Updated in Aug 2022 to include additional details related to ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0.
For the past few years and releases, ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise organizations have had the option to enable use of Esri vector basemaps in the basemap gallery. Over that time, most organizations have enabled their use and are taking advantage of the additional map styles and data updates that they offer. However, there are many organizations that have not yet enabled the vector basemaps, perhaps because it was not apparent to the organization’s administrators that they could and should. With the September update to ArcGIS Online and the 11.0 release of ArcGIS Enterprise, we are actively notifying administrators if their organizations are not using the vector basemaps and making it even easier to update the basemap gallery.
Background
Several of Esri’s raster basemaps moved to mature support in July of this year, which means that the maps are still available but not being actively updated. To take advantage of the latest data updates and other benefits of vector basemaps, we are encouraging all ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise users to migrate to using the vector basemaps in their maps and apps.
Below is the set of basemaps that are currently available to ArcGIS Online users (with region set to World, as shown in Map Viewer Classic). On the left are the basemaps available to organizations that are still using the raster basemaps. On the right are the basemaps available to organizations that are using vector basemaps. As you can see, Esri offers an equivalent set of vector basemaps for each of the raster basemaps that are now in mature support as well as several additional styles.
Update
With the September update and the 11.0 release of ArcGIS Enterprise, organization administrators will now see notifications (such as below) when they sign in to ArcGIS.com if their settings still need to be updated. When they click the Update basemap gallery button, the settings will be updated to use the Esri vector basemaps and all members of the organization will begin to see the appropriate set of vector basemaps in ArcGIS.com and other supported apps (e.g. ArcGIS Pro).
Localization
The set of vector basemaps that are shown in the basemap gallery will vary some based on the region and language settings of the organization and user. For example, if the organization region setting is World and the user language setting is French, the user will see a localized set of basemaps where the titles and many of the map labels have been translated to French.
If the organization region setting is a specific country, such as the United States or United Kingdom, the user may see a custom set of basemaps that have been curated for that country. This may include additional country-specific basemaps or custom basemaps with different treatments of disputed boundaries and place names.
*** Note that the region setting for organizations and users is applicable to ArcGIS Online, but is not supported in ArcGIS Enterprise. In ArcGIS Enterprise, the basemap gallery will be localized depending on the language settings of the organization and user.
Action
If you are an organization administrator, we encourage you to sign in to ArcGIS.com and update your organization settings to use the Esri vector basemaps if you have not already. If you are a member of an organization that is still using the raster basemaps, we encourage you to reach out to your administrative contacts (see Organization Overview page) and request that they update the organization settings to access Esri’s vector basemaps.
For ArcGIS Enterprise organization administrators on versions 10.6 -10.9.1, you will not receive the notifications noted above to update your basemap gallery, but we still encourage you to make the update to use vector basemaps in your organization settings.
Happy mapping!
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