If you’ve set your apps to auto-update, your Google Maps might be misbehaving right now. For the past few days, the Maps app has been crashing for a lot of Android device owners who updated it to the latest version.
People on Reddit (mostly on the r/GoogleMaps and r/Android subreddits) have been complaining that the maps app refuses to load. On many devices with the latest versions of Android, the Maps app crashes as soon as you launch it. People running the beta channels of Android were the first to report the issue, but a couple of hours later, Maps started crashing on the stable versions of Android too. The problem seems to be linked to problematic versions of Google Maps, not the versions of Android.
The last stable version (which isn’t crashing on any channels) is Google Maps 11.144.0105. The latest version, tagged 11.145.0101, is crashing. People have reported crashes on all kinds of phones and versions of Google Maps, including Google Pixel devices.
Google has yet to officially comment on this disruption. Maps usually only ever goes down alongside other Google services. But since this bug is specific to the Android app updates, you can fix it yourself by rolling back the update and downgrading to an older version. You can check which version you’re on by long-pressing the app icon, and selecting “App Info.” The app version should be listed right under the app name.
You can uninstall the problematic update on this Settings screen too. Tap the three dots in the corner and select “Uninstall Updates.” Doing so will remove all downloaded updates and revert Google Maps to the version you had when you first got your phone.
Alternatively, you can search for “Maps” on the Google Play Store and tap “Uninstall.” This doesn’t uninstall the app, just the updates. Or, you can just download and use Google Maps Go (the “Lite” version of Maps) until Google patches the main app.
Source: Reddit (1, 2), Mishaal Rahman (Mastodon)
