I am concerned about a bug in Maps that may put our accounts in jeopardy.

[JeroenM]

I have come across a number of forum threads where people report that photos have been automatically allocated to wrong places on Maps, without their knowledge. It seems this may happen when a place gets removed from Maps, or when people try to add a new place and the contribution (with photos) does not get applied.

From what I understand, it requires us to monitor our own photos to discover such occasions. I know of Local Guides that do and remove the photos themselves, before they get flagged as SPAM.  This FREAKS ME OUT.

I do not have time to keep checking if my photo contributions are linked to the right locations on Maps.

Taking photos is not really my thing, but I acknowledge its value and do appreciate them very much. So I do contribute photos to Maps, particularly when I feel I am adding something that is not there already.

Is Google aware of this? Is the team working on solutions? And more importantly, can the system tell that when a photo is removed by a business owner or a Maps user, that the fault was with the system and NOT the intent of the contributor of the photo?

Cheers!

[LucioV]

With around 8000 published photos I cannot check it. I can merely check the overall number 🙂

[JeroenM]

@LucioV

So are you worried? Is my concern justified?

[LucioV]

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@JeroenM wrote:

@LucioV

So are you worried? Is my concern justified?

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Yes, I'm a little worried.

I cannot say I'm 100% confident to not have duplicate images or wrong placed images, and I cannot check it back, because is simply impossible to do 🙂

[Amiran]

As I experienced this only happens for 360 photos (fir example it shows district instead of removed place) but for ordinary photos when the place has been removed from the map it shouws "Unknown place" not a special place.

Anyway you're right. this is not good and we have no time to check all photos.

[JeroenM]

@Amiran and @LucioV

Thank you for confirming that I am not alone.

All the forum posts I am referring to did concern incidents where we are talking about normal photos.

[Jonesnco]

I had this happen when I attempted to add a handful of missing businesses to Maps in September which were either rejected or are likely still 'pending'.  My photos are now assigned to either something in the same building or otherwise in the area.  I raised the issue with the rejection or inability of Maps to go past 'pending' with any of the additions in another post but was simply told to wait but I find my photos being misapplied in this way bothersome.  I was neither asked or notified that this had happened.

[MapWrangler]

Hi @Jonesnco,

When/how did you add photos to a business that was never published to the map, either because the edit was Not Applied or Pending Review?  Perhaps I am misunderstanding your post.

[Jonesnco]

There were several business missing from Maps in Insadong, Seoul. South Korea I added.  Using the Android Maps app, I did the standard ‘add’ and filled in all details including a photo of the front of the business.  Later when I checked Maps the businesses in question were not on Maps and my edit was listed a ‘not applied’.  However the photo I uploaded with my edit was added to a separate unrelated business already in Maps that was in the same multi-tenant building.  

[MapWrangler]

Thanks, @Jonesnco,

There are a bunch of features available on Android that aren't available to me on either iOS and Mac Desktop -- adding photos during the edit is one of them!  One would think Google would have seen that possibility of Not Applied and come up with a better solution.

Thanks for your help.