OpenLayers-plugin error after installing update

Question

After installing an update for the OpenLayers-plugin today, this plugin does not work any longer. Reinstalling did not function neither with QGIS 2.12.0-Lyon nor with QGIS 2.14.1 ESSEN. Following error message occurred:

"Konnte Erweiterung openlayers_plugin nicht laden aufgrund eines Fehlers beim Aufruf der initGui() Methode 

UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xdc' in position 11: ordinal not in range(128) 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/PROGRA~1/QGISLY~1/apps/qgis/./python\qgis\utils.py", line 315, in startPlugin
    plugins[packageName].initGui()
  File "C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python/plugins\openlayers_plugin\openlayers_plugin.py", line 115, in initGui
    print action.text()
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xdc' in position 11: ordinal not in range(128)


Python-Version: 2.7.5 (default, May 15 2013, 22:44:16) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] 
QGIS-Version: 2.12.0-Lyon Lyon, cd9d645 

Python-Pfad:
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python/plugins\processing
C:/PROGRA~1/QGISLY~1/apps/qgis/./python
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python/plugins
C:/PROGRA~1/QGISLY~1/apps/qgis/./python/plugins
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib-1.3.1-py2.7-win-amd64.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\nose-1.3.3-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\tornado-4.0.1-py2.7-win-amd64.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\backports.ssl_match_hostname-3.4.0.2-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\certifi-14.05.14-py2.7.egg
c:\osgeo4~1\apps\python27\lib\site-packages\python_dateutil-2.1-py2.7.egg
c:\osgeo4~1\apps\python27\lib\site-packages\six-1.3.0-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\bin\python27.zip
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\DLLs
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\plat-win
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\lib-tk
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\bin
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\PIL
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\jinja2-2.7.2-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\markupsafe-0.23-py2.7-win-amd64.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\pytz-2012j-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\win32
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\win32\lib
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\Pythonwin
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\Shapely-1.2.18-py2.7-win-amd64.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\six-1.3.0-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\wx-2.8-msw-unicode
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\xlrd-0.9.2-py2.7.egg
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\Python27\lib\site-packages\xlwt-0.7.5-py2.7.egg
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2//python
C:\Users\Stalze\.qgis2\python\plugins\DigitizingTools\tools
C:\Users\Stalze\.qgis2\python\plugins\mmqgis/forms
C:\Users\Stalze\.qgis2\python\plugins\SelectTools/tools
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python/plugins\shpsync\xlrd-0.9.4-py2.7.egg
C:/Users/Stalze/.qgis2/python/plugins\shpsync\xlwt-1.0.0-py2.7.egg
.
C:\PROGRA~1\QGISLY~1\apps\qgis\python\plugins\fTools\tools"

As I work with the Bing aerial layer quite often, what could I do to make this plugin run again?

Answer 1

There is a known issue, that the OpenLayers plugin is not working properly at the moment.

However, there is an alternative to it with the QuickMapServices plugin. You can also install it via the qgis plugin repository. To use bing maps with the plugin you need to add the "contributer pack" within the plugin settings.

Answer 2

I had the same issue. To solve it until a fix is online I went back to the last version.

To do that: 1. Close Qgis. 2. Download the last 'openlayers' version from: https://github.com/sourcepole/qgis-openlayers-plugin/tree/70be59fb82bcb8fb8324b9917358b89a3eb9189f

3. Copy all files from inside the 'openlayers' folder.
4. Delete all files from the folder: {User}.qgis2\python\plugins\openlayers_plugin
5. Paste all copied files into {User}.qgis2\python\plugins\openlayers_plugin

When you start Qgis again you have to activate the openlayers plugin in the extension menu (check the checkbox). That's it.