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How to Share a Club or Trail Map with Members Only

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Clubs, trail groups, outfitters and volunteer crews often have a map that belongs to their people rather than the public: a members’ trail system, a lease boundary, a work map for a trail crew. Emailing the PDF around works until the map changes. Here’s how to share it properly, keep it out of public listings, and control who gets it.

First, decide who should see it

  • Anyone you give the link to, but you don’t want it listed or found by search: an unlisted map.
  • Only your members, by name, and you want to be able to take it away: a private map on a member list.
  • Everyone, but members get it free: keep it public (paid or free) and give members their copy through a member list.

Whichever you choose, start from a GeoPDF of the map. If yours is a plain PDF or a scan, you can add location to it first, so it shows people’s GPS position.

The simple way: share the PDF

If the map rarely changes and it doesn’t matter who has it, send the GeoPDF itself. Members open it in any GeoPDF app (see where to open your GeoPDF maps). The catch: you can’t update the copies people already have, and anyone can forward the file.

Sharing through Cartahaven

We make Cartahaven, so weigh this accordingly. The sharing below uses a free publisher store; you don’t need to sell anything. Set one up and upload your map as in how to publish your maps on Cartahaven, then publish it. Publishing is what makes the map downloadable; visibility decides who can see it.

Each map’s page in your dashboard has a Who can see this map section with three settings:

  • Public: Listed in search, on your store page and in sitemaps.
  • Unlisted: Not listed anywhere. Anyone with the link can see it and get it (codes work).
  • Private: Only your team and the member lists you share it with. Always free for them; no sales, gifts or codes.

Option 1: An unlisted map (link only)

  1. Open the map in your dashboard and set Visibility to Unlisted.
  2. Copy the map’s page address (use Preview page) and send it to your members, or print the map’s QR code for a clubhouse or trailhead board.
  3. Members open the link and get the map (a free map needs only a free account), then open the map app on their phone and tap Get my maps.

Unlisted is not private: anyone who has the link can get the map, and you can’t see who has it. Use it for maps you’re happy to have passed on.

Option 2: A private map with a member list

  1. Open Member lists in the dashboard menu and create a list, for example “2027 members”.
  2. Add people in one or both ways:
    • By email: paste addresses (a column from a spreadsheet works). People get the maps when they sign in with that address, so use the one they’ll sign in with.
    • With a join link: press Create join link. You can give it a label, an end date and a maximum number of uses, and each link has a QR code to print for a meeting or a sign-up table. Anyone with the link who signs in joins the list.
  3. Open the map in your dashboard, set Visibility to Private, and tick your list under Shared with member lists. A whole bundle of maps can be shared the same way.
  4. Members sign in with a free account. The maps appear in their My maps and in the Cartahaven map app, where Get my maps downloads them for use with no signal.

Maps on a member list are free for the people on it, whatever the map’s price, and they get your new editions too.

When someone leaves

  • Press Remove next to their address. They can no longer download the list’s maps or their updates.
  • Copies already on their phone stay there; nothing reaches in and deletes them. If that matters, keep sensitive detail off the map.
  • To stop a join link from working, for example at the end of a season, press Turn off next to it; people who already joined stay on the list.

If the map is also for the public, keep it public, sell it or give it away, and add it to a member list as well. Members get it at no charge while everyone else sees the listed price. Access codes, made under Codes, are another way to hand out copies, for example printed on a membership card.

For staff and crews who need more

Member lists share maps. If your crew also needs to record field data, see each other’s positions or have maps pushed to their phones, that’s Cartahaven Teams, a separate subscription; a store’s member lists stay free.

Members use the Cartahaven map app in their phone’s browser at app.cartahaven.com and can add it to their home screen. It isn’t in the app stores yet, so point people to that address rather than an app store. Ask everyone to open the map once with airplane mode on before they rely on it.