noticed a sudden change in my Google Maps profile: around 100 of my photos, many of which have been public for over 5 years with millions of views (e.g., historical landmarks, public places), were abruptly set to “Not published” (Nicht veröffentlicht) all at once.
None of these photos violate Google’s policy to my knowledge (no spam, no inappropriate content). Since this happened suddenly to a large bulk of older photos, I suspect an automated filter flag on my account.
Could a moderator please check if my account is affected by a system error or initiate a manual review for my profile?
Hi @micle, that must be worrying — 100 photos that were public for 5 years, with millions of views, going hidden all at once. The sudden, bulk timing is actually a useful clue: it looks like a system re-review rather than something you did recently.
A couple of things that usually help: first, check your profile in an incognito window and compare the numbers with what you see signed in, so you know exactly how much is hidden. Then, if you can, clean up any duplicates or very similar photos, because even one flagged photo can hide others. After that, the route moderators usually suggest is the “Account investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps” form — it can take a few weeks and you may not get a reply, so do check your public profile once a week. And please don’t delete the hidden photos — their views still count in your total.
Did they all disappear on the same day, or over a few days? That timing might tell us more about what happened.