How to solve the "Map data not yet available" tiles when exporting from QGIS Composer?

Question

I have a basemap layer from ESRI (through Quick Map Services plugin > 'Search QMS') and everythings works fine for me while being on the project.

The problem appears in the composers window. When I try to export as an image or PDF, I get this:

"Map data not yet available". It doesn't happen with other basemaps (for example OSM), and it affects only some zoom level.

I must say that while on the project, the zoom level I'm using doesn't "crashes", so I imagine it is not a lack of "this-level-of-zoom" tile information.

Anyone knows why this is happening and how to solve it?

(QGIS 2.8.6 on Windows 7)

Answer 1

I saw this in 2.16.1 at the same location (Alicante?), tile service (ESRI grey light?) and zoom level.

I found that zooming out a couple of levels did work. I see the QGIS canvas also shows the error tiles if you zoom in far enough.

Either ESRI don't have tiles at the zoom level you want, or they may be restricting access to those zoom levels. They are serving up tiles, but the tiles are placeholders telling you that that data is not available at that zoom level. Maybe they plan to add more zoom levels in future.

It's not a QGIS issue, just a limitation of that particular tile service.

You could try looking for a similar-looking tile service which does give tiles at the zoom level you want.

Also, you can Right Click on a QuickMapServices layer and change rendering options, including things like contrast and brightness.

Answer 2

I'm late to the party, but... at 3.10.3 I had the same problem: ESRI basemaps via QMS would fail to print as pdfs from the Layout Manager. However, I did find a solution: instead of bringing the basemaps in via QMS, I brought them in via QGIS > Browser > XYS Tiles. Once I did this, printing them from the Layout Manager worked fine.