Help for an incomplete map

You got Waze running but...

You downloaded and installed Waze and you read the User Manual. You are running Waze successfully but instead of a map like this:

You see streets with no names

or...

You see just a few dots or lines

Your own street is missing. Or you're in a city, and the neighbourhood is almost completely bare. Or even worse....

You see a completely empty map

If your map is completely empty, you should first check that you have a good connection to the Waze servers. Select "Drive to" and enter "New York". You will get a list of matching options. For the first one, choose the extra options (a right arrow on the iPhone) and choose "Show on Map". If you don't see a city street map, you have a connection problem. Make sure your device is connected to the internet and read the User Manual

If you do see a city street map, continue reading for help with your local map.

You drove to an area that isn't mapped by Waze

You may normally use Waze with a map in your home town but you may travel to an area that isn't currently mapped by Waze. In that case you want to follow the method for dealing with an empty (or nearly empty) map

A word of warning

Waze is not like other navigation apps. There are lots of ways you can help make Waze better for you, and for everyone else. We certainly don't want to discourage you from getting involved. And some of the ways to help are are very simple and anyone can do it.

But the simple ways take the longest to produce results that you can see and use. So you can either contribute in ways that take more time, or wait for someone else to do it for you. Different people have different strengths and interests. You may be interested in creating maps, or driving down new roads, or writing better documentation, or building and supporting a user community.

But if none of that is for you, you may just want to check in on Waze every month and see how far it has progressed. There are major cities that have gone from completely unmapped to routing better than commercial applications, and in less than 8 months.

And don't forget: It helps to just drive around with Waze turned on

What to do

Choose this method for dealing with an empty (or nearly empty) map

This is also the method to use if you a travelling to an area that isn't mapped by Waze and you want to help map it.

Choose this method for dealing with a grid of unnamed roads