While reviewing my past contributions on Google Maps, I noticed something unusual. Photos and videos I posted a few years ago for Abbydhama Estate Stay in Karnataka, India, have been detached from the business profile. Although the photos have accumulated thousands of views, they are now incorrectly listed under Unknown Place.
Below are the screenshots of the photos that are Unlinked from a place :
The business appears to be active, but its current reviews look different from the standard Google Maps format. Iâm trying to understand why my photos were unlinked from the business profile and if this will prevent them from getting future views.
Hello @palmad1 our photos appear under âUnknown Placeâ when the original place listing was deleted. The could have been done by the owner, if the listing was claimed or any user suggesting âDoesnât exist hereâ.
Even if after deleting the place, a new place with the same name is created all media and reviews posted to the old place will not be attached to the new place.
In some cases, where a non-claimed listing just disappeared without a new listing under the same name re-appearing, I was able to get it re-instated by describing the case in the maps forum.
Yes, most likely, they wonât get any additional views. In most cases, when this happened to me, the photos were now hidden to the public. Sometimes the photos were still public and did gain more views, but I donât know where. I assume they are still visible at some geographic feature, such as city, county, region ⊠etc, but I believe, those were exceptions.
This is not correct.
Either your photos are rejected by the SPAM filter, which can even happen long after posting and gaining views. So, they donât appear at the listing anymore, but when look a My Contributions â Photos, they still point to the place listing.
Or the place is deleted and a new place is created under the same name, then your photo point to Unknown place as explained above.
Yes @palmad1, this seems to be a new and growing problem for me. Previously, when other LGs spoke about hidden media and hidden reviews, I ignored it, because it was just not my reality. Now every month when I submit my data for the @AdamGT Leaderboards system Iâm being notified of stuff thatâs gone non-public. Then when I fill out my own personal monthly data sheets, I discover that some of my things are now attached to Unknown Place.
I suspect deliberate interference or the work of new unskilled LGs, as the place last month was removed from Maps by being merged with another similar business nearby with a completely different name. This month my partial investigation so far is showing another business removed from the map and causing my photos to be marked as belonging to an Unknown place.
I will update here if any further info reveals itself in the coming days.
Thank you, @WilfriedB, for sharing these detailed insights.
Yes, I agree with your assessment that the business might have deleted its original listing and created a new one, as most of the reviews are from recent years.
Thank you @MortenCopenhagen for your observation. Yes, I took those screenshots from Google search on the desktop. I just checked them on the Maps and they look normal. Thanks again.
They might even have good reason to do so, in case the owner and/or management did change, so older reviews and possibly even photos became outdated. @palmad1
@palmad1, I have also experienced this issue; many of my photos, which gained considerable views, are shown under an unknown place. I shared my experience here.
Thank you, @tony_b , for highlighting that youâre also experiencing a similar issue with the media being tagged under âUnknown Placeâ. Until I became active on the Connect Forum, I never knew this kind of issue existed.
Thanks for sharing the insights from your investigation; I really appreciate it.
Yes, itâs possible, @MortenCopenhagen . I visited this place on my friends referral, it had very good reviews then. Infact, business has acknowledged my positive review as well. As you suspected, something might have happened later.
I spent 20 minutes driving to the Unknown Place yesterday to confirm it was open (and 20 minutes driving back). I also entered the premises, made a purchase, and took indoor photos.
That accounts for 10 photos between last monthâs 8 and this monthâs 2. Now thereâs another place with 4 photos semi-hidden. I couldnât find them in the contribution list in Incognito view, and in the regular view they donât show up in the By You tab. However, I can see them in both views if I slowly scroll through all the photos of the POI.
The 15th hidden photo I could not find, and I didnât search for the hidden reviews. I know 3 are accounted for, and the other 2 were not findable last time I checked.
Its not actually fixed yet. The purpose of my trip to the location was to gather evidence confirming that the âUnknown Placeâ is the same place Iâve always known, and
that it is still open for business there.
One âsuccess storyâ without doing anything from my side:
The historical monument âSchöner Brunnenâ in NĂŒrnberg disappeared from Maps on August 18, 2025, I marked the date, but ignored the fact my photos were linked to âUnknown Placeâ.
Only today, Sep 6, 2025 I noticed my number of published photos increased by two and both of my photos are attached to the original listing again.
However, I am convinced some other Local Guide did complain at the Maps Forum Maps community to get the listing re-instated!
Again, both events - disappearing and re-appearing of the POI listing - I was only able to detect through @AdamGTâs T100 system.
Glad that youâre having success. The pin for my most recent Unknown Place reappeared in its correct location, but with no photos or reviews. This is a branch of the Starbucks coffee shops, and the name does not appear if a search is done for that address in Maps. Zooming in to the location now that the pin has been restored, a completely different address is shown after tapping on the location.
Seems I can rebuild it by attempting to edit it back to the correct address, and if approved, Iâll add my new photos later. But unless the old photos reappear, Iâve lost a few thousand views.
(The old photos for my previous Unknown Place have not returned to the POI).
