WEXWatchHelp and documentationBack to the map

Troubleshooting and FAQ

My photo was rejected for having no GPS

The photo has no GPS coordinates in its metadata, and WEXWatch cannot place a pin without them. Work through these in order:

  1. Check location tagging on the camera. On a phone, the camera app needs permission to use your location, and photo location tagging needs to be enabled. This is the cause most of the time.
  2. Check how the file reached you. Messaging apps, social platforms and some email clients strip metadata, and any option to "reduce image size" when sending removes it too. Transfer the original file, or upload from the phone that took the photo.
  3. Check whether the photo has been edited. Cropping, exporting or converting a photo — particularly to PNG or WebP — commonly discards the GPS data.
  4. Check the phone had a fix. Indoors, in a cutting, or in the first seconds after opening the camera app, a phone may not have a position to record.

If the photo cannot be recovered, the honest fix is to re-photograph the location. Backdating an issue with a hand-placed pin is not possible in WEXWatch, and that is deliberate — see the geotagged photo requirement.

My photo was rejected as too large or the wrong type

The limit is 25 MB per file, and accepted formats are JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and HEIF. Photos straight from a phone are normally well inside the limit; files that exceed it are usually from a large-sensor camera or have been exported at maximum quality. Re-export at a normal quality setting, taking care to keep the metadata.

The address did not fill in

Common reasons, and what to do:

  • There is genuinely no addressable point nearby. Rural roads, new alignments and long stretches between properties often have none. Type a description you would use yourself, such as "SH1B, 300 m north of the Tainui Bridge Road intersection".
  • The lookup failed. You will see a message and a retry option. Retry once; if it keeps failing, the deployment's address lookup credentials need attention, and that is a matter for the administrator.
  • The address looks approximate. Where a deployment is configured with only the fallback nearby-place lookup, results are less precise. Correct the field by hand; the value you type is always kept.

The address field is always editable, and WEXWatch never overwrites something you have typed.

Street View shows nothing here

Either there is no Street View coverage within a short distance of the pin, which is common off the main carriageway, or the deployment's Google credentials do not permit the interactive Street View panorama.

The distinction is visible in the panel: a plain message about coverage means there is no imagery nearby, while an authorisation message means the credentials need fixing by whoever runs the deployment. Neither affects the issue record. See Street View for what the imagery can and cannot tell you.

The map is blank, or a basemap will not load

Try in this order:

  1. Switch basemap. If a Google basemap fails, WEXWatch falls back to a LINZ basemap and shows a notice. Selecting a LINZ basemap directly confirms whether the problem is specific to one supplier.
  2. Reload the page. A tile service that was briefly unreachable usually recovers.
  3. Check your connection. Basemap tiles come from external services; a restrictive site network or a captive portal will block them.
  4. Check for a missing-key notice. If a basemap is listed but cannot be selected, the deployment has no API key for that supplier. Only an administrator can resolve that.

The parcel overlay is greyed out

The LINZ Primary Parcels overlay needs a LINZ Data Service key configured on the deployment. When it is missing the overlay is shown but cannot be switched on. Report it to the administrator.

The issue list will not load

If pins or the issue list fail to load you will see an error with a retry option. Retry first — a single dropped request is the usual cause. If it persists, the application cannot reach its database, which is an administrator matter. Do not re-upload photos in the meantime: they may already have been saved.

My invite link has expired

Invite links are valid for 12 hours. Ask an Admin or Super Admin for a new one. This happens routinely and does not indicate anything wrong with your account.

The same applies to email verification and password reset links: request a fresh one rather than trying an older email again.

I cannot edit anything

This is almost always your role rather than a fault.

  • View only can read everything available to them and change nothing.
  • Commenter can add timeline notes but cannot create issues or edit fields.
  • Editor and above can create and edit issues.

Check Roles and permissions, then ask an Admin in your organisation if your work genuinely requires a wider role. In the meantime, if you can add notes, a note recording what needs changing is a perfectly good contribution — an Editor can then act on it.

The Recorded on Site Date is wrong

The field is seeded from the photo's capture time, so an incorrect device clock carries through. Edit the date on the issue and save. Getting it right matters: this is the date used to establish when a condition was observed, as distinct from when it was uploaded.

The name on the map is a file name

The Name field defaults to the photo's file name with the extension removed. If a pin is labelled something like IMG_4821, nobody replaced the default. Open the issue and give it a name a colleague would understand — it can be changed at any time.