Lightroom: Map module keeps flashing "map offline" when it's not

I am seeing the "no imagery available" issue too. First noticed it yesterday (30 July), with random squares of the map being greyed out, depending on the level of zoom. In some cases, entire countries can be obliterated.


In addition, other areas of the map may appear as very low resolution (see the area below the grey square in the second image).

I wonder if this is just a Google Maps issue. It looks like the Lightroom end of things is working (for me). Perhaps the maps service that Lightroom uses is going through more changes than just the (I presume API-related) one that caused the offline error. Not sure...

I suspect that Adobe is just as frustrated by this as you are — but, for better or worse, their staff don't tend to rant on this discussion forum.

You're right, different zoom levels show different missing tiles. Some levels are more complete than others. I just thought it was odd that this seemed to come with the release of 2015.12, for me anyway.

Jan,

The last update for Lightroom 5 was 5.7.1 but it will not affect your Map module issue. 

Rikk, what is there to be done to solve the issue? Do you mean for 5.x there won't be a solution made available?

Correct. Lightroom 5 is no longer supported by updates.

Price depends upon your country of purchase. Please go to www.adobe.com  to view current pricing for your area. Lightroom 6.x is still available for purchase as a traditional license. It is also available as subscription as CC2015.

See above. Lightroom 4 is no longer supported, so you either have to learn to live without the map module, or upgrade to Lightroom 6.

This just sucks. I have 4.4 too. I paid for it, and now it's not working. My plan was to buy next version of LR and stick with it for few years again, but there is none anymore. I shoot rarely, and pay 12EUR monthly is just insane for me. It would be cheaper to hire a pro to shoot these photos for me. That's what I get for stop stealing software :-/

In the original topic, Victoria Bampton replied:

"Google made some changes on their servers, which required a Lightroom update to get map working properly again. Lightroom 5 is no longer shipping software, so it won't get the update. The current version is working correctly."

Google translation: "Map is offline, despite good internet connection and that Google Maps works. LR 5.7 fully updated. Only one image on satlite card, another card is gray with the track on it and photos. What can I do to order this? Win 10, Intel motherboard, built-in graphics card, Windows Defender, Linksys router windows firewall Email: andre.deschildre@telenet.be Sorry for my bad english, translation from Dutch to English"

See Victoria Bampton's reply: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/map-module-keeps-flashing-map-offline-when-it...

I have the most up to date version 2015.12 but STILL get the 'maps is offline' message, however, closing and restarting the program seems to clear the error. Hth!

Maybe that's how it feels, but if Google changes the way map data can be read by other applications, then that other software needs to be updated, whether you like it or not. You say "Of course I do not expect Adobe or any other company to fix old versions of software forever", but it sounds like that is exactly what you expect for this problem...

"My version of CC2015 (Windows 10) is  CC 2015.6 [ 1078672 ]"

That's an old version prior to the fix for Map -- update to 2015.12.  If the menu command Help > Updates doesn't do it, you can download the 2015.12 manually: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-downloads.html

For Nikon RAW NEF's Capture NX is another option.

As you can read in the rest of the topic this was merged into, Google changed its servers and broke compatibility with LR Maps.  LR CC 2015.12 / 6.12 (the most recent release) fixes this, but Adobe won't be issuing updates to prior versions (LR 3, 4, and 5), which are unsupported.

Had the same problem, but luckily I could geotag the photos in the free software for my camera. It seems Nikon knew the GPS in the otherwise great D5300 was really bad and bundled the Capture NX software with it so you could somehow geotag your RAW files ;-)
If your files are jpeg I think there are many ways to geotag them, Google, your phone, ...
For Adobe it just seems they want you to all the time by new versions of their SW until you get so tired of it you just by and expensive subcription instead. Not very nice.  

Can you guys confirm which LR version you're using please? And which OS?

Now updated to 7.1 CC release on Mac OS X (High Sierra) and it seems to work.

Lightroom 5.7.1 and Win 7

Sune, Google changed something on their servers a few months, which had to be fixed in shipping Lightroom versions. Since Lightroom 5 is quite old now, I'm afraid it won't get fixed in that version.

And LR 6.12 didn't either.  Whilst Google's servers may have exacerbated the issue, I still get the same fault now. The fix is to reboot LR.  Something to with LR getting tired after a heavy or extended session and not having the capacity to handle this - that's a not very computer savvy explanation but it seems to be the 'reason'.

The flashing offline problem is resolved for me but I've got another equally annoying and distruptive problem.  I have the latest LR 6.x and High Sierra installed, and as I installed both at about the same time, I don't know if one or t'other is to blame.  After a short period of use (sometimes under a minute), the map stops updating.  I can see the thumbnail map zooming in and out, but not the main map.  I can't click on the photo markers on the map, and I can't drag photos to a new map location.  Switching back to the library module and then back to the map module resolves it, very temporarily.

Hi,

My workaround for this issue with LR 6.12 (just on a side note: this had been reported also to Adobe Support but despite collecting and submitting data more than 1 month ago - there has been absolute silence to repeated emails): go back to library and then go back to maps, the map should again update for a few moments or manipulations before freezing again; repeat this as often as needed.

I found this same issue also with the new LR classic CC but the update from yesterday seems to have resolved this issue... fingers crossed.

Oh great!  Thanks for the pointer.  I checked for an update only at the weekend.  I'll try again tonight.  This back and forth between library and map is slow when you're working with a lot of photos

Agreed, it is slow. Though faster than re-launching the app.

@Victoria: It is not yet 3 years old, and less then 2.5 when the problem started. How was I to know it was only months from being replaced with version 6 when I bought it... I think is is bad service, but from a selling point is is of course better to get people to by a new product.

Would you believe it, the final Lightroom 5.7.1 release was 3 years ago today, and it's 4 1/2 years since Lightroom 5 was release. I know that doesn't feel like a long time, but in technology terms, it's an eternity.

There is still a discounted upgrade available, if you don't want to move to subscription, and those upgrade fees pay for Lightroom to continue to work with external changes, such as new operating systems and changes on other people's servers.

I agree with Sune - I, and I'm sure many others, are still using Lightroom 5.7. When I bought this software - which was really expensive - I planned on using it for at least 3-5 years to make the investment worth it. When I bought it, there was no statement by Adobe that "this software expires in 3 years" -- in fact there was an implicit understanding that it would work as advertised indefinitely. Now I agree that I would not expect the software to work after say 10 or 15 years, but 3 short years?? cmon - Adobe has a responsibility to fix this issue.

I wish the solution was a simple as upgrading to Lightroom 6.
I purchased the upgrade to find that the problem persisted, although it was not as severe. The off line periods were frequent enough to be frustrating, without making the module quite unusable. 
This is disappointing from a well established company like Adobe,

It is because of this arrogance that I left LR for Aftershot pro3. Yes without map module. Pity

@gavinr
What do you mean with "really expensive"? I bet you'll have a hard time to find a piece of your photo gear that had a lower price tag ... and the software part nowadays is as much a part of a photo-chain as the camera or a lens.

The nice thing about lr5.7 is it is extremely easy to add in more functionality. The map in lightroom isn't that important , more important is being able to select the files for processing which can easily be done.  http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps 
Giving adobe more money because their software is broken doesn't sit well but its relatively easy to work round. If it's real gps coordinates you want to add e.g a gpx track from an android phone or a Garmin unit then the link above is for you.  If you are faking it then open the files in finder and use another application to add the gps locations. 
Exiftool will write anything you need it too. There are a number of projects that use it to actually write to the raw file. 

 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eartoearoak.gpxlogger 

is a very simple logger for gpx on android , simple as start stop and pause.  I go somewhere i start this on my phone and go take photos , most often i'm at home before i remember to turn it off :) but transfer the gpx file to your computer and jeffs gps lightroom plugin will  attach the gps data to your photos and give real world locations too. these can be used at different levels to pull up photos in lightroom e.g ireland would do any irish photo county cork just photos in county cork and you can view in google earth or other maps..

Lr 6 should not have the map-offline-problem. If it has, it did not upgrade to the latest version (6.13 currently).

Hi all,

Is anyone on this particular comment thread having this map offline issue with current versions of the Lightroom products (Lightroom 6.13, Lightroom Classic CC 7.1)?

Let us know.

Thanks,
Melissa

Hi all,

Is anyone on this particular comment thread having this map offline issue with current versions of the Lightroom products (Lightroom 6.13, Lightroom Classic CC 7.1)?

Let us know.

Thanks,
Melissa

No. Problem was resolved for my subscription based product (now LR Classic) a couple months ago. I will say it took too long to resoloe, but is now a non issue.