Saving changes
What the Save button writes, which actions are saved the moment you take them, and when visitors see a change.
On this page
Nothing in the map editor saves on its own. Every change previews on the map as you make it, and is written to your published map only when you save.
Save and discard
The save controls sit at the right of the editor toolbar.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Save | Writes every unsaved change in the editor at once. Shows Saving… while it runs, then a Changes saved confirmation. Disabled while there is nothing to save. |
| Unsaved changes | An amber label that appears as soon as anything differs from the last save. On a narrow screen it shrinks to an amber dot. |
| Discard | Throws away everything since the last save and returns the editor to the saved state. It asks you to confirm first. |
⌘ S on a Mac, or Ctrl S on Windows and Linux, does the same as Save, wherever you are in the editor.
The editor tracks changes by comparing against the last save, not by remembering that you touched something. Change a setting and change it back, and Unsaved changes disappears on its own.
If you reload the page, close the tab or follow a link while there are unsaved changes, your browser or the editor asks you to confirm before leaving. Leaving discards the changes.
What Save writes
Save covers everything you set up in the editor:
- your map type's settings in the Settings tab, and everything in the other sidebar tabs that you edit by hand: drawn shapes, story chapters, travel-time starting points, form fields
- the buttons on the map: Interactions, Widgets, Layers and Style, including points of interest, terrain and other map features
- the opening view, including a view you lock from the status bar
- popups, and search and filter settings
- values you type into a Choropleth map's region list
Until you save, visitors keep seeing the previous version. After a save, the public map, its subdomain or custom domain and every embed show the new version on their next load.
When a save partly fails
Save writes each part of the editor in turn. If one part fails, the others are still saved, and you see a message naming the part that failed, such as Couldn't save Map settings: …. That part stays unsaved and Save stays enabled, so you can try again.
Changes that are saved immediately
Some actions work on your data rather than on the editor's settings. They are written the moment you confirm them, need no Save, and are not undone by Discard:
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Importing a file into a Cluster, Heatmap, Store Locator or Time Slider map, or importing values into a Choropleth map | The toolbar's Import button |
| Connecting a Google Sheet, and every sync after that | Import, then the status chip in the toolbar |
| Clearing a map's data | More actions in the toolbar |
| Deleting one feature with Delete Feature in its popup on a Cluster or Heatmap map | The map, in the editor |
| Adding or removing regions on a Choropleth map, or importing custom boundaries | The Choropleth sidebar |
| Adding, editing or deleting a Store Locator location, or starring it as featured | The Locations tab |
| Approving, rejecting, editing or deleting visitor submissions | The Crowdsourced Map's Pins tab |
| Uploading or clearing one side's dataset | The Compare sidebar |
Imports into a Draw map, a Story Map or an Isochrone map work differently: the file is added to what you are editing, and you review it on the map before saving.
Settings outside the editor
Two places have their own save buttons and are not part of the editor's Save:
- the Map settings page (name, access, map type, domains, share image), where each section saves separately — see Map settings
- the Map Styles editor, which edits a custom style rather than a map — see Map styles