ArcGIS Business Analyst Desktop 10.8.2 online basemap issue (red exclamation marks)

Description

Business Analyst users in ArcMap can no longer access basemaps from the Maps dropdown in the Business Analyst toolbar and the "2021 Business Analyst Web - World Street Map.lyr" layer file fails to load with a red exclamation mark in the Table of Contents.

Cause

Starting in April 2022, HTTP support for Esri Basemaps was ended, and tile requests had to be made using HTTPS. For Business Analyst users in ArcGIS Pro, this change is done automatically and there should be no impact to the daily use of .lyr files and Esri online basemaps. 

For ArcMap users, they may notice that basemaps in existing .mxd documents fail to load, and have a red exclamation mark in the Table of Contents. These maps may have been loaded from a .lyr file, or using the Maps drop-down in the Business Analyst toolbar. When inspecting the layer's properties for these broken layers, users may notice that the source is pointing to an HTTP URL.

Solution or Workaround

With the 2022 release of Business Analyst data, the "2021 Business Analyst Web - World Street Map.lyr" layer file references an HTTPS URL that loads correctly in ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro.

For ArcMap users who wish to use other Esri Basemap offerings, there are two solutions:

• Load basemaps by clicking Add Data > Basemaps in the main toolbar. The Maps drop-down in the Business Analyst toolbar will not work correctly, as it uses HTTP to request basemap tiles.
• Find the basemap layer that is failing to draw, and open the layer properties.

1. Under the Source tab, click Set Data Source and browse to Server connections in the File Browser pop-up. Create a new ArcGIS Server connection to: 

https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/services

2. Click this Server connection to select the appropriate basemap. 

This should repair the data source and allow use of the desired Esri basemap in ArcMap.