Map Troubleshooting 
This guide is meant to serve as a starting point for issues you might experience with the PurpleAir Map. In it, you’ll find troubleshooting steps designed to help with problems preventing you from using the map as intended.
There are a number of issues that members of our community have encountered on the Map. Usually, these issues have to do with things like the visibility of sensor dots or something appearing broken. Here are a few simple things you can try.
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If you cannot see your sensor’s marker on the map, or if all sensor markers are missing, please see the Configuration Page Settings or Private Sensors sections.
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If you cannot see the map, or some other type of error is occurring, please see the Map Errors section.
Configuration Page Settings
You’ll first want to ensure your map settings aren’t the issue by trying the following steps:
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Make sure you’re on the website https://map.purpleair.com/ or using the PurpleAir PWA. There are a number of other third-party sites and apps that utilize PurpleAir data, and you may be able to view your sensor on them. However, PurpleAir cannot control what appears on those maps or assist in troubleshooting problems on those platforms.
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Make sure that both the “Show outside” and “show inside” boxes are checked. This will ensure that you are seeing all public sensors that are registered inside and outside. If your sensor is registered privately, see the Private Sensors section below.
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If you still do not see your sensor, change the map setting “Reporting or Modified Within” to All-time (by default, this is set to 7-days). This will cause you to see more gray-colored dots. If your sensor is among those gray dots, that most likely means it is currently offline. This can occur due to power or networking issues. First, confirm that power is not the issue by following the steps in our Power Troubleshooting Guide. Once you confirm that your sensor can successfully power on, reconnecting the device to WiFi is your next troubleshooting step.
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Refresh the page.
Private Sensors
If you have tried the above steps but still do not see your sensor, and you can see other nearby device markers, your sensor may be registered privately.This means it will not be viewable on the public map, but there is still a way for you to see it if you are the owner. Take a look at our View Your Sensor on the Map article for help on viewing a privately-registered sensor.
Device owners select the visibility of sensors during the registration process. If you believe that your sensor was registered privately in error, you can modify your sensor’s registration to change its privacy status.
Map Errors
If you have tried the above steps and still haven’t fixed your issue, you could be experiencing a map error. There are a few different map errors that we’re aware of, and a couple of different things we suggest you try.
- Ensure the map is set to default settings.
- Open the map’s configuration page.
- Check to make sure that all settings are the same as in the table below.
| Setting Name | Status |
|---|---|
| Data Layer | US EPA PM2.5 AQI |
| Apply conversion | No |
| Averaging period | 10-minute |
| Base map type | Detailed |
| Use accessible colors | Unchecked |
| Show outside | Checked |
| Show inside | Checked |
| Show my sensors | Checked |
| Reporting or modified within | 7-days |
| Show averages as rings | Unchecked |
| Show place names on top | Checked |
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Refresh the page.
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Attempt to access the PurpleAir Map on a different browser or device. If you load it without error, clear the cache and cookies for the original browser experiencing the issue.
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If the map doesn’t work on a separate browser or device, and clearing your cache and cookies didn’t work, follow our steps for reporting the issue to PurpleAir as there may be a larger issue occurring.
Contacting PurpleAir
If these steps do not work, please send an email to contact@purpleair.com with the following information:
- Which browser you use and its version
- Which OS you use and its version
- A screenshot of what the map page looks like to you
- The troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried
Learn More
Map Startup Guide
View Your Sensor on the Map
My Sensor isn’t Showing up on the PurpleAir Map