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Living Atlas imagery layers no longer displaying in NAD 1983 after 3.6 update

TrentonWalker

Hi everyone,

I've already posted about this issue elsewhere, but I thought it might be helpful to post directly to the Living Atlas-specific forum.

Prior to the 3.6 update, I used the "Terrain - Hillshade" imagery layer from the Living Atlas on a daily basis. I used it in maps set to the NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane [my state] coordinate system. I also used several other imagery layers, including "USGS Historical Topographic Maps," and I never had any problems getting these layers to display.

Now, after the update to 3.6, these layers no longer display in my maps... unless I change them to WGS 1984 Web Mercator. If I change to WGS84, they display without issue, but as soon as I switch back to NAD83, they don't display at all.

I tested this with two other co-workers: one co-worker who is using 3.6 and another who is still on 3.5.2. The co-worker on 3.5.2 could get the "Terrain - Hillshade" layer to display correctly in both WGS84 and NAD83, whereas the co-worker on 3.6 could only get the layer to display on WGS84.

I can't use WGS84 because I need to get accurate length and area measurements, and geometry calculations in WGS84 are wildly off from reality (which is well known by this point), so I have to use the NAD 1983 projection specific to my state. But I also would like to use the "Terrain - Hillshade" layer from the Living Atlas to avoid having to load in hundreds, and potentially thousands, of individual lidar tiles from my hard drive each and every time I make a new map.

If this problem has a solution, I'd be very happy to hear it. And if it's not on Esri's radar yet, I hope this helps bring it to their attention. Thanks.

Edit 02/27/2026:

Another forum member pointed out that changing a map to the NAD 1983 StatePlane [state] coordinate system will display the Living Atlas imagery layers, such as "Terrain - Hillshade" or "USGS Historical Topographic Maps." The problem seems to be isolated specifically to the NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane [state] version. I haven't found any significant discrepancies in length or area measurements between the NAD 1983 StatePlane and NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane, but I don't know that that will be true for everyone. I hope this helps as a temporary workaround until this issue is resolved.

Edit 07/15/2026:

I was just now able to update to 3.7.1, and it appears that the issue has been resolved. I didn't get a chance to install 3.7.0, but I'm assuming the change occurred then. The Living Atlas layers I use most (Terrain - Hillshade, USGS Historical Topographic Maps, etc.) are all displaying correctly in NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane, like they were before the 3.6 update, at least as far as I can tell.

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RajinderNagi

@TrentonWalker Can you check if you have CoordinateSystemsData installed for ArcGIS Pro? https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/mapping/properties/arcgis-coordinate-systems-data.htm

Here are a few options:

Can you try using World Hillshade (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1b243539f4514b6ba35e7d995890db1d), which is a tiled layer created from same source as Terrain and meant to be used as a basemap.

In case, you need to use imagery layer, you can try USGS 3DEP layer https://elevation.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/3DEPElevation/ImageServer, which is published by USGS based on Esri's Terrain layer.

If these doesn't work, it would be good to contact tech support (https://support.esri.com/en-us/overview) and they can help troubleshoot.

TrentonWalker

Hi @RajinderNagi

Thanks for the suggestions. I downloaded the CoordinateSystemsData for ArcGIS Pro (for a "per machine install") earlier today after another user had suggested it. It installed correctly as far as I can tell, but I'm not sure how to determine if Pro is using it or not. It was not installed by default in the same folder as the rest of my ArcGIS Pro files, so I don't know if Pro checks for these files by assuming where they are / should be or if there's a way for me to manually point it towards them.

On top of that, I'm not sure if I have a "per machine" or "per user" install type - I was simply guessing on which one was correct based on where my ArcGIS Pro files are located on my computer (per ChatGPT and a Google search). My group gets access to Esri products through an external organization with whom we do not have regular contact and currently cannot directly message, so I'm not able to get this information from an authoritative source at the moment.

I use the "Terrain With Labels" basemap currently, which includes the World Hillshade tile layer, and it does display in both WGS84 and NAD83. There are three problems with using this as a replacement for the Terrain - Hillshade imagery layer, though: the resolution, the color, and the lighting angle.

The resolution of the Terrain - Hillshade imagery layer is much higher than World Hillshade tile layer (at least in my state - if I had to guess, I'd say the Terrain - Hillshade layer is 1m and maybe even sharper than that, while the World Hillshade is probably 10m at best). For the types of surface feature I'm trying to identify, I need the highest possible resolution, and the resolution of the World Hillshade layer isn't quite sharp enough to really show the detail I need. I know that my state's GIS services group is providing Esri with the lidar data it has collected, which is the highest resolution data available, and that's what was used for the Terrain - Hillshade Living Atlas layer. I have all of those lidar data available to me, but I have to load them into my maps tile-by-tile for hundreds and hundreds of tiles per county, and my work covers a 20+ county area, so using the Terrain - Hillshade imagery layer from the Living Atlas saved me an enormous amount of time.

As for the other two issues, there are no easy ways to change the color or the lighting angle of the World Hillshade tile layer as far as I'm aware, so it limits my display options when making maps. This is not a deal-breaker by any means, but it's not ideal.

The USGS 3DEP layer is even lower resolution than the World Hillshade layer (30m vs 10m), and since it comes through the Living Atlas, it also does not display when my map is set to NAD83 (which it always needs to be). It does show up when I switch to WGS84, though.

I tried to create a new case with Esri support, but my account is not an "Authorized Caller," so I can't open new cases. And as mentioned above, I'm not able to contact my account administrator, so I'm stuck with my current permissions (or lack thereof).

I'm really not sure what the next steps are. I'm certainly open to continuing to troubleshoot it if there's another way to get in touch with Esri support.

RajinderNagi

World Hillshade is multi-directional hillshade and is generated from the same source as Terrain - Hillshade. If you can share the area where you are seeing differences, I can check at my end.
As far as issue is concerned, I tried to reproduce using California (6414) and Terrain - Hillshade wasn't rendering. It seems to be a bug at 3.6.

Here are a few workarounds:

If I choose the projection as NAD 1983 California (Teale) Albers (Meters) (3310), then it picks below transformation and data renders correctly.
If you have to use NAD 1983 (2011), then try to use 3DEPElevation (https://elevation.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/3DEPElevation/ImageServer). Its published by USGS and contains 1m data. Its not same as USGS 3DEP Elevation - 30 m, which we publish. Search for 3DEPElevation on ArcGIS Online (not Living Atlas). It's rendering correctly if I choose NAD 1983 (2011) California (Teale) Albers (Meters) map projection.
You can try to use our World Hillshade (Dark) https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=428539ef9cab4017b69d15a40a9ee98b. You can use blend modes with World Hillshade to change color.
Try a different Pro version (e.g. 3.5.2) where it was working fine.

Hope this helps!

TrentonWalker

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give some of those a try if I can.

SimonWoo

Hello Trenton,
Thank you for the feedaback.
I can also reproduce this issue on my 3.6 machine.
I will log a bug in our system to see what we can do to fix this.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Simon Woo

TrentonWalker

@SimonWoo Excellent, thank you very much. I found out I wasn't able to submit a bug report / case with Esri because of some sort of limitations on my account in my organization, so this is extremely helpful. I appreciate it.

TrentonWalker

For posterity's sake, I'm returning here on January 6, 2026, after updating to 3.6.1 to note that this issue remains unresolved.

RajinderNagi

A bug has been logged with Pro team and will update once its resolved.

TrentonWalker

Hi @RajinderNagi

I was just now able to update to 3.7.1, and it seems like the issue has been resolved. The layers I use from Living Atlas (Terrain - Hillshade, USGS Historical Topographic Maps, etc.) will display in NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane [my state] like they did before 3.6. I'm guessing the 3.7 update changed this. Just wanted you to know that it looks like the problem has been fixed. Thanks.

RajinderNagi

Yes, the bug got fixed in 3.7 and thanks for confirming its working for you.

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