All My Photos Disappeared

[HikingMike]

I just noticed that all of my photos and photospheres under my Google Maps Contributions have disappeared. Strangely I do still have my Reviews and Edits. I also tried finding them on the map rather than in my account, using the Photos layer at bottom right of the map, and they appear to be gone when checking that way also. I opened up the Street View app on my phone, which is what I used to create and upload the photospheres, and it also shows 0 photos that way (0 photos, 281.15K views). When I view the Contributions screen in a logged out private window, it actually shows I have 0 reviews as well. When logged in, I see 2 review and it says "3 reviews" for some reason, and many edits.

I had the best, most viewed photosphere in many places. This is rather upsetting.

My Contributions screen: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/115429960610668934905/reviews/@38.7823432,-113.9286218,6z/data=!...

[StephenAbraham]

@GeorgesHR @KlaudiyaG Just tagging to see if some help can be extended for Mike.

@HikingMike I have tagged 2 of our Google Moderators to see if they can help with this because I can't see your level or points. In the mean time, can you check this setting in Your Contributions in Maps. Make sure the show contributions on public profile is enabled. I can't say for sure if this is the issue, but worth checking.

[HikingMike]

Thanks for the reply and tagging Stephen!

I checked the setting in your screenshot and mine is set like that.

I should have added this in my original post, but earlier in the day, I also noticed when I logged in that Google told me it "noticed some unusual activity in my account" and had me confirm my phone with a text code. I have since changed my password in case my account was hacked or compromised. I will set 2-factor now as well. I bring this up because I also notice when I log in just now to post this reply, I see my account profile doesn't have my profile image and it's a gray figure with a line through it. I wonder if this is related, and I also wonder what exactly this means. I don't see any more information in my account settings, and I don't see any strange devices. Though I do see a security event for "Account enabled" when I saw that "unusual activity" message yesterday during login. Perhaps that means my account had been disabled prior to that? I don't see anything strange under My Activity.

I don't know why a person (or bot) would delete my Google Maps photos, but that is a possible reason for how this happened. It's strange that my reviews are there still, but they lack the photos they had attached.

I checked my Google Album Archive and I can see my photos are still there. So I could possibly re-upload them, or re-attach to the listing, from that. But wow, that would lose their view counts, their top position on listings, and anything else.

Restoring them would be a much better option if that is possible. But I don't if that's possible and that will require some intervention by Google. Maybe my account had been disabled and the photos were as well. Could enabling my account also enable those, and I just need to wait?

[HikingMike]

Argh, I just replied and edited the reply, and it dumped me back to the main Local Guides Connect screen. I found a screen showing that my reply was rejected. Hopefully this one goes through. I won't include a screenshot or attempt editing it.

[HikingMike]

Ok, that worked. Well I guess I won't edit again for now.

Here is my original reply, hopefully this works-

Thanks for the reply and tagging @StephenAbraham!

I checked the setting in your screenshot and mine is set like that.

I should have added this in my original post, but earlier in the day, I also noticed when I logged in that Google told me it "noticed some unusual activity in my account" and had me confirm my phone with a text code. I have since changed my password in case my account was hacked or compromised. I will set 2-factor now as well. I bring this up because I also notice when I log in just now to post this reply, I see my account profile doesn't have my profile image and it's a gray figure with a line through it. I wonder if this is related, and I also wonder what exactly this means. I don't see any more information in my account settings, and I don't see any strange devices. Though I do see a security event for "Account enabled" when I saw that "unusual activity" message yesterday during login. Perhaps that means my account had been disabled prior to that? I don't see anything strange under My Activity.

I don't know why a person (or bot) would delete my Google Maps photos, but that is a possible reason for how this happened. It's strange that my reviews are there still, but they lack the photos they had attached.

I checked my Google Album Archive and I can see my photos are still there. So I could possibly re-upload them, or re-attach to the listing, from that. But wow, that would lose their view counts, their top position on listings, and anything else.

Restoring them would be a much better option if that is possible. But I don't if that's possible and that will require some intervention by Google. Maybe my account had been disabled and the photos were as well. Could enabling my account also enable those, and I just need to wait?

[KlaudiyaG]

Hi @HikingMike,

Since Wednesday, 16 360° photos are appearing in your Google Maps account, but I do see that there is quite a big difference between the ones that you have uploaded and the ones that are visible. I'll investigate further more the issue that you are facing and I'll get in touch when I have any news.

Thank you once again @StephenAbraham for tagging me!

[HikingMike]

Hey, they are back! That looks like all of them actually. The only thing I noticed strange is that 2 of the photos are not attached to one of my reviews like they were before.

Most of my replies here have been blocked, which is really frustrating, but I think I know the reason. It looks like my account was disabled due to strange activity. When I logged in just before all this, I must have re-enabled it. Perhaps that set in motion the photos to come back after some undetermined time. They weren't there right away.

[CostasA]

@StephenAbraham

Same issue here:  Photos missing from Google Maps?
I had uploaded 2252 photos on Panoramio...
Also many of them were not backed up to Album Archives, as they supposedly would be... What a shame!

[HikingMike]

@CostasA I think my issue was due to my Google account being disabled temporarily for strange activity. I think possibly a bot hacked my password. But now after re-enabling, the photos showed again after a day. But I can't be sure that's the reason.

[CostasA]

@HikingMike
Probably not... My photos disappeared for no reason. I think it has to to do with the migration process.

Furthermore, not all of my Panoramio photos were transferred to Google Album Archive! What about yours? Supposedly, they would back up any number of photos, without a limit, but that's not what happened in my case.

Anyway, as they are not moving the tags and the coordinates along with the photos to Maps, maybe it's better in a way... I don't think I will ever contribute any new photos to Maps in the way it is implemented. It seems a complete failure to me.