topic Re: Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84 in ArcGIS Online Questions

Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84

Tiff — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:00:14 GMT

Hello, is there an issue with data being projected and then published to AGOL but not retaining the projection it was published with? I noticed a few instances of this with our data, and based on a previous Esri Community post (https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-questions/coordinate-system-issue-with-layers-hosted-on/td-p/1299577) it makes me wonder if it's when the data is projected but the map itself at time of publishing is not displayed using the same projected coordinate system.

If so, is this intended behavior or a bug? It seems like the projection of the data should not be affected by the projection of the map.

Re: Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84

NicoleJohnson — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:26:12 GMT

There was a good ArcGIS Blog post about this recently: How Publishing Paths Determine Coordinate Systems in Hosted Feature Layers

In short yes, if you "publish as web layer" or "share as web layer" from ArcGIS Pro, the layers will have the projection of the map they're published from. If you published them some other way, check the article.

Re: Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84

George_Thompson — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:28:24 GMT

Here is blog & technical article that talks about this:
https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/data-management/how-publishing-paths-determine-coordinate-systems-in-hosted-feature-layers

https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/problem-the-projected-coordinate-system-of-a-feature-la-000033827

Hope this helps!

Re: Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84

Tiff — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:07:55 GMT

Thank you! I genuinely had no idea this was the case. It's a hard issue to catch too sometimes because the default projection for the map itself depends on whichever layer is added to the map first.

Re: Issue with projection of hosted layers defaulting to WGS 84

Tiff — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:08:17 GMT

Thank you!!