On the download page you can click on a region and only update that. I mostly only update my home country, because I don't want it to take so long.
Yes, it's something that has been discussed: https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/1543
I mean yeah if the area had any changes made since the last update (which is always the case) then you have to redownload that areas files.
For the app itself to figure out what changed, it would need to look through the entire new 92GB of data which would require downloading it anyways.
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.
Another way would be to cut the map into even smaller chunks in the background (like square kilometers) and change the app and server so it only downloads chunks that have seen changes since the currently stored version, that would reduce it down quite a bit, but it would still be many GB of data because the majority of data in OSM is contained in high population density areas which also see the most frequent changes. This is still a lot of extra effort for the volunteers running comaps, but would be cool.
Over all though i think what you should do is just not download the entire world map every update. And instead just the areas that you actually need.
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.
There is a newer version control software that's meant to handle larger files (mostly geared towards game developers). I wonder if that would work well here?
https://lore.org/
Yeah, CoMap maps don't have diff updates. That's not something they can easily implement, it would take a lot of hard work.
So you can either update everything as you have been doing, or stay on the previous version (and only update the regions you're actually using).
I couldn't tell you how significant the 100 GB is on the servers, it might be a drop in the ocean, or it might not.
Are you clicking the "Update All" button?
I just click the (yellow) updates I want for a specific region that I'll be visiting soon - ie like the 8MB "World Overview (Coastlines)"
Or have I misunderstood?
No not exactly, it's just that like I said in my post, I downloaded every single available map, so I do tap "update all" instead of tapping on every country in the list.
In reality, I should just be updating my home country and that's it and that's my solution. I just have more than enough storage capacity on my phone to download all countries on earth.
And I know it's silly. It's just something for me. Like, I enjoy thinking about how I could be anywhere at all in the world, and as long as I have my phone, I can navigate anywhere I need with no internet needed.
Our phones should be thought of more as tools, and downloading all these maps helps me feel that sentiment more
Ah, ok, yeah, I think I was just trying to find a solution for you, rather than yeah, enjoy the "planet in the palm of your hand" thing ๐
Try OSMAnd from FDroid too. You can re-download the planet there and I'm fairly sure the updates are more incremental
Plus, it would be nice to know the storage difference ๐
Cooperative community open-source fork of Organic Maps, an offline privacy-respecting not-for-profit OpenStreetMap GPS app for your phone.