Originally Posted by
michaelm101
I went into the hills nearby and my smart phone got nothing…What I need is something to tell me exactly where I am in reference to the geography-- to see if I missed a turn on some washed away or vegetatively overgrown trail, etc.
You need to an app that stores the maps on your phone itself and download them beforehand.
For driving I use Nokia Here. You can just download an entire map of the US, it's around 6gb, then it work when you have no signal.
For hiking I've used AllTrails. Other apps do the same thing as well.
Usually you need to go into the app and tell it to download the maps. If you don't have unlimited data you want to be connected to wifi because of the size.
To test out whether it will actually work follow these steps:
1. Put your phone into airplane mode
2. Reboot your phone
3. Verify your phone is still in airplane mode
4. Try using the app map
With google maps (which does not work offline) it will tell me where I am but error out when I ask for directions.
With Nokia Here (with offline maps downloaded) it will tell me where I am and give me directions. No traffic.
Etc.
You can do the same thing with an older phone as well that doesn't have service, connect it to wifi for downloading then try it out away from the wifi.