How can it be that there is no assistance whatsoever with Google Maps bugs?
I am a local guide level 8 on Google.
Google keeps adding points to contributions, but I am now noticing my reviews being removed.
Below is 1 example.
My profile can see the review , but no one else can, and it is not visible on the respective Google Business , where the review was posted.
Now, google has millions of lines of policy rules, without any indication of where a user has violate any policy.
- Is there any fool proof/100%/legally valid way that google can state why a review is removed, or is it algorithmic removals with 0 resolution?
- On top of that Google keeps adding points for these reviews under your contributions, but does not actually publish them.
Seems a bit fishy for a global organisation!
- If google can not exactly tell us why a review is removed, then it should stop providing points for Local Guides and stop wasting our time.
Only when the reason for review removal is clear, does it makes sense to post on Google Maps.
Till then, it seems that users are just roaming around like headless chickens to be honest.
No google article ever solves a problem, it only creates further confusion.
- Let’s say I review 20 places in 1 night based on my travels in the past 1 year.
Google will remove my reviews by stating that “too many reviews from 1 account”.
Google support, employees or their product team will also not have an answer to this.
Similar to the 100s of policies that have a grey area.
It seems that Local Guides are just wasting their time, & google is taking advantage of them!
That’s the honest truth when a global organisation forgets about its users.
5 Likes
Sound about right
I posted a review regarding an unscrupulous used car dealer last week and it failed to publish. Today I deleted it, rewrote it for brevity and reuploaded 5 supporting photos/screenshots. It also did not publish publicly.
I have confirmed that my review does not violate Google’s policies or contain any restricted content. The only contact information contained in the screenshots are the business’ public phone number, which is also found on their own published photos.
Is this manual approval facility mentioned at the top of this thread (in 2021) still staffed and operational? If not, how can I get my review vetted and published ASAP to warn other customers of the business practices at this establishment?
The business title on Google Maps is: KL KENG AUTO SDN. BHD. - LOT 13
My contributor link is: Google Maps
I posted a review about the restaurant that I visited some time ago, first I posted it I checked the review on incognito mode on chrome it seems fine and the review is published.
Then I edited the review to share my experience of what I ate and the rating of the food and the price range. then my review did not appear. I dont know why, i believe my review does not violate any Google’s policies.
The business name on Google Maps is: Flui
My contributor link is: Google Maps
Is there still some sort of issue going on? None of my reviews from the past couple of months are showing up. I submitted the form, wondering if it is still being monitored.
I’ve been going through my Contributor profile, pasting each Review’s share link into another browser not logged into any Google profile and cookies cleared, and discovered that many of my past reviews have also been shadowbanned. This includes one extremely in-depth review of a car-sharing platform about its bugs and weaknesses, screenshots and all, and the owner even responded positively to taking in the feedback. There is no strong language or personal information or anything remotely close to contravening Maps T&Cs, yet here we are.
Have come to the conclusion that Maps reviews and the whole Local Guides program is a complete waste of time and effort at this point. Just be more careful with your money, look at every business’ rating on Maps with a giant bowl of salt, and stop contributing to the gargantuan monopoly that Google already has because they clearly do not need any of us.
@MortenCopenhagen Can you help me here? My Reviews are still not visible online on the business profiles.
I’ve got the same issues like most posters here and I feel that’s outrageous. I only write honest reviews with the goal to help people or also to give feedback to businesses to get better. I definitely never violate any rules and also post mostly positive experiences. Nevertheless a lot of my reviews from the last months disappeared. Some reviews get published, often without the added photos, rarely also some photos slip through. There seem to be no general rule of what gets published or not. It kind seems that some badly trained AI just randomly blocks or grants whatever it wants.
The whole situation is disheartening. I spend my private time to help people and google just decides to ban whatever it wants without any reason or explanation.
1 Like
Hello,
I got the same issue about 2 years ago. I’m travelling a lot and I had posted over 650 reviews on few years.
Then out of nowhere, I got everyday a new email telling me that one of them was removed (even some that had few years old, with or without comment, positive or negative, simply randomly, one review was striked everyday totally randomly), for months I was doing appeals non stop on reviews (it was so oppressing), then finally I posted a bad review (explaining nicely the situation) on Google Ireland.
Since then my Google map account is banned. Getting me limitated and it’s very frustrated. I filled many times the appeal form but it never worked. Today I found this discussion here with a different form, I just filled it right now, but I don’t know if it still working?
Any other way to unban my google map account?
Thank you
This is my banned google map account :
https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/114209996919639730181
(I can’t even post here from it, since it’s banned… what a shame, seriously)
Hello, my reviews used to have tens of thousands of views now it appears I am shadowbanned, can someone plese help me to fix this?
Could you please help? My review is not visible publicly online.
Hi there,
Since about a year, I am unable to post any new reviews on Google Maps. All I get is a the notification about “Unfortunately, we’re not able to publish this content at this time”. The site on the link shows me:
“Thank you for your contribution. Unfortunately, we’re not able to publish it at this time.
What happened
It looks like your account didn’t follow our policies. As a result, access to some features is restricted.
See content policy
What you can do
Visit your Google Account to see which features are restricted.”.
I cannot find any reason why this is the case though. I have only one profile, I am a real person, non of my reviews violates policies - especially the ones that are flagged are sometimes just stars or things like praising a coffee - etc.
Any help on that would be very appreciated. I love to leave good reviews and think that good service should be rewarded. Especially as I like to travel and go to less known places, it really is a pain that I cannot leave a good review.
My profile: Google Maps
I also lost my Local Guides Status for some reason but was able to be reinstated to this program.
Thanks so much in advance to anyone who can help.
My reviews won’t show up on Google Maps, please help.
Dear Google Maps Support Team,
I am a Local Guide contributing reviews regularly through my account (name: Kiran Bhanushali). I have noticed that many of my submitted reviews are visible to me when logged in, but they are not publicly visible to others, even after several days or weeks.
This issue persists across multiple business listings, and I have confirmed that:
My profile is set to public
My reviews follow all content guidelines
I have not included any restricted content (e.g., links, phone numbers, inappropriate language)
I request your assistance in reviewing my account and helping ensure that my genuine contributions are published and visible to the public.
Please let me know if you require specific examples or screenshots. I am happy to provide more details to support this request.
Thank you for your time and support.
Best regards,
Kiran Bhanushali
Hi there,
Could you please help?
My last review isn’t visible publicly.
I don’t understand why.
I’m real person and I’d like to leave a good review about qualified work and good service of medical center. I think they deserve a good assessment. And perhaps it will be useful to someone.
I’d be grateful for any help.
Hello there,
I have been excitedly writing all those reviews only to realise that they were not published and are only visible to me. I hope you could look into this issue so my efforts and time are not wasted. We, users, want to make your Maps more useful, so please resolve this as soon as possible.
Looking forward to your feedback. Thank you.
hi, I am no different. I had recently done reviews throughout my trip but only realized days later none of them got published. It seems like a systemic issue for certain accounts with certain criteria. All the found resources on the internet about resolving this issue are outdated. I hope this can be resolved soon. Tagging @MortenCopenhagen