Blurry or outdated imagery

The most common reasons you'll receive this error are:

  • The imagery has not streamed completely.
  • We do not have high-resolution imagery for that area.

Google offers high resolution imagery for thousands of cities, and more are on the way. Most of this imagery is approximately one to three years old and provides an aerial view about 800-1500 feet from the ground.

 

Google Earth defaults to displaying the highest-quality images available for any given location. Sometimes, older imagery may be shown if it is clearer than newer imagery. If you're looking for the most recent imagery, you may be able to find it by exploring the Historical Imagery Time Slider. You can browse historical imagery for any location by going to View > Historical Imagery, or by clicking the Clock icon on your toolbar.

 

Please follow the steps below to ensure that any blurry imagery you're seeing isn't being caused by your computer:

 

  • Turn off all of the layers in your Places Panel to verify that you're not blocking the imagery with an overlay.
  • Clear your cache by going to Tools > Options > Cache (Windows) or Google Earth > Preferences > Cache (Mac).
  • Turn off Anisotropic Filtering by going to Tools > Options > 3D View (Windows) or Google Earth > Preferences > 3D View (Mac).
  • Check the Streaming Indicator. It appears at the bottom of your Google Earth image, and lets you know whether all available data has been downloaded.

 

If the Streaming Indicator is at 100%, and the image still appears blurry, it's likely that we don't currently provide high-resolution data for this location. We're also aware that the imagery for some areas may contain clouds or discoloration, and this imagery might appear blurry even at high resolution.

You can report this imagery to us at our database report page.

If the Streaming Indicator appears to be incomplete, wait a few minutes for the image to continue loading. If the streaming indicator remains incomplete after several minutes, it's likely there's an issue with your internet connection, firewall settings, or graphics card drivers. Visit our Connection Issues Troubleshooter or our help center articles on crashing and graphics issues for assistance.

We appreciate user contributions in helping to improve our database. If you have imagery, renderings or other relevant data to share, please submit it here.