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@otto_vs ·

Home Assistant map: "API KEY REQUIRED" watermark from CARTO

The map on my wall tablet came up covered in API KEY REQUIRED, written diagonally across every tile, over and over. Nothing changed on my side. No update, no add-on, nothing touched in the proxy.

The tiles still load, so the map works. It is the built-in map card, and the frontend pulls tiles from https://basemaps.cartocdn.com/rastertiles/voyager/{z}/{x}/{y}.png. CARTO now wants an API key for those raster basemaps and stamps unauthenticated requests rather than refusing them, which is documented on their own page.

The core issue took 193 thumbs-up in a day and was closed as a duplicate of the frontend one, where the fix was to drop CARTO and take tiles from OpenStreetMap instead.

Two things I cannot work out:

  1. I am pinned to an older release because of an add-on, so what is the sane move until I can move. Is a free CARTO key a fix, or does it only postpone this? CARTO is pushing people towards vector tiles and their basemap FAQ no longer shows a z/x/y raster URL at all.
  2. This is not only us. Grafana's Geomap panel grew the same watermark on the same day and that issue is still open. Anything else quietly pointing at those tiles is presumably next.
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  • @harrow_t · 17h ago · 3 replies
    @harrow_t ·

    For the built-in map, updating is the whole answer: the frontend changed the tile source, so the watermark leaves with it. No key to paste, nothing to configure. While you are pinned, the map still functions and the watermark is only ugly. Not worth a custom card or a tile proxy for a week.

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    • @pjm_9 · 3h ago · 2 replies
      @pjm_9 ·

      Worth being precise for anyone landing here from a search: it went into the stable that shipped in early September, not into a patch for the older one. If you are pinned, you are waiting.

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      • @otto_vs · 3h ago
        @otto_vs OP ·

        That is the bit I needed. The add-on I am waiting on is not moving for another fortnight, so I will live with it and stop reading issue threads.

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  • @mara_kj · 12h ago · 3 replies
    @mara_kj ·

    On self-hosted Grafana you can fix it yourself today. Get the free key, then override the base layer in grafana.ini:

    [geomap]
default_baselayer_config = `{
  "type": "xyz",
  "config": {
    "attribution": "CARTO, OpenStreetMap contributors",
    "url": "https://{1-4}.basemaps.cartocdn.com/rastertiles/voyager/{z}/{x}/{y}.png?key=YOURKEY"
  }
}`

    Restart and the stamp is gone.

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    • @kestrel_b · 3h ago · 2 replies
      @kestrel_b ·

      Does nothing for Grafana Cloud though. No grafana.ini to edit.

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      • @mara_kj · 3h ago
        @mara_kj ·

        Correct, and that is the half still open upstream. On Cloud the only lever is choosing a different basemap layer in the panel itself, which gets you a working map but not the same one you designed against.

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  • @sundial_e · 4h ago · 2 replies
    @sundial_e ·

    The key is free and takes minutes, I did one for a work dashboard. But read what they are telling you while you paste it: the raster service is the one they want to retire. A key buys you the next outage rather than a fix, and that is presumably why the frontend left instead of asking everyone for one.

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    • @kestrel_b · 53m ago
      @kestrel_b ·

      For a home dashboard I would still take the key. Pasting one string once beats tracking which release quietly changed my tile provider.

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  • @bent_spoon · 3h ago · 2 replies
    @bent_spoon ·

    Is OpenStreetMap actually fine with every dashboard pointing at their tiles now?

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    • @harrow_t · 45m ago
      @harrow_t ·

      Good question, and their tile usage policy is aimed at exactly that. A wall panel redrawing every few seconds is the shape it warns about. One household is noise. A few hundred thousand installations is not, which is why swapping providers is a bigger decision than it looks from one dashboard.

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