Unwanted pics

D319 Places not accepting pics

Links and icons to look for when checking if a place accepts pics.

Some places on Google Maps do not take photos. The only way to check is to look for the Add photo link or icon. If there is no icon or link, this tells you that the place is not accepting photos. On Desktop the Add photos link can sometimes be missing if you found the place and opened it from visually searching the map. Opening the place's page from the results of a text search can sometimes make the Add photos possible.

Local Guides cannot add photos to areas like villages, neighborhoods, cities, countries, roads, and rivers, etc. See the photos below for more examples.

This issue is mentioned briefly in the official Google Maps Help-page Add, remove, or share photos and videos where it says: "Note: You can add photos for points of interest, like businesses or parks, but not addresses or coordinates."

Places not accepting photos

Keep this list in mind when shooting for Google Maps.

Cities

Villages

Lakes

Rivers

Oceans

Trails

Train tracks

Bike paths

Roads

Streets

Cities can have a lot of photos even though you can not upload your pics directly to the city. Google's algorithms automatically promote some of the best photos uploaded to places inside the city to also be representing the city itself. Under the city, you can check the "By you" tab or card to see if any and which of your photos were promoted. Take a moment to reflect on the types and qualities of these photos. How are they better than other photos? This less know promotion of some photos can often explain why one of your photos suddenly gets an unusually high number of views without being a cover photo.

You may come across lakes and other places that unexpectedly do accept photos. So it is often worth checking if your places accept photos before shooting to not waste your time and effort.

You may also see duplicate POI's created by other local guides to make it possible to add photos and reviews. In that case, you can add your photos to that POI.

Promotion and adoption of any workaround practices for posting photos to places that normally do not accept photos is a violation of the Local Guides Program Rules and may get you suspended from the Local Guides program.

PS: Not all photos shown above are from Denmark. City and village are from The Phillippines, the river is from Guangzhou in China and the ocean is a shot from Gotland in Sweden.

How to prevent this issue

Remember city pics are selected from places in the city.

Try to memorize the other places listed above to save time.

On the next page, you will find a list of places that can not be added to the map. And therefore you can save time and effort bot taking pictures of such places. Just click/tap "Suggested next page" below to continue.

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