Pictures appear as negative sign

[rmak91]

Every time i post a review with pictures, all my posted pictures appear as a negative sign in a circle, does anyone know how to fix this?

[ErmesT]

Hi @rmak91 , thank you for asking.

The symbol means that the access to the picture is denied.

I have some question for you, to help the team to troubleshoot your issue:

• Is this happening only to the viewers, or also to you?
• In your profile, do you see what is shown in the screenshot I added here above?
• Is this happening only for photos added in the reviews, or also to photos added directly, through the “add photo” button on the listing in Maps?
• Are the photos uploaded on mobile, or with a desktop computer and, in the first case, what kind of Operating system do you have? (Android, iOs, etc.)

[Bobiisha]

Hi @rmak91 ,

Thanks for reaching out ot us!

We will look into it. I will also move your post to our How-tos board, where Local Guides ask questions and express their doubts. More information on Connect’s labels is available here.

[Gezendunyali]

I think this is the internet related installation error @Bobiisha

[rmak91]

Hello @ErmesT ,

Thanks for having the time to take a look into this.

The photos appear the same as in the screenshot you sent :

• When the public tries to view them.

• When I view my reviews on google maps from my laptop (using chrome browser)

• When I view my reviews on my phone through chrome browser.

The only way I am able to see them is through the google maps app on my Android device.

I usually add the photos by:

-Going to google maps app on my phone.

-Click on “Contribute” button at the bottom of the screen

-At the bottom of the next page I click on “Contribute now”

-Then I see the places I visited and I start reviewing them by clicking on the “Add a review” button under each place I visited.

• On the review page, I click “Add photos” and choose the photos from my gallery and add them.

The photos I upload are on my phone

Thanks,

Ryan

[rmak91]

Thanks @Bobiisha , appreciate your help.

[ErmesT]

Thank you so much for the detailed description, @rmak91

Hope the information will help @Bobiisha and the team to troubleshoot. I want to add that I have seen recently some photos from other contributors to appear in the same way.

I only have an additional question: one of your photos is visible on my view on desktop.

Have you uploaded that photo following the same procedure?

[Reymono]

I have had that issue also - in my case it seems to be related to iPhone photos captured with “live” mode on.

These photos upload to google photos fine (jpg/heic + mov) - but when they are added from there to google maps there is sometimes a problem after a while…

Solution is to take photos without live mode on - or to upload photos from a computer rather than going via google photos…

[Bobiisha]

Hi @rmak91 ,

Although we are still investigating, would you mind to try the proposed solution by @Reymono , so we have more information on the ongoing?

[sreejith_rajan]

Hello all,

This is my first post here

I am noticing an issue with few photos I have uploaded to Google Maps.

What I observed here is, some of the recent photos I have uploaded from my phone to Google Maps are not displaying correctly.

When I uploaded them, everything was OK and displayed fine. After couple of days, few of the pics are not showing the content, instead displaying the image as shown below. Strange thing is, this issue is only when map is viewed though browser. All photos shows up fine if I view through the Maps app.

Any idea what went wrong?

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @sreejith_rajan

Is your issue the same or different from this: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Pictures-appear-as-negative-sign/td-p/3082105

If different please elaborate.

Cheers

Morten

[ErmesT]

Hi @sreejith_rajan , sorry about that.

Like @MortenCopenhagen mentioned already, the same issue has been reported by another local guide.

To keep Connect Organised and to help the team to check the issue, I will merge your post on the mentioned thread.

I have some question for you, to help the team to troubleshoot your issue:

• Is this happening only to the viewers, or also to you?
• In your profile, do you see what is shown in the screenshot I added here above?
• Is this happening only for photos added in the reviews, or also to photos added directly, through the “add photo” button on the listing in Maps?
• Are the photos uploaded on mobile, or with a desktop computer and, in the first case, what kind of Operating system do you have? (Android, iOs, etc.)

[sreejith_rajan]

Thanks @ErmesT @MortenCopenhagen for the response.

Yes, it does look similar issue.

• It is happening to the viewers and myself. But I can view the images when I view them through Google Maps app.

• I also see the photos same as the screenshot under my profile(Again, looks fine when I check though the app)

• This happened to the images I have uploaded in the last 2 weeks without any reviews.

• All photos were uploaded directly from my iPhone Google Maps app.

• They all were fine for 1-2 days and had few views before changing like this.

• Even received the below message today in Maps without image!

[ErmesT]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, @sreejith_rajan

It is very helpful to know that this is happening both loading the photos alone than through a review, and it is not device dependant, because it happens on Android and iOS.

I see that some of your invisible photo is featured in Maps. Sounds funny but at least this tell us that the photo is not private, and this is a good piece of information.

My feeling is that the issue is related to some glitch in the storage in some server, that seems to be temporary unaccessible, @Bobiisha .

[rmak91]

I think i found what has caused this issue. Some phones have the motion photo option (in screen shot below) and i always keep it on. today i was at the liberty state park, i turned it off and took 4 pictures and added them to a review. I was able to see them without any issues. still need to add more photos to confirm that this is the issue.

for the photos that appeared as negative sign in my old reviews, i deleted them and will re-add them later from my laptop (hope this will work)

Thanks,

Ryan

[Maciej_K]

Hi @NareshDarji and @ErmesT

I am really sorry, if I incorrectly address my problem.

To start with I will mention about a rather hopeless case, treating it as a curiosity. Hundreds my photos (images or 360 panos) have gained the status “access denied”. Please notice at the bottom of my contribution bar two grey rectangles (the option “The most viewed” switched on - Pic. 1). After opening the Maps Listing Iberostar Costa del Sol one finds that only 4 photos from the 10 for this listing are still available. Pictures 2 to 5 are the screenshots after appropriate scrolling. The most interesting is the fact that the most popular of them, i.e. these with the greatest number of views, are not visible (834 291, 143 239, 80 485, 73 536, 56 652, 50 633). I am convinced that the restoration of these photos is impossible. In other words my efforts were in vain. The same situation concerns my photos from other countries, including my homeland Poland. It is much to be regretted that also the pictures taken over 40 years ago, and regarding ancient places in Greece, are gone.

My current issue is related with videos and opinions. At the beginning of September I successfully uploaded my 5 new videos from vacation at the seashore. The only problem with them was such, that they became public after a rather long period of time, in one case even after 24 hours. Some days later I wanted to upload next 5 videos. For every of them the situation with the visible symbol access denied lasted and lasted. I have already deleted 4 of them. I have left only one of them, and quite recently the symbol access denied vanished, but the video has not become public. I have over 400 videos approved, so this situation can not be related to the Google criteria, because I well know them. The issue concerns both raw - sent immediately from the mobile - and edited videos.

From the eight recently written or replenished after some years opinions, five of them have the status “New” but not are publicly attainable. Are they waiting for acceptance or so? I tried to upload them anew, also in vain. Less interesting opinions have been instantly accepted, more important ones not. This has happened for the first time to me. I have written about 140 accepted opinions, either in Polish or English. In other words they also fulfill the Google criteria to my mind.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Kind regards

Maciej

P.S. Surprise: the video posted yesterday has been released. Penultimately uploaded a week ago - no.

[stmintz]

Hi, I am a long time local guide but first time contributor here. Nice to join.

I have recently had an issue where some of the photos I contribute to Google Maps are, after some time, “disappearing.” See attached for an example. What’s particularly odd is at first the photos are perfectly fine, viewable, and no different than any I’ve uploaded in the past. Here is what I’ve noticed:

(1) Photo uploads without issue

(2) I can view the photos. So can others thus the view counts

(3) Photo eventually “disappears” and thumbnail is now grayed out with a circle with a line in it

The 11k viewed photo was selected as the main image for the business so its particularly embarrassing to have this happen. It’s happening more and more but not every photo is impacted.

Any idea why this is happening and what I can do to address the issue?

Thanks,

Sean

[NareshDarji]

Hi @stmintz

Thanks for sharing this.

Map team is already working on resolve this issue. Stay tuned here for update.

For your information I’ve merged your post in our ongoing discussion.

[stmintz]

Awesome, I tried searching but didn’t see this thread. Thanks for the quick attention and let me know if I can provide any detail. At quick glance at this thread, yes, these were taken on an iPhone and may have had live mode on. Cheers, Sean

[Bobiisha]

Hi @rmak91 ,

Our teams verified and confirmed that the photos now appear as usual. Can you please check and confirm?