I’m having a strange issue with multiple reviews on my Google Maps account.
Several of my reviews were previously published and publicly visible. Some received views and likes, and some businesses even replied to them. Recently, I noticed that many of these reviews are no longer visible to other users.
Most of the affected reviews still appear normally in my contributions and do not show “Not published” or any warning. However, when I check the same places from another Google account, my reviews are not visible.
I also discovered something unusual: if I open one of these reviews, select Edit and save it again without changing anything, it becomes publicly visible again. After some time, however, it may disappear again.
Separately, I have a few reviews that are explicitly marked “Not published,” and I have already submitted appeals for those.
All of these reviews are based on places I personally visited and genuine experiences. Some had been publicly visible for a long time before disappearing.
Could a Google Moderator please check whether there is a visibility issue affecting my reviews or account?
Hello! Thanks for documenting this so clearly and for including the screenshots. From what you’ve described, I’d distinguish this from the reviews that are explicitly showing “Not published,” since those already have a visible moderation status and you’ve submitted appeals for them.
For the reviews that remain visible in your own Contributions but cannot be found publicly, it may be worth considering whether they are being temporarily filtered or undergoing another form of automated review. Google uses automated systems as well as human review to detect content that may violate Maps policies, so a review’s visibility can sometimes change even when it still appears in a contributor’s profile. Google Maps User-Generated Content Policy
Since you’ve confirmed that these reviews are based on places you personally visited and genuine experiences, I’d still recommend checking the affected reviews against the current Maps User-Generated Content policies, particularly the sections covering fake engagement, repetitive content, off-topic content, advertising or solicitation, and rating manipulation.
The edit-and-save behavior you described is particularly interesting. If an unchanged edit temporarily restores public visibility and the review later disappears again, I’d mention that specific pattern when reporting the issue, as it may help distinguish a content-specific issue from a broader visibility problem.
Thank you for the information. I’ve already checked the policies, and these are genuine reviews based on my actual visits, with my own photos included as well.
Since the reviews are not marked “Not published,” and editing and saving them without any changes makes them visible again temporarily, what would you recommend as the next step to actually resolve this issue? Is there a way to have this investigated by the Google Maps team?
They look like screenshots to me. Uploading screenshot are against the guidelines.
Also, you uploaded some of them repeatedly to different locations. This is also a big violation of the guidelines.
When adding a caption, please avoid stating the obvious.
All of them should be deleted.
You also have a nice picture of 2 sticks with strawberries. Again you can only upload photos to a single place.
Quite a few of your photos have been taken down by the spamfilters. You have uploaded a total of approximately 4100 photos+videos but only 3335 of them are currently public.
At Google Maps you added a series of 3 photos basically showing the same thing. Google does not allow us to add redundant (similar) photos like that.
You have made 475 reviews. Currently only 404 of them are public. I can’t see your hidden reviews but based on your public reviews I think you are doing a great job writing reviews.
So I recommend fix your photo issues first. If that solved the problem after a week or two we know exactly what the issue was. If not, the please try this form:
Thank you for taking the time to check my contributions. I understand your point about screenshots and similar photos, and I will remove them and avoid uploading them in the future.
However, my main concern is my reviews. Many of them are based on genuine visits and personal experiences, with original photos that I personally took at the location. The reviews initially become public, sometimes receive likes, and in some cases even receive replies from the business owner. Then, days or weeks later, they suddenly disappear from public view.
This also happens to reviews that contain no screenshots, duplicate photos, links, or repeated content.
I’ve attached a sample as an example of one of the affected reviews. It was a genuine review based on my own experience, but it is currently no longer publicly visible.
Could the photo issue be causing unrelated reviews to be filtered as well, or could there be an account-level filtering issue affecting my reviews?
I will clean up the photos as you suggested and monitor the account. If the issue continues, I will use the investigation form you provided.
