Garmin Explore 4.0 Update Offline Maps Functionality Only For Purchased Maps??

I’ll have to play around a bit more, I can see the topo etc selection, and can select them, but it won’t download, and there’s no download button or anything to progress from there. 

If you check the Map Settings (click profile picture, select Map Settings) there's an option to Auto Download maps. The app will just stream the selected map layer (layers icon on map screen) for your current location.

You can download Offline Maps by going to the Offline Maps tab, and clicking the New Offline Map button. Then you can select the area for which you want to download the maps, and you can select the layers you want to download.

Another option to download option maps is to select a Course, Route or Track from your Saved library, click the three dots and select Create Offline Map. This will pre-select the area of the Course/Route/Track for downloading maps.

Did all those settings. When you swipe up, do you see selections for the different maps? All I see is the link to purchase outdoor maps +

How did you access that screen? Looks like you're trying to edit an offline map instead of adding a new one?

This is what I see when I go to Offline Maps in the tab bar and click the New Offline Map button. This is on a Garmin account without an Outdoor Maps+ subscription.

Same screen if I choose to add a new one, looks like a bug, or they have intentionally disabled non-purchased map downloads in Japan. I’ve raised a ticket with Garmin so will see. 

Strange, could indeed be a bug. Please let us know if you have more info from Garmin support.

Could someone explain to me what the "Hiking Popularity" layer is?  I've clicked it on/off and the only difference I can see is that one trail seems to vanish when I have the HP layer enabled.

The hiking popularity layer is a kind of heat map that shows what the popular roads and trails are for hiking. The more intense the color on the map, the more popular that road or trail is. The data is coming from activities that have been recorded with Garmin devices and have been uploaded to Garmin's server. 

Not sure if Garmin Explore app will also take this information into account when creating a new Course. Connect does have this feature though.

Interesting!  So I assume that when I see a trail no longer displayed when I click that layer "on" that means it gets less traffic.  I'll have to zoom in more to see if it is actually displayed as a different color or is gone altogether.  I haven't tried creating a course in Connect but I'll tinker around with it in Explore to see if it can use the Popularity data when creating courses.

As an aside, I saw some complaints that the offline sat images and USGS quads were no longer free in the Explore update.  I'm not sure if that is correct, but I do see the sat images now.  It's not clear to me whether those will still be visible offline in a remote location.