Map layers and offline maps

How to switch the base map, turn on 3D and POIs, and download maps so navigation keeps working with no signal.

This page covers what the map looks like and what is left when the signal goes. Every layer is switched from one place — the layers sheet — and offline downloads come in two kinds: a whole country as a vector map (DirtMap Topo), and a rectangle of satellite/raster tiles. The base map and orientation you set on the phone also apply to Android Auto and CarPlay.

Opening the layers sheet

On the map, tap the layers icon on the right edge (the stacked-sheets symbol, top button of the right-hand button column). Its tooltip reads Map Layers.
The sheet slides up from the bottom with Online Maps at the top. This one sheet holds every layer switch and both offline entries.
On the web there is no right-hand button column: click the layers icon in the black top bar instead.

Choosing a base map

There are two built-in base maps, and below them your own map sources if your account is allowed to have them.

Open the layers sheet.
Tap Outdoor or Satellite. A blue check mark appears in front of the selected row and the sheet closes.
The choice survives an app restart and is pushed straight to the head unit (Android Auto / CarPlay).

With Satellite the app automatically adds the transparent roads and place-name layers on top — the imagery itself carries no labels.

DirtMap Topo — the vector base map

A downloaded country pack works without a switch:

Once the pack is downloaded, the whole country’s vector map becomes the base map — sharp at every zoom, with labels, and it works with no connection.
To use satellite or the outdoor map instead, just tap that row in the list — it takes over from there.
When the signal goes and the chosen layer has no downloaded offline area, the map falls back on its own to the vector DirtMap Topo — and your chosen layer returns with the connection.

Orientation: north up or heading up

In the button rail on the right — below the 3D button — tap the compass button.
Orange button: the map stays still, north stays on top, and your position arrow rotates instead.
White button: the map turns with your heading (this is the default).
It is a single shared setting: what you change here applies to the Android Auto and CarPlay map as well.

3D view

The 3D switch is not in the layers sheet — it sits on the map so it is one tap while driving.

In the right-hand button column, tap the button labelled 3D (tooltip: 3D view (tilt + relief)).
The camera tilts and the terrain rises. The button turns orange while 3D is active.
Tap it again to go back to 2D.
On the web, turning 3D on shows the rotation hint: Rotate/tilt: right-click + drag (or Ctrl + drag), Shift + arrow keys.

3D needs elevation data. If you have downloaded your country’s elevation (DEM) pack, 3D works with no signal; otherwise the elevation data is fetched as you go.

Tour routes and POIs

Near the bottom of the layers sheet, turn on Tour Routes Layer (Marked trails (Waymarked Trails)). The sheet closes and the marked hiking trails are drawn on the map. This layer needs an internet connection.
Under POI Layers (Sights), tap the categories you want: Camping, Drinking water / Spring, Fuel station, Ambulance / Hospital, Mechanic, Viewpoint, Cell tower, Water crossing (ford), Gate / barrier. An active chip turns coloured.
POIs only appear when you are zoomed in far enough, and fetching them needs an internet connection — they do not reload offline.

Natura 2000 protected areas

In the layers menu, switch on Natura 2000 protected areas. The EU’s protected sites appear with a faint green fill and a light green edge — clearly visible on the satellite layer too.
When you drive into a site, the app tells you once: Entering {name}, with Protected area — check the local rules beneath. One notice per site per trip, not on every GPS fix.
The layer’s subtitle says the important part out loud: a designation is not a driving ban. The actual rules come from the site’s management plan and local law — the layer informs, it does not forbid. Plenty of Natura 2000 land carries perfectly legal forest roads.
Data: © European Environment Agency (end-2024 state). The layer works on the web too; on the phone the downloaded cells are cached, so they survive losing signal.

Legend

In the layers sheet, tap Legend (Trail routes and road quality).
The page that opens explains the colours and symbols of marked trails, plus the road-quality markings (asphalt, dirt road, SUV road, 4x4 road).

My orthophotos

This entry only appears for accounts that have a drone survey assigned to them.

On the bottom navigation bar, open the Routes tab.
Tap My orthophotos (Drone surveys assigned to your account).
The switch at the top shows or hides the orthophoto layer; the slider sets its opacity.
Tapping a survey row jumps the map to it.

Adding your own map source

The Add map source row only appears in the layers sheet if your account has been granted that permission. Your sources are stored with your account, only you can see them, and loading them needs a connection.

In the layers sheet, tap Add map source.
Fill in Name (this is what the layer is called in the list).
In Tile URL template, enter the template with the {z}, {x} and {y} tokens in braces — for example https://example.com/tiles/{z}/{x}/{y}.png.
Fill in Attribution (required). Without it the save button stays disabled. Adding a source does not grant you the right to use it — that is between you and its owner.
If the server numbers its rows from the bottom up, set Tile row order to TMS, otherwise leave it on XYZ.
Set the two Zoom range values (minimum 0–14, maximum 10–22).
Tap Test and save. The app fetches one test tile and only saves the source if that succeeds. While it runs the button reads Fetching a tile…
The saved source appears below the built-in layers with the server’s host name under it. The bin icon at the end of the row deletes it — deleting also removes the tiles it had cached.

Offline 1: downloading a country pack (DirtMap Topo)

This is the baseline offline map: a whole country in one file of a few hundred MB, sharp at every zoom, with offline labels. There is no limit on how many you keep and it is not tied to a subscription. Not available on the web — it downloads to a phone or tablet.

Open the layers sheet and tap Offline maps (DirtMap Topo) (A whole country in a few hundred MB — sharp at every zoom, labels included).
The list shows countries. The country you are standing in is at the top (crosshair icon); a green check marks the ones you already have. Each row shows the number of parts and the total size.
Tap a country to open its parts. The base map is first, then the terrain parts (contour lines, elevation model), then the regions if that country ships split.
Tap the download icon (the downward arrow) at the end of the row you want.
A progress bar and a downloaded / total size appear under the row. Only one pack downloads at a time; the other download buttons stay disabled meanwhile.
To stop, tap the stop icon at the end of the row. The partial file is kept and the next attempt resumes where it left off.
When it finishes the row gets a green check, and the DirtMap Topo (vector, offline) switch appears in the layers sheet.

What a pack contains

Base map — roads, trails, dirt tracks, water, settlements, labels. This is the vector map itself.
Contour lines — the shape of the terrain drawn on the map. Without them the map reads as a flat road network.
Elevation model (DEM) — this is what makes hillshade and the 3D view work with no signal.

Each is its own row in the list, downloaded and deleted separately. For offroad use, take all three.

Updating, deleting, importing a pack from a file

When a newer build of an installed pack is published, the row shows in orange: Update available — tap to refresh. Tap the refresh icon at the end of the row and the app deletes the old file and fetches the new one.
To delete, tap the bin icon at the end of an installed row.
If you downloaded the pack on a computer, use the file icon at the top of the list (Import from file) to pick the .mbtiles file on the device.

Offline 2: when the app offers it by itself

On the first GPS fix after installing, if you have no offline maps yet and we publish a pack for that country, the Download the map of {country}? dialog appears with the file size. Choose Download or Not now.
If you are on mobile data the dialog adds an orange warning: You’re on mobile data. Wi-Fi is cheaper for a file this size.
Crossing a border while driving brings up You’ve entered {country} with the same buttons.
If you start a navigation longer than 50 km and the route leaves the maps you have, Your route leaves your offline maps lists the missing countries and the total download size.
If we publish no country pack for where you are, you get Take your maps offline? instead — that opens the raster area download, framed to about 90 km around your position.

Offline 3: downloading an area (satellite and raster layers)

Satellite imagery and your own sources are not vector — you download those as rectangular areas. On a free account you can keep up to 3 saved areas.

Open the layers sheet and tap Saved (offline) areas.
In the Saved Areas dialog, tap Download New Area. (This does not work on the web: the web map stores no offline tiles.)
A blue-framed selection rectangle appears on the map. The rectangle is a fixed size — you frame the area you want by panning and zooming the map behind it until the ground you need sits inside the frame.
On the card at the bottom, type a name in Name.
Under Select layers to download:, tick the layers you will need offline. Everything is ticked by default; each ticked layer is a separate download and a separate size.
On the right you see the size estimate (~xxx MB). It turns orange above 500 MB and red above 2 GB — that is the point to pick a smaller area or fewer layers.
Tap Download. The zoom range is fixed (z8–z14), so there is nothing to set; deeper zooms are stretched from those tiles.
During the download the percentage and the layer name are shown on the map. At the end you get Download done: {name}.
With the Satellite layer, the app also downloads the road and place-name layers for the same area, so the imagery does not lose its road network offline.

Managing saved areas

Layers sheet → Saved (offline) areas, or on the web the Saved (offline) areas entry in the left-hand menu.
Each row shows the area name, the downloaded layers, the tile count and the real stored size.
Tapping a row zooms the map to that area.
The bin icon at the end of the row deletes the area and reclaims its tiles. Tiles shared with another area you are keeping are left alone.

What works offline and what does not

Works with no signal: the DirtMap Topo vector base map for the countries you downloaded, the imagery of your downloaded areas, track recording, following saved routes, and 3D plus hillshade if the elevation pack is installed.

Needs a connection: route planning (Route planning needs an internet connection.), address search, POIs, the Tour Routes Layer, orthophoto layers, weather, convoy and competition data, and refreshing the list of offline packs.

When the signal goes, the app handles it by itself and tells you in a message:

Weak/no internet connection. Offline mode enabled.
No signal — switched to the offline map ({pack}) — when you have a country pack.
Offline: switched to the {layer} map — that’s what is downloaded here — when your chosen layer has no downloaded tiles here but another one does.
On return: Back online — your selected layer is back.

If something goes wrong

The offline pack list is empty. No maps offered right now. Check your connection, or import a file. Listing the packs needs a connection. If you have opened it before, the app shows the last list it saw; on a first launch fully offline it stays empty. Fix: find a network, or load the file with Import from file.

“Not enough free space for this map”. The download does not even start unless the free space covers about 1.2× the pack size. Free some space, or delete another pack.

The download was interrupted (tunnel, flat battery, app closed). The partial file is kept and the next attempt resumes from there. An incomplete file never becomes a map: the app only promotes it when its size matches the catalogue exactly. If it does not match you get an error and can start the download again.

The area download came out incomplete. Download incomplete: {count} tiles could not be fetched — run it again later to fill the gaps. That is the tile server refusing or a network hiccup. Run the same area again; tiles already stored are not fetched twice.

A subscription screen appears on the 4th area. The free version lets you keep up to 3 offline map areas. Premium removes the limit. Either delete an old area in Saved Areas, or subscribe. Country packs are not affected by this limit.

Your own map source will not save. The error tells you what happened:

The server answered {code} for a test tile. — wrong address, expired key or no permission.
That address did not return an image tile. — the server sent HTML or an error page instead of a tile.
Could not reach that address. — no network, or the host does not answer.
The template needs the z, x and y tokens in braces, and an http(s) address. — {z}, {x} or {y} is missing, or the address does not start with http(s). If the tiles come out mirrored top to bottom, set Tile row order to TMS.

The “Add map source” row is missing. The feature is behind a separate account permission, and you have to be signed in. Ask for the permission if you need it.

POIs do not show up. Zoom in closer (they do not load in a wide view), check that the category chip is on, and check that you have a connection.

3D turns on but the terrain stays flat. There is no elevation data: download your country’s elevation (DEM) pack, or get on a network.

Tapping a layer row seems to do nothing. With DirtMap Topo (vector, offline) on, tapping a raster row both turns the vector base off and switches the layer — if that does not happen, close and reopen the layers sheet.

I cannot find the offline download on the web. The web map stores no offline maps: neither Offline maps (DirtMap Topo) nor the area download works in a browser. These are phone and tablet features.