Tableau Legacy Map Service Being Discontinued April 2023 for 2019.1 and Earlier Versions Causing Blank Background Map Tiles

Issue

When the legacy map service discontinues, workbooks that are still using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Server version 2019.1 and earlier will be impacted. Tableau workbooks that still use the legacy map service may display blank background map tiles, and error messages will appear to inform users that map tiles can’t be fetched as demonstrated here:

User-added image

Visualizations created in Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server in version 2019.2 or later, Tableau Cloud, and Tableau Public have been updated to use a modern mapping service and will not be impacted.

Environment

Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server

Resolution

Upgrading Tableau or using an alternative map service is recommended to resolve this issue. Below are some options to consider if this issue is encountered. ANY of the following solutions are valid means to resolve this behavior:

Upgrade your version of Tableau to a supported version. See Tableau Desktop Upgrade / Tableau Server Upgrade. This solution doesn’t require any editing or republishing of workbooks.
Change the map source to a public-facing WMS map. See Use Web Map Service (WMS) Servers.
Change the map source to a custom Mapbox map (requires version 2018.3 or later). See Use Mapbox Maps.

Cause

The legacy service providing background map tiles for Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server with version 2019.1 and earlier will discontinue on April 15th 2023. The geographic data backing this service is out of date and no longer reflects current political boundaries. Tableau stopped supporting this service in August 2021.