Early yesterday morning, our team received several messages in the Malagis GIS backend asking why the ArcGIS Pro basemap services couldn’t be loaded. I went to check it out and was quite puzzled—everything was working smoothly on my end without any issues. So, I posted about it on social media and found that most friends couldn’t access it either, with only a few reporting it was working. Some also shared solutions in the comments.
After seeing everyone’s workarounds, I realized my tool had been set to the default mode all along. After switching to direct mode, a big exclamation mark indeed appeared.
Troubleshooting ArcGIS Pro Basemap Issues
Since the basemap could be loaded using a tool but not directly, the first thing that came to mind was a network issue. I started by checking the internet service providers—switching between China Unicom and China Telecom—but the problem persisted, indicating it wasn’t an ISP issue. That left the worst possible reason: it might be blocked. I performed a simple packet capture on ArcGIS Pro and found that most of its basemaps come from the domain basemaps.arcgis.com. Using a domestic network testing tool, the results were as follows:
As expected, aside from a few regions like Shandong, Chongqing, Zhejiang, and Fujian, most locations experienced timeouts. Then, using an international testing tool, the results were as follows:
Unsurprisingly, only domestic access was affected; other regions were normal.
Official Response
The above findings and reasons were still speculative, but given my connections within the GIS community, I reached out to ask and indeed found someone who knew.
Since the official team is already addressing the issue, all we can do now is wait.
Alternative Solutions
If you can’t wait, there are methods available, though the most common one isn’t suitable for open discussion here.
If you don’t necessarily need to use ArcGIS Pro’s official basemaps, you can replace them with third-party alternatives. For example, as mentioned in my earlier article, "Integrating Tianditu Basemaps in ArcMap: Step-by-Step Guide," you can directly use Tianditu’s basemap services. To do this, go to Menu → Insert → Connections → Server → New WMTS Service and add Tianditu’s basemap service.
Note: The Tianditu URL must include "esri," like this: http://t0.tianditu.gov.cn/img_c/esri/wmts. Without "esri," the basemap may display with offset errors.
Summary
In conclusion, the issue has been largely identified: only domestic access is affected. Here are three possible solutions:
- If you’re not in a hurry, wait for an official fix—though the timeline is unknown.
- Use methods not suitable for open discussion to continue accessing the services.
- Switch to other map services.
If you have other useful map sources, please feel free to share them in the comments. Thank you!