> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.frankschlichting.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# How to Take a Map Offline
- URL: https://www.frankschlichting.com/franks-map/how-to-take-a-map-offline/
- Published: 2026-11-09T05:14:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-09T05:14:20.000Z
- Description: Do it at home, or anywhere you still have data: bring the country you are going into onto the screen, press Download, and it is on your phone before the signal runs out.
- Author: Frank Schlichting
- Tags: How To, #franks-map

A downloaded map is the one part of Frank’s Map that has to be done ahead of time. Once an area is on the phone, it stays there and works with no signal; the warnings, the forecast and the beacon still need signal, and the map says so when it has none.

## 1\. Open FranksMap.com on the phone you are taking

Do it while you have data — Wi-Fi at home is best, since a large area can run to a few hundred megabytes. The map on this site does not download; the map’s own home, [FranksMap.com](https://franksmap.com/?ref=frankschlichting.com), does.

## 2\. On an iPhone, add it to the Home Screen first

The Share button, then **Add to Home Screen**. Safari clears a website’s stored maps after a week unless it is on the Home Screen; from there, what you download stays. On Android, Chrome keeps it either way.

## 3\. Bring the country onto the screen

Open **Tools**, then **Download a Map**. Move and zoom until the country you are going into fills the screen — about a day’s driving, up to 300 km across. The panel adds up the size before anything is fetched. If the area is too big, it says so and asks you to zoom in.

## 4\. Press Download this area

Keep the page open until the bar fills. The area then appears under **Areas on this device**, with Show on map and Remove. You can hold several areas; remove the ones you no longer need, so the phone is not carrying all of British Columbia.

## 5\. Test it before you leave

Switch the phone to airplane mode and open the map again. The area is there — the roads and trails, the hills, the names, Frank’s mines — and you can take your position, mark the truck and read the way back. The warnings and the forecast will not update, and the panel will tell you that a new download has to wait for signal.

## What works with no signal, and what does not

**Works:** the downloaded map and its layers, your position and the compass, the truck mark and the way back, breadcrumbs, your own marks, drawn lines, the trip note, the printed sheet. **Needs signal:** the warnings, the forecast, the signal squares, a new download, and the beacon’s sending — its positions wait on the phone and go when signal returns.

A downloaded map is a resource, not something to rely on alone. Roads and trails are as the Province’s files hold them, not as they are today. Carry a paper map and a compass, and tell someone where you are going.