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. Iām 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 āUnknown Placeā when the original place listing was deleted. The could have been done by the owner, if the listing was claimed or any user suggesting āDoesnāt exist hereā.
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 wonāt 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 donāt know where. I assume they are still visible at some geographic feature, such as city, county, region ā¦ 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 donāt appear at the listing anymore, but when look a My Contributions ā 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 Iām being notified of stuff thatās 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 youāre also experiencing a similar issue with the media being tagged under āUnknown Placeā. 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, itās 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 monthās 8 and this monthās 2. Now thereās another place with 4 photos semi-hidden. I couldnāt find them in the contribution list in Incognito view, and in the regular view they donāt 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 didnāt search for the hidden reviews. I know 3 are accounted for, and the other 2 were not findable last time I checked.
