Google Maps has become a must-have application for many drivers, so it’s no surprise it now dominates the mobile navigation world.
Users turned to social media to reveal what appears to be a very widespread issue, causing Google Maps to crash a few seconds after the launch. The application works correctly when you launch it, but it somehow closes unexpectedly a few seconds later, making it impossible for users to follow navigation or configure more stops.
It’s unclear what causes the application to shut down expectedly, but most users claim the issue happens after updating to versions 11.144 and 11.145. The latest release doesn’t fix the error, and the phone model where the app is installed does not make a difference.
All Android brands and phone models suffer from the glitch, albeit not everybody is affected. It’s unclear why some users hit this behavior, and others can continue running the app flawlessly despite updating to the latest build, but Google is likely investigating the problem already and should resolve it sooner rather than later.
The workaround
Given that the bug is introduced by the latest Google Maps updates on Android Auto, the workaround is simple: downgrade to an earlier app build and block the automatic updates until the search giant releases a fix.
If you want to remove the updates and return to an older build, you can sideload a previous APK build or head over to the settings screen on your Android device, look for Google Maps, and hit the uninstall updates button.
You’ll return to the Google Maps version that was pre-loaded on your smartphone, though it’s important to know that the older this version is, the more new features you’ll lose. However, this is only a temporary solution, as Google is likely investigating the reporting behavior, and a patch should be just around the corner.
Meanwhile, if you don’t want to downgrade Google Maps, you can also temporarily switch to another navigation app. Waze is the most common choice for Android users, as it’s also owned by Google and offers support for Android Auto. However, compared to Google Maps, Waze does not offer offline maps, so you must have an Internet connection to download real-time traffic updates, get new routes, and upload your traffic reports.
The search giant has remained tight-lipped on everything related to this bug so far, so if you encountered this behavior and found another fix, drop me a line in the box after the jump. I’ll post an update when Google releases a patch to resolve this error.