dwMap Background Maps

On many watches (see below) dwMap Premium lets you view a background map (often called a basemap) on your watch screen as well as your chosen route line.

Important: The low data speed on the low-power Bluetooth connection between your watch and phone means that background map images will update more slowly than the other details on the dwMap map screen. This is very noticeable when you start the app, or change zoom levels, but as you move during an activity dwMap incrementally downloads new map files ahead of you for the current zoom level, and you should nearly always have a map beneath your current position arrow. The download speed is highest when Garmin Connect Mobile is running in the foreground on your phone (is the one visible on-screen), so that might be useful when getting the initial map display.

New February 2025 update: If you have a Venu 2/3, Vivoactive 5, Forerunner 165/255/265/955/965, Fenix 7/8, Enduro 3 or Epix Gen 2 then you'll find that V5.0.100 or later, released February 8th, 2025 can rotate maps to support track-up mode.  We'll soon be adding more information on this update.

Compatibility Issue (Dec 2023-ongoing): There is/was a bug in the Garmin firmware on several recent models such as Venu 3, Forerunner 255/955 and Fenix 7 where apps can no longer download image files after you have pressed Start, meaning that dwMap cannot update its background map display.  This appears to be fixed in the firmware releases starting around Sep 1st for most watches.  However, as of February 2025 the Venu 2 and Venu 2 Plus, and possibly other models, are still awaiting an update with a fix.

Compatible Watches

Even though we have optimized the color and designs of the background maps to make them as "compressible" as possible, the image files for the background maps are still relatively large, and we can only offer this feature on watches with 128kB or more of memory allocated to each app. These watches are:

• All Venu models, including Venu, Venu Sq, Venu 2/2S, Venu 2 Plus, Venu Sq 2, Venu 3/3S
• Vivoactive 4/4S, Vivoactive 5
• Vivoactive HR, Vivoactive 3 and 3 Music
• All Fenix 5 watches
• All Fenix 6 watches
• All Fenix 7 watches
• All Fenix 8 watches
• Forerunner 55
• All Forerunner 245, 255, 265 and 165 watches
• Forerunner 645 and 645 Music
• Forerunner 935, 945/945 LTE, 955, 965
• Forerunner 745 and 735XT
• Epix Gen 2 and Quatix 7
• Enduro, Enduro 2, Enduro 3 and Chronos
• Marq Adventurer, Athlete, Aviator, Captain, Commander, Driver and Expedition
• Approach S60 and S62, D2 Charlie and Descent Mk1

This and a few other features, such as the Weather data field, are the only Premium features that has this restriction: nearly all Premium features work on all the watches that dwMap supports.

Using the Background Maps

• Please read this list if the maps are not appearing for you. In particular, the maps need to be turned on in dwMap's menu.
• Your watch needs to be connected to your phone and your phone connected to the Internet, for this feature to work. (All other dwMap features continue to work offline, as that remains an important app feature.)
• You can choose Google Maps, OpenCycleMap (OCM), satellite imagery or our specially designed Watch Optimized option. The Watch Optimized map is exclusive to dynamicWatch and designed to ideally match the color palette available on the watches. It uses the same OpenStreetMap worldwide map data as OpenCycleMap and is continuously updated.
  
  
  
• You must turn maps on in the dwMap menu.  This is shown how ever you normally show menus on your watch: see dwMap App Menu for how to find it).  It will have the option Show Maps or Hide Maps. Your last choice is remembered when you start the dwMap app again.
  Note since this menu option is an "action" to take, when the maps are currently enabled the menu option will say Hide Maps.
• Background maps can only be drawn in "north-up" orientation.  If you usually use "track-up" mode (as chosen on your Settings page), dwMap will automatically switch to "north-up" while background maps are turned-on, then back to "track-up" when maps are off.
  (Note this behavior recently changed: make sure you have dwMap V3.5.0068 released May 25th, 2021, or later.)
• Plus signs are displayed while the tiles (quadrants) that make up the map are being downloaded. If a plus sign disappears but no map is shown there, the app will try to download that quadrant again later.

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