Downloading maps question (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 6 days ago by AxisExperience9@sh.itjust.works to c/CoMaps@sopuli.xyz

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I have 1 TB of storage on my phone, sometimes it's more than I know what to do with.

So I downloaded every map available in CoMaps. Every. Single. Country.

The result is about 92.1 GB of storage being taken up, for those who are curious

The thing is though, every time a new map update comes out, CoMaps makes me re-download all 92.1 GB of my downloaded maps all over again.

For example, let's say a new map update comes out, and instead of being 92.1 GB, it is now 92.2 GB. Even though there was such a small increase, all my maps from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and everything in between have to be re-downloaded.

Not only is it annoying for me, but I feel like it strains CoMaps's servers when I tell it to download almost 100 GB of map data every week or two and I feel bad for it

So basically, when there's an update for some of your maps, it won't just grab the new information, it will also re-download all the old information it already had before it seems. Not sure if this is a bug or a feature with a valid reason for being implemented

Has anyone else noticed this or experienced this?

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[-] ardorhb@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

Smaller update sizes/smarter updates are one of the things I would really wish for CoMaps to integrate. I'm far away from having all of the world downloaded. Just my home country and parts of neighbouring states, still quit annoying with the current update interval.

You could make the server compile a list of only the changes that were made since the last update, but that doesnt work because people will often skip a map update which would cause the changes made in between to be missing. So the server would have to store for every map version ever the difference between it and the newest version. Version control software for this type of stuff exists (like git) but its made for plaintext files in the KB-MB range not GB.

I think that the data the server provides would not be an issue. Just keep the changeset from like the last two map updates there. For people upgrading later just download the full map as done currently.

this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026

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