ERROR

ArcGIS Online: Incompatible with current basemap

First Published: March 28, 2023
Last Published: May 6, 2026

Error Message

When opening a layer in Map Viewer, the layer is not added and the following error is returned:

Error:
Incompatible with current basemap.
The Incompatible with current basemap error message in Map Viewer

When hovering over the The Warning symbol  symbol, the following warning is displayed.

Error:
This layer's spatial reference is incompatible with the spatial reference of the basemap.
This layer's spatial reference is incompatible with the spatial reference of the basemap error message

Cause

This is an expected behavior. Different basemaps use different spatial references. When a layer using a different spatial reference is opened in Map Viewer, the layer fails to be added into the map. In the example above, the tile layer is not compatible with the default World Topographic Map basemap.

Solution or Workaround

There are two potential workarounds to add the layer. Use one of the following solutions to solve the issue:

Article ID: 000029889

Software:
  • ArcGIS Online

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