Due to recent changes in the Android operating system, we are no longer recommending our customers store CoPilot map data on a device's external SD card. Instead, map data should be transferred to a device's internal storage, whenever possible. Internal storage provides smoother and faster data access, which results in improved start-up and mapping speeds in CoPilot.

This issue is not unique to CoPilot. Many software developers have reported slow SD card access with Android 11 and higher. 

Background

As an offline GPS navigation solution, CoPilot uses map data stored locally on the device.  

Android 11 introduced the concept of scoped data storage, a security enhancement that limits an application's direct access to external storage, including SD cards. Each application can only access a specific directory of files, which prevents unauthorized access to sensitive user data.

Despite the privacy and security benefits, scoped storage alters the way applications interact with external storage, resulting in potentially slower read/write speeds. Applications now need to use specific APIs and permission requests to access files on SD cards.

We have explored enhancements to optimize performance within the constraints of scoped storage, but these improvements have only resulted in modest reductions in start-up times.

What you can do

While we are hopeful future versions of Android will address SD card performance, we are now recommending all CoPilot devices running on Android 11 and higher store map data on a device's internal storage. Internal storage alleviates the performance issues associated with scoped storage on SD cards.

Using map sets

We understand internal storage is limited on many devices. To address this issue, we launched the Map Sets feature in CoPilot. It allows you to create custom subsets of map data for only the states or regions your vehicles require. As a result, the storage needed on your device for CoPilot maps can be cut substantially if your vehicles operate in a limited geographic area.

For example, Q1 2024 map data for the entire United States is 2.3 GB. If your vehicles only travel in the Eastern U.S., loading that map region only on a device requires 513.5 MB of data. If you only need maps for the state of New Jersey, the data required is 128.2 MB.

Please contact us with questions about this recommendation or about how to reduce the map data stored on your devices.