Try adding this to the map activity in your manifest xml and see if it does what you need - it doesn't save them anywhere but it does keep your graphic layers from being wiped when the device orientation changes, if that's what you're after. <activity android:label="@string/app_name" android:name="your.package.activity" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar" android:configChanges="orientation"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/> </intent-filter> </activity> with this I didn't have to use onRetainNonConfigurationInstance()/getLastNonConfigurationInstance() to rebuild the map, onCreate gets called once, etc. Found it in the HelloWorld example after doing some digging.
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