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Your phone shows a blue dot but no roads. Here's why that happens, what an app can't do offline, and what a paper map adds.

Contour lines look like a mess of squiggles. Here's what they, the symbols and the legend tell you about the road and land ahead.

Work out how far it is between two points on a map, and learn the order used to read an MGRS grid reference.

Map blank when you lose signal? Save the area first. Steps, limits and expiry dates for offline maps in Google Maps.

A friend sends a .gpx file and your phone doesn't know what to do with it. Here's what's inside and how tracks, routes and waypoints differ.

Your phone has no bars but still shows where you are. Here's why, why the first fix can be slow, and what can weaken a GPS signal.

Your compass points the wrong way or the map and ground disagree. Learn what a bearing is, what declination does, and what throws a needle off.