Help & FAQ

A GeoPDF (georeferenced PDF) is an ordinary PDF map with coordinates built into it, so an app knows exactly where every point on the page is on the ground. That lets the Cartahaven app put your GPS position, a blue dot, on the publisher’s own map.

The map you see is the publisher’s original sheet, not a redrawn copy. Any PDF reader can still open it as a normal PDF, but only a map app shows your position on it.

The map’s GeoPDF, saved to your Cartahaven account so you can download it into the app on your phone. When the publisher releases a new edition of the same map on Cartahaven, you get it free.

Maps are for your own navigation and trip planning; please don’t share or resell the files.

The Cartahaven map app is a web app: there is nothing to download from the App Store. Add it to your Home Screen once and it opens like any other app, even with no signal.

1. Open Safari and go to app.cartahaven.com.
2. Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up).
3. Scroll down and tap “Add to Home Screen”, then tap “Add”.
4. Open Cartahaven from your Home Screen from now on.

On iPhone, maps saved in Safari and maps saved in the Home Screen app are kept separately. Use the Home Screen app, and tap “Get my maps” there to download everything you own.

1. Open Chrome and go to app.cartahaven.com.
2. Tap “Install” when the app offers it, or open Chrome’s ⋮ menu and choose “Install app” (on some phones, “Add to Home screen”).
3. Open Cartahaven from your home screen or app drawer.

Sign in on the map’s page and tap “Get this map” (free maps) or buy it. The map is then in your account.

1. Open the Cartahaven app on your phone and sign in with the same account.
2. Tap “Get my maps”. Every map you own downloads to the phone.

You can also tap “Open in reader” on a map’s page in the store to send that one map straight to the app.

See the maps in your account.

Yes, free. Tap “Import” in the app and choose a PDF from your phone. If it is a GeoPDF, your position shows on it; a PDF without location data still opens as a plain map, just without the blue dot. Maps up to 500 MB are supported, but very large files are best on a tablet or a recent phone.

Yes. Once a map is downloaded it lives on your phone, and your phone’s GPS works without cell service or Wi-Fi. Before you lose signal, open the app and the map once to make sure it is downloaded.

When you are online, the app also saves a background map, elevation and (in the US) public land for the area around each map, and can download satellite imagery on request, so those work offline too.

As accurate as your phone’s GPS: usually within a few metres in the open, and less accurate in deep canyons, dense forest or next to cliffs. The app shows how sure the phone is about your position. The map itself is only as accurate as the publisher made it.

Maps are aids, not guarantees. Carry a backup map and compass, and check current conditions with the land manager.

Read the navigation safety notice.

Phones stop GPS for web apps when the screen turns off or the app is in the background, so the app cannot follow you in your pocket the way a native app can.

While you record a track, the app keeps the screen on. You can also turn on “Keep screen on” in the map’s menu. Both use more battery; dim the screen and carry a battery pack on long days. Off-route alerts also work only while the app is open with the screen on.

Yes. Tap the record button to record a track; you can pause and resume it. Long-press anywhere on a map to add a placemark with a name, a note, an icon and a photo. You can also measure distances and areas, and follow a track or trail with an alert when you stray from it.

Tracks and placemarks are stored on your phone and show on every map that covers them. Signed in, they also back up and sync to your other devices, and you can share any of them with a link.

Yes. Use “Import” in the app to bring in GPX or KML files from other apps. Export a track, a placemark or everything as GPX (Garmin, Gaia, CalTopo and most GPS apps) or KML (Google Earth, ArcGIS).

Maps, tracks and placemarks are saved in the app’s storage on your phone. If you are signed in with backup on, tracks and placemarks (not photos) are also backed up to your account. A map takes about as much space as its file size, which is shown on each map’s page. The app checks there is enough free space before it downloads.

If you delete the Home Screen app or clear your browser’s website data, the maps on that phone are removed. Maps from the store can be downloaded again with “Get my maps”; sign in with backup on, or export tracks and placemarks as GPX first.

If a map you bought won’t open in the Cartahaven app, doesn’t show your location when you are inside its area, or clearly isn’t what its listing describes, email support@cartahaven.com within 14 days of purchase with the map’s name and what went wrong. We will try to fix it, and if we can’t, we refund the purchase in full. Free maps have no refunds.

Read the full refund policy.

No. When the publisher releases a new edition of a map you own on Cartahaven, it is yours at no extra cost.

iPhone and iPad with Safari, and Android phones and tablets with Chrome. The app also runs in desktop browsers, which is handy for planning, though a computer usually has no GPS.