Most people use Google Maps on their phones, but Windows 11 actually includes a built-in “Offline Maps” feature. To ensure these maps are accurate, a hidden Windows service called “Map Data Updater” frequently connects to Microsoft’s servers in the background and silently downloads hundreds of megabytes of geographical data.
If you are on a metered internet connection, or if you simply never use the Windows Maps application and want to stop it from wasting your background bandwidth, you can safely disable this automated update system completely.
How to Safely Disable Windows 11 Map Data Updates
You must turn off the auto-updater in the modern Settings app and delete any previously downloaded maps.
- Click the Start button and select the gear icon to open Settings (or press Windows Key + I).
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Apps.
- In the main pane, click on Offline maps.
- Look for the section labeled Map updates.
- You will see a toggle switch labeled Update automatically when plugged in and on Wi-Fi. Toggle this switch to the Off position.
- To reclaim any hard drive space already wasted by this feature, look at the top of the same page and click the Delete all button next to “Delete all maps.”
Windows 11 will no longer silently download geographical data in the background. If you ever actually need to use the Maps application in the future, it will still work perfectly fine as long as you have an active internet connection to stream the data live.