awsome
Google also udated, introduced something to rival HERE city Lens, i wonder why HERE maps doesn't update the real maps data for our country, and also wonder why HERE Drive is disabled for our country, it shows an error message that " runs through an area not yet covered" but wonder as well why they just enable it to use the maps which are there. third part apps like GPS Voice Navigation have been denied to use HERE maps yet HERE Drive does not work here
Portugal got an update too, standing at 187mb total
No updates for Japan and the maps there are still useless. Both Apple and Google have them, but HERE is content with having no viable options in the region. Yay.
No love for Japan! No off-line maps. Nokia/MS Please what the heck????? You are 0.0% market share in Japan in terms of Windows Phone.
PT too. Here maps for ever ;)
UK update prompt this morning
Czech Republic updated as well
Hi, maps for Sweden, Denmark and Norway are also updated today.
Germany. Because of a fresh download today I don't know about updates.
UK and Florida updated
Is it only me or isn't anyone else wanting to know what side the destination is on? The one gripe of mine and my girlfriend and friends is this one simple thing I pray for every update and it never arrives. Any word on this ever coming to HERE maps?
uk maps updates available 238.4 mb
right because why would I want an app that would auto update its maps since the best feature of a maps app is its ability to give you outdated maps on demand.
They should make mall maps visible on WP and also included in offline packs.
Works on my Lumia 920... Offline not sure, but mall maps and directories are there. And the GPS even works half-a$$ed inside.
If I pause update then it will restart from scratch or from where I left?
Purposely picked up a 520 to use without a sim card. Between the offline maps, and nokia music offline, it makes a cheap, and well equipped GPS and Music player for when I'm in the car. My 925 handles the rest :) edit: Pennsylvania has a 48mb update.
Are you able to use offline maps all the time even when data coverage is there? I have downloaded the maps in the past and have always wondered if there was an option to check to use offline maps.
Have Malta, England and some Italian regions for offline use and they all got updates too. Frustrating bit about updating maps is that it seems you need to keep the screen on and in the maps screen for them to download successfully. Every time I let the screen go off or went into another app I had to download the maps from 0% again! Quite frustrating that one, would appreciate if the maps could download in the background! Is anyone else experiencing the same thing?
This even includes a fix for my dirt road in rural New Hampshire! I had reported it a year or so ago, because it used to show that our road didn't connect at the end to the road it is connected to. As you could imagine, this led to weird directions from our house, because it couldn't ever provide a route, thinking there was no way to drive from our road to the next road (it was connected to another road at the other end, so it always routed us that way, which was often wrong). And now it's fixed! So, if you find any problems with the maps, go through the submission process. They clearly listened. I'm sure they never would have caught this otherwise -- there are probably only about 20-30 vehicles driving on this particular dirt road each day.
Serbia have update,about 29 mb.
Map update is buggy in WP8.1. 1) Must turn off sleep or the update will never complete, restarts from the beginning. 2) Storage leak!!! Lost another 1.3G of storage, even though the map size didn't increase (at least not that much). I'm going to have to delete the maps and re-download them to free up space lost to the update process.
Updated the map for Hungary, but HERE apps keep crashing afterwards. I deleted all maps, and reinstalled, which fixed the crashes. (WP8.1, L920)
Still no map for Kyrgyzstan. It's a shame too; they love Nokia here, but are migrating to android because of a lack of support from any other platform.
I can't find maps under the application setting
Georgia (country)... downloading
New Zealand updated. Here maps invaluable travelling. Had to help some fruitarians who were lost in Istanbul, but who didn't want to spend $$ on data. Europe not cheap to international roam.
Thailand have update
In the USA and yup, new map update totalling 750.9 megs in size. (I downloaded offline maps for North America rather than just for my region when setting up my Lumia. I assume that explains the large size of the update for my phone.)
Georgia the US state along with North and South Carolina all have updates.

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