Living Atlas imagery layers (e.g.,"Terrain - Hillshade" or "USGS Historical Topographic Maps") only display when map is set to WGS 1984 Web Mercator

[TrentonWalker]

Hi everyone,

I recently made a post about my problems with getting Living Atlas imagery layers to display correctly after the ArcGIS Pro 3.6 update (https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-questions/the-living-atlas-quot-terrain-hillshade-quot-laye...). I've done some more experimenting and discovered that these layers don't seem to work in NAD 1983 (or any of the NAD83 StatePlane variations) for me, but they will display just fine when I change the coordinate system to WGS 1984 Web Mercator.

This was not previously an issue, because I have worked exclusively in one of the NAD 1983 StatePlane coordinate systems for years now, and the Living Atlas imagery layers displayed just fine. After the most recent update, this has changed. 

I can't use WGS 1984 Web Mercator because I have to be able to get accurate length and area measurements, which WGS 1984 can't do, so switching coordinate systems for my daily work isn't an option. 

If anyone is able to replicate this problem, please let me know. And if you discover a workaround, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for your help.

[RichardDaniels]

Have you tried loading the CoordinateSystemsData for ArcGIS Pro? This install MSI is available from my.esri.com, downloads. These are needed if you did a per user install vs. per machine.

[TrentonWalker]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it. I've never had to do this before to get the layer to work, but if it fixes the problem, I'll be happy to give it a try. This is on a work computer with heavy restrictions on what we can install, so, unfortunately, there could be several hurdles to overcome before I'm able to try this solution. 

[TrentonWalker]

Hi Richard,

After some research, as far as I can tell, I believe I have a per machine install of ArcGIS Pro. ChatGPT says this can be determined based on where the program is installed (C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\ for a per user install vs. C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\ for a per machine install). This also seems like the most likely install type given the fact that I'm working in a heavily limited environment controlled directly by our IT services group. Does that seem likely to you, or is there another way to check?

[RichardDaniels]

Have you tried loading the CoordinateSystemsData for ArcGIS Pro? These are needed if you did a per user install vs. per machine.

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[TrentonWalker]

Update 12/9/2025

I tested this on two of my co-workers' computers. One co-worker has 3.6 installed. The other is still using 3.5.2.

The co-worker on 3.5.2 could get the layer to display in both WGS 1984 and NAD 1983.

The co-worker on 3.6 could only get the layer to display in WGS 1984. When changing the map's coordinate system to NAD 1983 (our state plane version), the Terrain - Hillshade image layer no longer displayed at all.

It is a 3.6 issue.

[RichardDaniels]

Have you opened a bug/support case with ESRI on this? Some one needs to 😉

[TrentonWalker]

@RichardDaniels Not yet, but now that I feel more confident that it's not just me or a weird setting somewhere, I will.