View Google Maps Locally With Maps Offline 0.1
by Eric March on April 13, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Once in a while an app comes along that is so incredibly useful that just about everybody should have it. This is one of those apps.
Created by a 16-year-old coder who calls himself Nambrot, Maps Offline is a Javescript-based app (Jiggy Runtime required) capable of grabbing whatever is currently in your Google Maps cache and storing it for use whenever you’re in an area without access to WiFi or EDGE. When this situation arises, simply hop into Maps Offline and restore your cache. You can then jump back into Google Maps and use it to browse the area you’ve got cached, including routing and satellite imagery.
Perhaps its greatest strength however is when it is used in conjunction with in7ane’s MapThis, an online maps; Google Maps (used for iPhone/Touch), Microsoft VirtualEarth Map, USGS Topographic to name a few, downloader that will grab entire cities (with or without satellite data) with up to 16 levels of zoom, convert them to iPhone format, and use them from within Maps Offline. This effectively gives you the power of GPS mapping software, only without the GPS.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to go somewhere unfamiliar and ended up creating and printing a route map from within Google Earth. With Maps Offline and MapThis, I will no longer have to! I just download the cities I want and I will always have access to mapping information no matter where I am and without the need for WiFi access.
After the break, I’ll get into usage, pros and cons of the applications, plus give up some screenshots.
The only drawback is that searching and routing can’t be done offline; Google handles this differently, so you must have a WiFi or EDGE connection to be able to search and/or route anywhere. However, Maps Offline will still be able to use your History.plist and Search.plist files generated by Google Maps while you were online to cache your searches and routing information beforehand.
The other drawback for some may be the size of the maps. Your own cache files won’t be particularly huge, but downloading entire cities can get massive — a gigabyte or more if downloaded with satellite imagery depending on how much area you’re covering. (Without satellite imagery, file sizes are dramatically smaller.) If you plan on storing a number of full city maps, be sure you have set plenty of space aside for it.
One last potential drawback comes from using Google Maps online while searching or mapping around cities you do not currently have cached. While the maps cache with Map This, or the maps you download and restore to the cache with MapThis, are generally persistent, Google Maps may clear the cache when you start tooling around or searching in other cities. Restoring your original cache is as simply as hopping back into Maps Offline and restoring the cache file of your choice, but this could be a bother for some, and unfortunately this is a drawback of the way Google Maps works, and doesn’t really reflect on Maps Offline at all.
Given all of that however, let’s take a look at the MapThis and Maps Offline.
First of all, Maps Offline is pretty simple to use. Once it is installed (and you also have the Jiggy Runtime installed) all you need to do is load Google Maps, search for a particular area, map out a route (if that’s what you’re using it for), scroll and zoom around if you want zoom levels and different areas stored, then quit, load Maps Offline, and have it save your cache. From that point on, you can restore your cache at any point and have that map/route available even when you have no access to WiFi or EDGE. The following screenshots should give you a more visual idea of what to do here.
Note the caveats that you cannot use spaces or commas in your filename. As this app is still in its very early stages, there are certainly some issues and kinks that need to be worked out.
Okay, that’s quite excellent and all, but what if you want to download an entire region with all zoom levels and perhaps even additional map layers available? That’s where MapThis comes in. MapThis is a Windows-based map downloader that, among other things, features the ability to download map data from multiple sources, download individual map layers, and even convert them to iPhone format.
MapThis is a two-part program: A Windows downloader, and an iPhone app to restore your stored maps as cache files to be used by Google Maps.
The Windows component looks rather daunting to use at first. There are a ton of map source options on the left-hand side giving you a plethora of map sources to choose from, including standard, satellite, hybrid, topographical, and other such maps from Google, USGS, Microsoft VirtualEarth, and more. The vast majority of this you can ignore unless you really want to play with it yourself. For our purposes, we’re going to be using the standard Google Maps, just to keep things simple.
First, I’ll try and simplify things with a screenshot of MapThis with some basic directions:
There is also a simple QuickTime movie you can view here that details launching and using the basics.
Once you’ve followed the steps in the image above, keep in mind that the download will take some considerable amount of time depending on the size of the area you are downloading. I downloaded Brampton, and it took me about 30 minutes over a 10Mbit connection. I tried downloading all of Toronto and surrounding areas too, and that took me over two hours.
Upon completion, MapThis will have generated an iPhone-compatible version of the maps stored in its own directory. (You cannot store to an existing directory; it must not exist when you save.) SSH or FTP into your Touch or iPhone and copy the two files it generated into /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/MapTiles/ (replace “mobile” with “root” if you are still using firmware 1.1.2 or earlier).
You then load up iLM (download/repo links below), choose your map file, and select “restore” and “copy” (don’t link, as this will cause your cache to bloat). Then you hop into Google Maps and you’re there with your complete map! Have a look at the screenshots below for an example.
Brilliant! Now you can take maps of whatever areas you wish to go and have them at the ready even when you don’t have WiFi or EDGE available.
More information on Maps Offline can be found on the Maps Offline homepage, and you can get a bit more info on MapThis on in7ane’s page. (For MapThis, it’s the PSP version, which includes iPhone support).
The iLM iPhone app for MapThis is available on the In7ane repository (http://www.in7ane.com/iphone)
Maps Offline is available on the BigBoss repository (http://thebigboss.org/repo.xml)
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April 12th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Hehe,
thx for your great article. The first sentences really filled my heart with love^^
SO thx
April 13th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
How big can these iLM maps get?
Like the Toronto one or your Brampton one?
April 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
They can get downright massive if you download a large enough area. Like I said, the GTA map (which encompasses Toronto proper as well as numerous smaller surrounding cities) was over a gig in size. I wouldn’t want to download an entire state or city; I’d count on several gigs and more for that. You can reduce map size by unchecking unwanted tiles from the initial preview phase in MapThis, but even so, for an average-sized state or city, you’re still talking gigs.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I’m confused. How do I launch the GUI for MapThis?
April 13th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I should have posted this in the article. Have a look at this video:
http://www.in7ane.com/iphone/create_map.mov
That should give you a basic idea of how to launch and use it.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Thanks. ^^
April 13th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
For the Map Windows Downloader, to get only the road map and not the sattelite or hybrid, which one would I select under Google maps?
April 13th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Just leave the radio button on Google. That will download the standard Google-style maps without any sat imagery.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
there seems to be an patch *fix* for this app for 1.1.3 + users, sais to put files in a different directory than this article states
i however can not get the mapthis app on my ipod to recognize my maps ive tried all directories and making symmlinks and have no success, and all permissions are good
can anyone confirm this fully working for 1.1.3 + ?
April 13th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
It works on my 1.1.4 iPhone (which is what I tested it on and wrote this article around). I haven’t tried it on my 1.1.3 Touch though.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Eric did you use that fix patch i was talking about?
also im on a 1.1.4 Touch, i don’t know if it works for the touches yet??
i can’t get it to work either way….
April 14th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
It should work for the Touch as long as you have the apps, though I haven’t tried it. (My iPhone is usually the guinea pig for new installs because it’s easier to grab screenshots off the camera roll.) I didn’t use any patch though, I just installed the program off BigBoss.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:39 am
I just like to clarify that after i have the maps loaded into the iphone, I cannot search the street directions offline?
April 15th, 2008 at 1:43 am
As far as I’m concerned, you cannot use the search function while offline. Looks like the map images are all that is saved.. not the actual search/street data itself.
I’m not sure if Eric said you could re-search things that you’ve saved into Cache, however. I’ll have to get him to share his thoughts on this one.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:45 am
This is correct. Searching is handled differently with Google Maps, as it consults a database online to find the proper locations. The street names and such on the stored maps are just graphical data embedded into the map tiles, so unfortunately, no searching. I asked Nambrot if it might be possible for future versions, but he’s not sure at the moment whether it’s even possible to download the names database for an entire map segment.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Pardon my rudeness…I am very impressed that I can see the maps online…Kudous to the program…however, without search function it is like finding a pin in a haysticks… This reder the program useless…hopefully we can have the map offline with search functions. Just the basic search I believe will be very helpful not the directions at least can find the street name. Anyway good job guys
April 15th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Again, that’s a problem with Google Maps itself, with the way it functions. Names (of anything) exist on a separate map layer on Google Maps, living no doubt in some massive SQL database that gets consulted whenever you perform a search in Google Maps. No portion of this database is downloaded when the map appears (indeed, you can’t download an SQL database that way, you need admin access — just ask me about when I had to transfer our site to the new host :D) and all of the names that appear on the map tiles are placed directly into the images, so they are not searchable — at least, not unless someone can design an OCR-based search engine.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hi
i will try at least Street Databases in Bookmarks.plist
i dont know whther it will be readable or sth. but trying will help
April 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
[...] called iphone_map (default is on the desktop) a lot of information was taken from touchpodium: View Google Maps Locally With Maps Offline 0.1 | Touch Podium i give anyone permission to modify this, or elaborate on it, or tell me how it goes, or write up [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 8:40 am
hey,
I cant seem to get my ilm to show any of the transferred maps. Anything I should do? and I cant seem to get my Offline Map to restore the saved maps as well. When I press on the saved map, it says this map has been restored, but when I go to the Map, it doens’t show anything.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Few, I had the same problem too. To solve this, you need to make a Pin Point first while you are in Online mode.
After restoring the map, you just choose the pin point. If you still cannot see the map, check the right mode (Map/Satellite/Hydrid).
Nam, the guy who wrote the Maps Offline program instructed me like this and it helped.
Good luck.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Hey,
So I downloaded “Maps Offline Utilities” zip file and I have access to the mapping software as displayed on the quicktime video; However, I have no clue what to do at the point where the video leaves off! =(
please help, I would love to have this.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:05 am
WTF!!! WHERE DO U DOWNLOAD MAPTHIS.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I have looked on that web site for 3 hours!!!! Where is the app? Why don’t u homos show a direct link instead of making us sift through hundereds upon thousands of ugly web pages??!!??!!
May 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Nick, Josh; whatever your name may be (same person using the same IP address), why don’t you go cool off outside for a while, and come back when you’ve let some stress off your back.
Homo’s? C’mon dude… Don’t be so ignorant and childish.
Not only so, but don’t be so stupid.
The second last sentence of the story reads:
“The iLM iPhone app for MapThis is available on the In7ane repository (http://www.in7ane.com/iphone)”
Have a nice day.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
i have copied the maps as said and copy button popped up and pressed copy and then a po up came ok or go to maps
now what should i do if i press ok or go to maps nothing is happening
if go to maps is pressed it is going to maps and displaying nothing
plz me what to do after it
August 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Eric,
The mapsoffline app would be an awesome feature for a fishermen like myself, however I’m not bright enough to get it to work. Furthermore your article is a 1000 times more helpful then the developers/kids site is. I’m running 1.14 on my iphone and have followed your instructions to the letter. Making sure not to use a space when naming cache’s, jiggy runtime etc. Well, it saves my maps fine and they are indeed listed in the Mapsoffline restore section. The problem is when I go to restore the map while offline I get this. “Jiggy File has been copied.” WTF is it talking about? I’m not coping anything, I’m restoring it…. copying to where? It’s not like it ads a new one to the list etc…. Maybe you can help as your the only one who seems to have half a brain as far as this app is concerned. I have googled the above “error” to no avail. I find it hard to believe I’m the first to encounter this malfunction…
Thanks!
John Q
August 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I have to be honest here, I haven’t used Maps Offline in a while — pretty much since its earliest versions, so I am unfamiliar with how his latest versions work. Worse, all of my devices are now running Firmware 2.x, and since it doesn’t appear as though Jiggy has been updated to run on the new firmware, I can’t even grab the latest version and maybe do an updated article/tutorial. (Which come to think of it would be a good idea given how popular this app is.) I do hope Jiggy gets updated though. If it does, then MapsOffline should automatically start to work and I can download it and give the latest version a try. The latter link posted here incidentally goes to Nambrot’s new site and there appears to be more helpful tutorials here on the latest version’s usage, so perhaps that might help.
I’m sorry I couldn’t have been of more assistance, but if Jiggy gets the 2.0 treatment, look for a revisited article to Maps Offline.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Eric,
Thanks for the prompt reply!
Yeah, I was hoping you had encountered this problem because for whatever reason Nambrot’s help is little or none. Maybe it’s the language barrier and that’s understandable. There’s no mention of my error is to be found on the net much less his site. Your site will probably be the first, once the spiders come around again.lol
I have updated to 2.0 firmware and maybe it’s just me but the small amount of apps etc. sent me back to 1.14 almost the same day. However it seems that even though there are way less apps available in 2.0 land. They are better apps from what I’m reading around. I figured I’d wait for the 2.0 leap until they caught up with 1.14 apps wise. However, I may need to check up on the progress again. Not that this will fix my problem with mapsoffline but perhaps there’s something similar by now that will work.?.
Anyway, thanks for your time. Sir
John Q
August 18th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Oh, firmware 2.0’s (official) app list frm the App Store is already quite massive, and there’s plenty of it that’s free, too. (In case you haven’t already, look on the right-hand navigation column of this site for “Free App Store Review” — this is my 2-3-times-weekly column detailing all of the latest and free App Store releases.) Lots of crap, too, but that goes without saying — and although the jailbreak scene for 2.x isn’t very large yet at all, it is more than made up for by the fact that jailbreaking and the App Store can live happily with each other, so you have a bigger choice of apps than ever.
I have not, however, seen anything that works like Maps Offline for firmware 2.x yet, unfortunately.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Thanks Man!!!
September 1st, 2008 at 10:34 am
dear all
I have desperately tried to find a way to install MAPS OFFLINE.
but I found no way.
could anyone help me
I have an ipod touch 32gb
thanks a lot for help
Marie Louise
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 am
PS I have tried to install Jiggy. however I did not dare to because my firmware is 2.0.02 and jiggy mention only firmware 1. would installing harm my program ?
thanks
ML
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
To be honest, I’m not sure how Jiggy would behave on Firmware 2.x, assuming it would work at all. I wouldn’t tempt fate however; Firmware 2.x has been significantly changed from 1.x and not everything is where it used to be. Chances are however that Jiggy checks the firmware version before it executes, so it probably wouldn’t work at all.
Hopefully Jiggy will get a proper 2.x update.
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 am
thanks Eric
I will wait. If you have any news can you let me know.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Absolutely. If anything happens I’ll be writing a new item about it.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Crying ….
It doesn’t work on _any_ Java capable phone …. whaaaa!
Like Nokia.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Ive written up a decent method for 2.0 firmwares that uses symlinks so that your maps cache does not need to double evrytime.
http://iphoneapplication.wordpress.com/category/tips-and-tricks/