Downloading maps for Gaia, How long does it take?

depends on connection and device but I did the whole state of NH and multiple overlays. Took hours, I mean hours to download on my iphone. On my tablet, It didn't need the screen on, but it still timed out (Or I shut it off by accident) and ended up taking a few days since, I would forget about the download.
 
I have found that the USGS Topo layer has an extreme amount of "Tiles" and takes tons of time to download, I switched to Gaia's own topo layer, and now i can download large areas very quickly. I usually also include the forest service road, and public lands layers and they do not seem to increase the download size by much.
 
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Gaia app has to be running. You can't have it running in the background. Gaia Topo are very efficient file size. All others simply depend on if they are tile based or vector based. Satellite will be the longest downloads.
 
In my experience, it takes quite a long time - several hours. I have gotten in the habit of starting map downloads in the evening and letting them download overnight. The tablet can be locked, but the Gaia app will need to be open and in focus.
 
I am downloading a bunch of mapping for gaia. how long does it usually take? does it have to be active and screen on to do it?

It depends on which maps and how many tiles. Some of the maps are *really* big. You can signficantly speed up the process by defining an area and downloading only your preferred base map over that, then defining your route and downloading the tiles for your preferred overlays for the route. This gives you full coverage on the route, with basemap off-route, keeping the total number of tiles to a minimum.

If someone knows a better way, I'd love to hear it!
 
Mine always downloads in the background but I did find out on my tablet I had to turn off the metered connection setting.