Proposal & Campaign: Cleaning up nationwide map clutter from long-offline public sensors

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Proposal & Campaign: Cleaning up nationwide map clutter from long-offline public sensors

Hi PurpleAir Community,

Across the nationwide map, hundreds of public sensors (at schools, government buildings, and community sites) are sitting permanently offline due to changed Wi-Fi networks, staff turnover, or lost login access.

While the historical data is valuable, permanent “ghost” markers clutter the real-time visibility for communities relying on active smoke/AQI tracking.

I’m launching an effort to help reconnect or clean up these abandoned units and want to gather input from the community and the PurpleAir team on two fronts:

  1. Feature Request / Admin Policy:
  • Auto-Hide/Archive Inactive Units: Can the map default to hiding sensors that have been offline for >180 days (with a toggle to show offline units)?
  • Unclaimed Device Recovery: For institutional locations (schools, municipalities) where the original registering staff member has left, what is the official process for new site staff to claim/re-provision the hardware?
  1. Field Tool / Volunteer Help:
  • For those who manage regional fleets or community networks: How are you handling Wi-Fi credential updates for sensors installed in hard-to-reach places?

If you are a regional air quality manager, school tech admin, or researcher interested in a coordinated push to get regional networks back online, let’s connect below!

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Hi @IAHillsAustin

The PurpleAir map already has a hide inactive sensors feature. To enable it, you need to select Map Settings (the little cog in the top left corner) then find the option called “Show sensors reporting or modified within:” and select the timeframe from the drop-down menu. I believe it defaults to 7 days, however, if yours has defaulted differently you can set it to only show sensors that have reported data in the last 10mins, 30mins, 1hr, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 1 year or All Time by following the above steps.

I hope this helps you clear up the map issue you have :slight_smile: Let me know if you have any further questions.

Have a great day!