topic Re: Can't publish a story map to public in ArcGIS StoryMaps Questions

Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 22:10:09 GMT

Hello! I have an individual account but cannot publish my story map to public. Publishing private works fine.

When I try to publish to public, I get this message after it goes through "checking" and "publishing" and then returns to my story map: "There was a problem publishing your story." It's a little box that slides out from the upper right hand corner.

I've searched in this forum and others but haven't found the answer. I've made a duplicate of the story map and began systematically deleting elements (pictures, links to videos and outside webpages). But even when I get down to the barest bones story map I still can't publish to public.

I've checked my profile, etc and made sure one of those settings is also "public." Maybe there are other settings I need to adjust.

This seems like a admin issue rather than and issues with story map content (I think!). I even made a story map with just a couple images and text fields, and that would not publish to public.

Any help is MUCH appreciated.

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

JonathanMcD — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 02:46:01 GMT

@RussGreen

Apologies, I'm not sure how personal accounts work, however, I've seen these errors frequently in StoryMaps over the last couple of years. To be honest, I just ignore it.

You can, aside from publishing within the StoryMap interface, change the share settings within your Content. Of course, you need to make sure that all component parts of your StoryMap are public too; maps, data layers, images (if used from storage) etc., etc..

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

Georgios-NektariosTselos — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 09:49:10 GMT

Hi @RussGreen

From what you’re describing, this doesn’t sound like an issue with your story content but rather with account permissions. With an individual/public ArcGIS Online account, publishing StoryMaps to the public is not supported—you can only keep them private or share them through specific links.

To publish publicly, you would need to be using an ArcGIS Online organizational account with the correct role (such as Publisher or Administrator) and the permission to share content outside the organization enabled. If you already have an organizational account, your ArcGIS administrator may need to adjust your sharing settings to allow public publishing.

That’s why even after removing images, videos, or external links, the publishing still fails—it’s not related to the content, but to account capabilities.

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

OwenGeo — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 11:28:06 GMT

I appreciate others jumping in to help, but unfortunately some incorrect information has been posted above. Publishing StoryMaps and sharing them with everyone is supported by all types of ArcGIS accounts, including public accounts. In some cases, a subscription account may not have this permission if an organization's administrator has placed limits on who can share items.

@RussGreen could you clarify what you mean by an "individual account?" Do you have an ArcGIS Personal Use account ($100/yr) or a free ArcGIS public account? Either way, you should be able to publish and share with everyone. Are you able to share the StoryMap item with everyone from your ArcGIS Content page? If so can you do that and share a link to the story here so we can take a look and try to troubleshoot?

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:20:10 GMT

I appreciate all the replies. I have a free account, but I also see the "organization" tab active. On the Content page the only active options for sharing are private and organization (public is grayed out). This is the link I'm able to copy under "details."

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8ad04e0f8948487ab9b3edd6afa96f7f

I do belong to an org that has an arcgis platform, and used my work computer to sign up for an individual account, so maybe those accounts got linked or something? And I don't ave sharing privileges through my org.

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

OwenGeo — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:55:36 GMT

@RussGreen -- A few more questions that will hopefully help us to get to the bottom of this...

What is your user name?
Did you establish this free ArcGIS account account by migrating an account from StoryMaps.com?
If you go to arcgis.com and sign in with your free account, what URL do you see in the browser address bar? Is it www.arcgis.com or something else like myorganization.maps.arcgis.com?

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 14:05:04 GMT

Many thanks Owen.

Username: WSCNMS

I did not migrate an account- started from scratch.

Let me log out and check that url...

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 14:07:06 GMT

When I sign in, it takes me to my content page with this URL:

https://indi442bdc80901a.maps.arcgis.com/home/content.html?sortField=modified&sortOrder=desc&view=table#my

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:28:08 GMT

Just checking in to see if you saw my replies- thanks!

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

OwenGeo — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:19:41 GMT

@RussGreen - Yes, sorry for the delay. We were looking into this.

From the information you provided, it looks like you signed up for a trial subscription account. A trial account expires after a period of time and will have limited capabilities if it is not converted to a paid subscription.

On the sign up page, you'll want to use the link at the bottom of the page if you want a free public account.

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

RussGreen — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:43:17 GMT

Awesome- thanks for this. I created a free account.

Wondering now if there are limitations to transferring content between the trial account and the free account? When using the Online Assistant to copy my story map from a trial account to a new free account, I'm not able to drag and drop my storymap.

Any guidance on transferring, moving or copying my storymap to a new free account?

Thank you!

Re: Can't publish a story map to public

OwenGeo — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:50:29 GMT

There is some documentation about this here. I don't believe there should be any issue with that. Make sure you initially sign in with the account you want to copy FROM first.

Common Workflows | ArcGIS Assistant User Guide

When copying a story between accounts (even accounts in the same organization), be sure to initiate the copy from the account that owns the story (or is an admin in the organization).