UKH

Hi I used to use ViewRanger app which allowed to download sections of the maps offline. This stopped working and all others seem to require a PRO membership. Do you know of any which still allows free access to offline maps?

I don’t know the answer but if anyone does it’ll be in this thread from June 

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/gear/is_outdoor_active_app__any_good-7481...?

OsmAnd includes free downloads of offline OpenStreetMap maps. This is free for the first X (6 or so?) countries (or quarters of England). Contours are extra ($4.99 for I think unlimited countries' downloads).

I like it as an app. I've never had problems with functionality. It gives nearly everything I get from OS mapping, anywhere in the world.

The OS mapping app allows offline map storage.

Most mapping apps will. It's getting the map source that is the problem. I use MOBAC to cut map files for OruxMaps.

If you own OS paper maps that are recentish, have a look on the jacket to see if there is a code. You may be able to download/offline that map in the OS app without having pro membership by claiming that code

If you install osmand via fdroid you get the pro version for free

I use maps.me for all my hiking (I.e. not serious mountain stuff).

It's totally offline, requires very little space, shows most trails and is very easy to make bookmarks/import routes etc.  Only very basic contours though.

I like Anquet - phone and computer and tablet - can download before you go and has good printing options. Only complaint is tat the Mac OSX version lacks some polish, but I have the whole 1:25000 of the UK on my phone and in a HD format for printing really nicely

Used to use Routebuddy, but that is defunct now and in retrospect was expensive. 

This is also what I do and it works really well for the UK.  Worth remembering that the maps you download are not updated though.  So over time they become out of date, like the paper map.  Not usually an issue in the wilds, but worth thinking about in cemi rural and urban area, where things change more rapidly.

I realise you want free access but last week I subscribed to the OS online service. £28.99 for a year. I cannot believe how much fun it is on my pc, zooming in on different areas. My wife and I have  downloaded the app on our phones. Apparently you don't need a signal to access the maps when out on the hills. In any case, I can now print maps of the area I am going so the phone app is only a backup. This saves carrying unwieldy folded OS maps. I wish I had subscribed years ago. 

So I now head for the hills with a paper map, 2 compasses [in case polarity goes wrong in one] a Garmin GPS and downloaded OS maps on my phone. Unfortunately my navigation is so bad that I fear still getting discombobulated on the hills, even in the clearest conditions. I wish there was an app for obtuseness.

I've been using mapy.cz since Viewranger's demise. It's free and pretty decent, but obviously not the same quality of maps you'd get from OS

You do still need to download a section in OSMaps to be sure of availability offline - it doesn’t have everything preloaded in your phone. Once this is fine then yes it can get your position through gps without a phone or data signal.

I used Viewranger loads, finally stopped working after a phone update. I now use Organic Maps, free without adverts that I can see. Uses Opencycle maps and has a nice easy interface.

I haven't read up about offline map functionality but model seems to be to download an area when you search for it for the first time (e.g. c100MB of data each, say covering SW England). These areas do then seem to be available in all their detail if you search for them offline. 

You do need to download the mapping beforehand, though, of course...

OS Maps is about 20 quid a year.  Not free, but great value.

Is this on Android only? I can't see it on the Apple appstore.

Anquet do have an iOS app. Anquet’s OMN - Outdoor Map Navigator app.

Personally I use Memory-Map which I like. To be fair though I’ve used MM for many years and since I find it good I’ve never actually looked at the others available. Used to buy perpetual licence, but now on annual subscription.

Edit: typo.

Not quite free, but Backcountry Navigator is a one off payment of £12, which obviously works out far cheaper than any subscription option.

There are a few caveats... You need to get the right version (not XE). It uses the free OS tiles from Bing, which are slightly fuzzy compared to the OS ones. It seems to have some battery issues with Android 12, so I have to make sure to properly close it when I'm not using it. 

But after OS Maps basically ripped me off - I bough tiles which I thought were a one-off payment, but they killed the app and they are now useless - I'm f**ked if I'm going to give them any more of my money.

Definitely on iPhone - called OMN

https://www.anquet.com/

Memory map currently sell all the UK at 1:50K as a perpetual licence for around £40.  

Remember that price excludes VAT. Also, it is the 2022 version in case that is important to anyone considering buying.

Komoot. It's free with a particular map area when you first set it up (so choose carefully), otherwise there's regularly offers for a global map for something like £20.  It's pretty much based upon Online streetmap.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Outdoor active is the successor to ViewRanger - it works fine if you have signal but you need to subscribe if you want to save the maps offline (pretty much anytime you actually need them…) - the subscription is about £30 a year from memory and whilst not cheap, we’ll worth it in my view for unlimited access to digital OS maps both landranger and explorer.  
 

some may balk at paying but considering the cost of other gear it seems reasonable for me and allows me to put in gpx coordinates of routes.  It’s a useful addition to pencil (or highlight) compass and map! 

For my mapping I use freebies from likes of walklakes gps or the Sottish version. Sign up for access to 25000.

Plan and try to memorise my routes at home then hit the road with Kamoot, and compare  and contrast when I get lost.

How did we get to the point where people think it's reasonable to pay £30 a year to look at a map? They are taking the piss here. A few years ago we paid for a paper map that lasted for as long as we could look after it. Then we advanced to the point where we could pay a similar amount for a digital image of that map that we could carry on our phone, which seemed reasonable. Then, all of a sudden the map suppliers realised that they were missing a trick, and what they could do is charge us a continuous subscription to look at the same map over and over. They are now laughing all the way to the bank.

You can still buy a paper map if you want (I do anyway) - £30 would hardly buy you anything else walking wise and gives you access to the entire country in 25:000 and 50:000 - personally don’t see it as that expensive and probably less than a single return trip to the hills from the central belt in Scotland tbf

How did we get to a point where people think everything should be free? Maps cost money to make and maintain. Online services cost money to run. If you think maps don't change over time you need your head tested.

If you want a one-off £12 for a paper map you can still pay it. 

The bigger ripoff is having to buy mapping (at a cost of £100s) that cannot be transferred between mapping tools. Or that cannot be used with a later version of the same mapping tool.

£30 a year for access to the entire OSGB mapping isn't unreasonable.

Having to pay multiple times for the same map sets is unreasonable. That is a failure of the OS commercial model.

Well, to be fair OS paper maps come with a code that allows you to access the same content online for free these days

You can also get access to the entire current OSGB mapping through the OS themselves for a little less than £30 a year on a similar subscription basis.  That allows you to print as many A3 or A4 paper maps as you like yourself from their website, to scale (finally!)  You can also access the maps on your phone via their app, on or offline.  The OS app isn't nearly as good as Viewranger was imo, but it certainly gives Outdoor Active a run for its money.

Only in the OS mapping app. Not in anyone else's more functional app (you know, one that actually prints to scale...). Which was my point; emapping is not transferrable.

Sorted now fortunately, but out of interest which one is that?  Memory Map?

It's one thing Viewranger was never any good for, which was why I kept up my OS subscription even while I had one there as well.  (And while Outdoor Active still lets me look at the Irish OSI maps I paid Viewranger over a hundred quid for, I can't easily print one satisfactorily any more now than I could then.)

Is that particularly outrageous?  Is any other kind of digital content transferable from one provider to another?  (Genuine question, I don't currently subscribe to any of it - but I wouldn't expect, oh I dunno, Netflix to let me watch a film for free because I'd already paid Disney+ for it.)

For printing? A custom one...

For field use, OruxMaps.

I don't expect to get maps for free. I paid OS Maps for digital versions of the maps I wanted. I think paying a one off cost for a digital file that I can keep using is reasonable? I certainly don't think it's reasonable to sell me exactly this, and then deliberately break it.

If you want regular updates, the whole UK and all that stuff then their subscription is reasonable, but I don't want any of that. I just want a digital version of a few paper maps so that I can carry them on my phone. £30 a year for this is a rip-off.

I was happy as I'd paid Viewranger for offline versions of the map areas I needed and could access them everywhere. Then Outdoor Active took over and I can no longer look at the maps I'd paid for offline.

Can’t you just subscribe for one year and print as many maps as you like and also download maps for offline use or do they have some way of blocking the offline maps when you unsubscribe?

£30 for unlimited printed maps seems good value. 

I'm sure they block the app from working when you unsubscribe, including offline maps - otherwise you could just download the entire country and never subscribe again. 

Yes but you’ll still have the printed maps. 

I already have printed maps. I (and the OP), want digital maps in a phone app. That's what this thread is about.

Your best bet then is to digitise all your paper maps. 

I already have a much better solution than that. Check out my first post on this thread

I had trouble with the transfer of paid for maps from Viewranger to Outdoor Active, but a couple of emails to a very helpful HelpDesk at Outdoor Active and I was all sorted in 20 minutes. Excellent customer service as I haven't gone "Pro" and they've had no money from me. I recommend you give them a chance to sort you out.

Why?

I love a good paper map.  But no map, by definition, is ever 100% or ever stays 100% (can get into a great conversation about bias in the cartographer).  Why digitalize what is inevitably going to be out of date?

OpenStreetMap, crowd sourced VGI, is the future.  It's already powering the likes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Grab, SNCF, Uber, Garmin Mapbox to name a few.  

This is just the same as the thread about "definitive guide books" from last week.  The age of paper maps has already ended.  Paper maps are a niche that we carry in the mountains now (which I 110% support) .. while the rest of the world has moved on to digitized maps.   

Garmin and others will for the next 5-10 years continue ripping off consumers by selling them digital maps (at huge cost) ... but that will eventually end too.  It has been proven time and time again that the open source OpenStreetMap data is more than sufficiently accurate for the needs of the weekend warrior, inc in the mountains, and is only getting more accurate by the day.   (OSM is apparently accurate to 1.57m vs OS[1])  For reference .. I used OSM maps in my gpx for both the mountains and on the bike .. if there are problems I fix them myself by contributing to OSM.

The era of small institutions (Ordinance Survey) seeking rents to access this data is coming towards an end - the data is becoming open, free to use and accessible (just like climbing routes should be!).  I will concede that my statement is probably only true in the westernized world.  Clearly where maps do not yet exist there will continue to those who seek a rent to access the information that only they hold .. but they will eventually follow the same direction as the westernized world.

We could get into a good conversation about the morality of who should own our maps?  The tax payer paid for the OS to map the UK (and large parts of the rest of the world) .. now the tax payer pays OS for access to the maps that we paid tax to have them map in the first place!  Even better .. when OS gives us a paper copy of the map that paper copy slowly decays and then we pay OS a 2nd time for access to the same data!  It's insane really ... the profits from OS go to the UK government.  They are literally charging us for access to the information that they took our taxes off us to create in the first place.  I think it is a morally bankrupt situation.  I would be willing to agree to the OS producing maps at cost ... which they do not.  Last year they returned a profit of of £183.2 million to the UK Gov.

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325691446_Testing_the_positional_a....

I'd love to move to open source mapping, but IME the likes of OSM have nowhere near the detail of OS. It's fine for urban areas ( it is open Street map after all ), but not much use in the countryside. It doesn't even reliably show rights of way. In some ways it's quite handy, showing a path that isn't a right of way but is still passable, but in some areas it's important to know where you have the legal right to be, and OSM doesn't make this clear.

They gave me access to the OS maps and they work fine through a browser or the app, however they don't allow offline caching in the app unless you're a Pro member. It works on 4G most of the time, but I'd much rather be able to cache them properly just in case.

They could definitely be clearer about this with a warning - it’s not great if the app tries to reload and you’re in a glen or one of the numerous places that still has no 4g connection