Recently a client of ours, who has been on ArcGIS Online for a few years now, migrated their data to a new datamodel. This, naturally, had a cascading domino effect on all the ArcGIS Online content they had created over the years. I relied heavily on our Admin Tools’ “Update Web Maps Service URLs” to salvage all their content. However, along the way, I noticed a strange quirk in ArcGIS Online. When the basemap that a web map is referencing no longer exists, and you try to open that web map, you lose all the content! ArcGIS Online, instead, brings you to a brand new web map.
<ATTENTION>— If this happens to you, whatever you do, DO NOT hit save. Slowly back away and everything will be cool.—<ATTENTION>
This wouldn’t be so bad if you were only referencing data from your online services, but this web map had embedded Map Notes that needed to be preserved. Admin Tools – Update Web Maps Service URLs to the rescue! Since I knew that I needed to replace the basemap URL I went into ArcGIS Online and copied the URL for a working basemap. I chose the Esri World Imagery. (http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer)
To salvage this web map I opened Admin Tools and opened the “Browse Item Tools” under the Quick Links section.
I then opened the “Update Web Maps Service URLs” under the Update section
and added some queries to locate the map I was looking for and simply selected that map and hit Next.
This brought up the page where you actually change the URLs. I located the URL I needed to change in the list and copied in the Esri World Imagery basemap I had copied earlier and hit Next.
Wham-Bam-Done!
Went back into ArcGIS Online to open the map that was broken, and everything came in as it should!
Hope this helps anyone else who runs into that problem.
I am very glad to read your ultimate blog. Thanks for sharing.