The new version of Locus Map brings a lot of improvements, fixes, and changes. We’ve chosen three of them for this short introduction. Two completely positive, and one, unfortunately, less positive, which you already met at the beginning of December last year:

• Satellite maps
• Export anywhere
• Data in private folders

We have satellite maps of the world

Locus Map is one of the few navigation applications that are not built on the Google Maps API. This has significant advantages in terms of our creative and economic freedom, but also one major disadvantage – we cannot freely use Google’s map data. Unless we want a lot, and we pay a lot.

We, therefore, used to solve the demand for satellite and aerial maps with the help of regional suppliers. E.g. we offered USGS Ortophoto in the United States, in Austria satellite Basemap.at, in France IGN Photographies, etc. Unfortunately, most of the surrounding world remained without coverage.

However, the situation has changed. Now, thanks to a more sustainable way of financing the application development and content, we have finally been able to afford to find a partner who has provided us with satellite and aerial maps with worldwide coverage at a reasonable price. These are current data from HERE, Maxar, and EuroGeographics.

Maps are available online in zooms down to level 18 and they can be kept in the Locus cache for up to a year.

In Locus, you can find the maps in the Online tab in the Map Manager. They are in a common category of base maps with our LoMaps and you can use them after purchasing the Premium Gold package.

Export anywhere

The second positive news concerns the export of GPX, KMZ, TCX, etc. files.

In addition to the already known Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, you can save exported files from the application

anywhere on the device, including the SD card, even outside the private folder!

Data again only in private folders

And now we have the less positive news here. Unfortunately, after three months of rest, Google validators woke up from hibernation and revoked Locus Map 4’s “all files access” permission.

So what options does Locus Map have now?

Locus main directory

can only be:

• in the private directory in the internal storage
• in the private directory on the SD card

When you install the application, it creates its directory in the internal storage. It can then be moved to the SD card via the application settings.

If you have the main Locus directory /Locus/ in the root of the internal storage now, you’ll be prompted to start a smooth data transfer to the new location after the app update.

Where can I have maps?

You can have map files saved

• in the private directory in the internal storage – default setting after installation
• in the private directory on the SD card – this can be changed in the Locus settings, maps will be moved here, see >> 

Plus, you can combine these

• with the Android/Media directory in the internal storage
• with the Android/Media directory on the SD card

Map files can only be saved in Media folders in the external file manager. Locus will load them automatically after reboot.

How do I get my own maps into the app?

When this plague struck us first in December 2021, all we could do was try it out with external file managers, a connection to a PC, and so on. Fortunately, we managed to deal with this – we have significantly improved the import of maps:

Import from map manager

• open the offline tab and under the “+” button you will find the item “Import”
• select source – device storage, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or remote file
• if you select the device storage, the system file manager will open and you can import the map into Locus from anywhere on the device. If it is a raster map, it will be saved in the Locus/Maps directory, if it is a vector, it will be in the Locus/MapsVector directory

Other imports

The map file is also recognized by the import started from the point or track manager. Everything then proceeds in the same way as in the case of import from the map manager.

Import from an external file manager

If you click on any supported map file in the system or external file manager, Locus Map will be offered as an application that can process the file. If it is a raster map, Locus will import it into the Locus / Maps directory, if it is a vector, it will import it into Locus / MapsVector.

What else can I have on the SD card besides offline maps?

• backup files – these can be stored on the SD card without any storage space restrictions
• online maps – definition and temporary files (cache)
• geocaching data – pictures, spoilers…
• SRTM data – offline elevation data, important for the elevation chart when planning routes, terrain shading, etc.

We hope that the last change did not upset you much. This is a limitation indeed, but you can still have your “big data” on the SD card and save space in the internal storage. However, we recommend using fast SD cards with the latest technologies – you’ll appreciate this when working with large map files.