Is OpenStreetMap down in South Africa today?

Map tiles not loading

If the map shows grey squares or blank areas instead of actual tiles, the issue is almost always on the network side. Check whether other websites load normally. If they do, try a hard reload: Ctrl+Shift+R in most browsers. Browser extensions — especially ad blockers — sometimes intercept tile requests, so disable them temporarily and see if that helps. Clearing the browser cache fixes the problem in roughly half of such cases.

Editor won''t save changes

When iD editor throws an error while uploading your edits, first check whether you''re still logged in — the session can expire silently after a long editing session. Log out and back in, then try saving again. If the error message mentions a conflict, someone else edited the same object while you were working on it. Open the conflict resolution dialog and choose which version to keep. Avoid leaving large changesets open for hours.

GPS trace upload fails

- File format matters: OSM accepts GPX only. Convert FIT or KML files before uploading.

- Traces over 100 MB are often rejected — split long recordings into segments.

- If the upload bar freezes at some percentage, the server may be under load. Wait a few minutes and retry.

- Make sure your GPX file isn''t corrupted: open it locally in any GPS app to verify it renders correctly.

Search returns wrong or no results

The Nominatim search engine indexes data with a delay, so newly added objects may not appear for several hours. If a place clearly exists on the map but search can''t find it, try searching by coordinates instead. Entering too short or ambiguous a name also causes poor results — add a city or country to narrow it down.

Overpass API queries time out

Complex queries on large areas regularly hit the default timeout limit. Add a timeout setting at the top of your query: [timeout:60]. If that''s not enough, reduce the bounding box or filter by a more specific tag combination. Running queries during off-peak hours — early morning UTC — noticeably improves response times.