Download offline wikipedia for android

Since that's a lot of content, there are no photos included. If you're looking for pictures too, you can get a smaller and older backup with files dating from and earlier, though, that's only 45, pages.

NOTE: I chose Mac, but if you're using Windows, you can also skip the above download and go straight to downloading one of the portable pre-indexed ZIMs , which already includes the Wikipedia database of your choice and makes searching for articles easier right off the bat.

Unless you have Windows and downloaded one of the pre-indexed ZIMs, your Kiwix will be empty right now, and you'll automatically land on the help page in the app. Again, if you have Windows and chose to install one of the portable pre-indexed ZIM files, you're good to go already. If not, you'll have to download the Wikipedia library you want. If you scroll down the help page in Kiwix, you can find the download links for the different libraries and languages that Wikipedia has to offer.

Alternatively, you can download the ZIM files right from Kiwix's website. I chose the English Jan version without pics, which is a hefty 9. Be prepared for a long wait, because 9. It will then ask you if you want to index the ZIM file. Click on OK , but this will also take some time to process. If you have Windows and chose one of the pre-indexed downloads, consider yourself lucky, because it took my MacBook Pro pretty much a full day to index the file!

So, again You can choose to download the files directly from the Wikimedia server, or as a torrent if you prefer. They will be downloaded in a. Looking for a more up-to-date dump? You can get the latest version directly from Wikipedia. The suggested method would be to download one of the Wikipedia dumps via a torrent due to the massive file sizes. You can find all of the latest unofficial data dump torrent links here , which date from April of this year all the way back to Make sure the dump you are downloading is correct.

It should end in pages-articles. If you downloaded something else, you will have an extremely hard time tying to find a program that can open the file. Avoid any dump that ends with something other than pages-articles. This time, I chose Feb, which is over 9 GBs, and it actually took way longer than that to download, just like the Kiwix version did. You can try and use the native archive utility on your computer, but I ran into some issues with the bz2 file. I used a program called iExpander and it worked perfectly on my Mac.

Now, here is where things got a little dicey. I ran into some problems trying to open the XML files on my Mac.

You can technically "open" the files by using Safari. Since it's loading a nearly 10 GBs of data, it may take a while. This is the entire Wikipedia dump with all of its tags and an under-appreciation for spaces. Obviously this is nearly impossible to read, but it may suffice for those with tons of patience and really good eyesight. For you Mac users, Kiwix is your best bet for a stress-free download and browse process. If you're on Windows, you can use Wiki Taxi.

Just download and extract the program, then open up the folder and click on WikiTaxi. You can go ahead and read through or just skip down to the section that says Import the XML dump into a WikiTaxi database.

If you downloaded WikiTaxi before you grabbed a dump from Wikipedia, they do provide some of the most popular dumps directly in the program. I was able to download it at a public access point and transfer it to the hard drive of my home computer. It comes compiled as a single compressed.

This is great if you are in prison, on a boat, or in an RV in the middle of nowhere. Or if you are in a country that restricts access to the internet. You can have Wikipedia with you wherever you go. I don't have internet at home, so having an offline version of Wikipedia on my home computer has been a huge blessing, as it allows me and my family to access nearly 5. Downloading Wikipedia sounds simple enough but the logistics involved can get kinda tricky and require a bit of planning.

I will help you. Before you download anything, I recommend you read this entire instructable. As of writing, the most complete and up-to-date Wikipedia package in English, with all the pictures , bundled with the required browser software, is this one:. Total file size is Pretty big, huh? Plus, it is a zip file, which means you have to first extract all the files in order to use it. That means that you will have to have enough room on your hard drive not only for the zipped file, but also for all the files that you extract.

That means you will need about GB of free space on your hard drive to extract it. Or, two drives with 80GB free space each. However… there are other ways of getting Wikipedia. Instead, you can download the Wikipedia content and Kiwix browser software separately. Just like any encyclopedia, Wikipedia has an index. The index allows you to do full text searches. The index adds to the size of the package considerably, so you will save some space by not downloading it.

Is there any way to get just the index file by itself? Well… the Kiwix browser software claims to be able to create an index for an unindexed. However, it is unrealistic to think that you can index a large. The process is very slow and could easily take days. While I chose to download all of Wikipedia, there are other packages available that contain less articles, or only articles on certain subjects.

For example, there is a "Simple English Wikipedia", which has much fewer articles which are written in simple, easy to understand English. Another example is the Bollywood Wikipedia package, which only contains articles pertaining to India's film industry. Wikipedia is available in hundreds of languages. Also, just about every version of Wikipedia is available with or without pictures. The pictures are compressed, and not the same quality as you would find if you were actually accessing Wikipedia's servers.

Still, they make up a large portion of the size of each package. If you don't want or need the pictures, then going with "no pics" package is the best choice for you. Every six months or so, the people of the Kiwix foundation compile a new. Invariably, the new package is bigger in size than the old one.

Currently the only way to update your offline version of Wikipedia is to download an entirely new package. Okay, so once you have decided which package you want to try for, you are ready to travel to the repository where all the content and software is stored. If you are interested in an indexed Wikipedia that is bundled in a. If you want just the bare-bones Wikipedia content in the form of a.

If you are a Windows user, then the software for you is either: kiwix Now we are ready for the next step, figuring out where we are going to store all these files that we are about to download.

If you can't use your home internet connection for downloading Wikipedia, or you don't have one, you will have to use public access internet at places like schools or libraries. Either that, or find a friend who has fast internet and unlimited amounts of data. Either way, you will need a data storage device to transfer the Wikipedia package to your home computer.

Also, if your home computer doesn't have enough free hard drive space for Wikipedia, then you will need the data storage device anyways.

USB 3. Just about everyone's flash drive is USB 2. Anyways, 3. Before you buy anything though, make sure of a couple things:. The computer that you will use for the download has USB 3. You can use a USB 3. You can identify USB 3. Also, the ports are usually light blue inside. The storage device has enough space for the Wikipedia package. Even if the drive is marked 64GB, it can't actually fit 64GB of data. It can only hold about Say you are considering buying a 64GB flash drive.

Google it like this: "actual capacity of a 64GB flash drive". The answers that come back will give you a pretty good idea of what the actual storage capacity is.

Another consideration when dealing with flash drives is the file system. Just about every flash drive you buy comes preformatted as FAT This is because just about every operating system supports it. That is a problem for us, because Wikipedia is huge. I recommend you do the same, unless you are using an operating system other than Windows. In that case, you may want something else like VFAT.