Explorer Tiles on the Go

Once you know which tiles you have explored and which are still missing, you likely want to take that information with you. This how-to guide collects the ways to get your explored or missing tiles onto a phone or a Garmin device, so you can do spontaneous tile hunting without planning a full route first.

The downloads live below the explorer map. Pan and zoom to the area you care about, then pick the format that the target app understands.

Explorer Tile Helper

The most convenient option is the Explorer Tile Helper app. Below the visible-area downloads there is a link to export all explored tiles as a Squadrats-compatible KML. Unlike the per-area downloads, this covers your whole history. The file follows the structure that Squadrats uses and contains four placemarks: the explored tiles at zoom 14 (squadrats) and zoom 17 (squadratinhos), plus the largest square at each zoom level (ubersquadrat and ubersquadratinho).

Import this file into the app. Layers without data are omitted, so if zoom 17 is not enabled, only the zoom 14 placemarks are written.

This is how that looks in the app:

OsmAnd

On Android you can use the OsmAnd app to display tracks and visualize the missing tiles. Unfortunately GeoJSON is not supported, so the missing tiles are also exported as a GPX file with one track per missing tile. This looks strange, but it works with OsmAnd. In GPXSee the file looks like this:

And on OsmAnd such files look like this:

OsmAnd becomes very sluggish with such a huge track imported, so only export it from rather small regions.

Organic Maps and CoMaps

Organic Maps, or the community fork CoMaps, are FOSS apps that can display offline maps and missing-tile GPX files on Android or iOS devices.

uMap

You can also use OpenStreetMap uMap, either the instance hosted in Germany or France. Create a new personal map (consider limiting the access rights, the default is public) and upload the GeoJSON file. You can then use that map on your phone to see your position alongside the missing tiles:

Offline Maps

Another option is Offline Maps. It can display GeoJSON on Android, though you need to buy the add-on for about 5 EUR.

Garmin device

The explored and missing tiles in the visible area are also available as KML, which is convenient if you want to turn the missing tiles into a map overlay for a Garmin cycling computer.

To get a tile-grid overlay onto a Garmin Edge you need a Garmin map file (.img). There is no pure-Python way to write that format, so the conversion is done with mkgmap, a Java command-line tool. The general workflow is described in this tutorial: download the missing tiles as KML, convert them, and build the Garmin map.

If mkgmap is installed on the machine running this application, the download row additionally offers Missing as Garmin map and Explored as Garmin map. These run mkgmap for you and hand back a ready gmapsupp.img. Copy that file into the Garmin folder on your device, and the tile grid shows up as a map overlay. The Garmin links are hidden when mkgmap is not found, so a default installation is not affected.