OSM standard no longer working

[Redbeard202]

OSM standard is no longer pulling tiles from openstreetmap

[joshuafuller]

Thanks for reporting @Redbeard202.
I'll try to figure out what is going on. I believe it may be related to using HTTP instead of HTTPS for the map tiles.

[joshuafuller]

Thank you for your patience while I looked into this issue further.

After extensive investigation, it seems that the issue might lie with OpenStreetMap potentially restricting access from the ATAK client. A "403 Forbidden" error is being returned when I try to fetch map tiles, which indicates that the server understands my request, but refuses to authorize it. This could be due to several reasons such as rate limiting, user-agent filtering, hotlinking prevention, or even certificate-related issues with HTTPS.

One particular area I will be investigating is whether ATAK defines a User-Agent when accessing the tiles. If that's the case, it could necessitate a change in ATAK itself.

I am also looking into potential workarounds, but it's important to note that any solutions I develop must comply with OpenStreetMap's usage policies to ensure that I am accessing their resources responsibly and ethically. You can review these policies at the following link: OpenStreetMap Usage Policy.

Please understand that resolving this issue might take some time as I navigate these restrictions and work to find a suitable solution. I appreciate your understanding and patience in this matter and will keep you updated as I make progress.

In the meantime, if you have any other issues or concerns, feel free to share them.

[joshuafuller]

I have been experimenting with accessing ATAK map tiles by changing the User-Agent in Chrome to match the one used by ATAK. However, I encountered a 403 Forbidden error when attempting to download the tiles. After investigating further, here are my findings:

1. The formatting of the requests to OpenStreetMap ahas not changed. It is still the same format.

2. When making GET requests to individual tiles, the HTTP requests automatically redirect to HTTPS, which is expected behavior.

3. However, when I changed the User-Agent in Chrome to match ATAK's User-Agent string "TAK," I encountered the same 403 Forbidden error and was unable to load the tiles.

This suggests that OpenStreetMap may have blacklisted the TAK client from making further requests.

To resolve this issue, I recommend reaching out to the OpenStreetMap team to discuss the matter and ensure that ATAK is operating in compliance with their terms of service. It seems likely that there may be an issue with how ATAK is interacting with the OpenStreetMap service.

[Sgiath]

I believe this is the problem:

In particular, downloading an area of over 250 tiles at zoom level 13 or higher for offline or later usage is forbidden. These tiles are generally not available (cached) on the server in advance, and have to be rendered specifically for those requests, putting an unjustified burden on the available resources.

https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/#bulk-downloading

ATAK allows downloading the tiles for offline use (naturally since it is expected to be used in places without internet connection) but OSM doesn't. So probably enough users downloaded from OSM enough tiles (250 isn't that much if you want a detailed map of your surroundings) so they noticed and blocked ATAK.

Maybe if you put a big warning in README for users not to download OSM maps for offline use and contact OSM as the developer and explain the situation that may unblock ATAK.

[joshuafuller]

I'm going to leave this open for now. But the only way forward I see is for someone to reach out to OSM and ask to unblock the ATAK client, potentially setup an ATAK specific OSM Server for ATAK users or some other resolution such as changing ATAKs User Agent String.

I'll leave it up to the users to reach out as I don't currently have the bandwidth to do so.