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Smart Local Google Maps — Documentation

Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to resolve them.

Installation Refused

The installer stops with "needs PHP 8.1.0 or newer" or "needs Joomla 4.4.0 or newer".

  1. PHP too old: ask your host to switch the site to PHP 8.1 or higher (most control panels have a PHP version selector), then install again
  2. Joomla too old: update Joomla to 4.4 or later through System > Update > Joomla, then install again
  3. Nothing was installed, so there is nothing to clean up

The consent dialog doesn't show up on the frontend.

  1. Plugin not enabled: go to System > Manage > Plugins and verify the plugin status is Enabled
  2. Consent cookie already set: clear your browser cookies (specifically slgm-consent) and reload. If you've previously accepted or declined, the dialog won't appear again until the cookie expires
  3. No Google Maps code detected: the plugin only shows the consent box when it finds map code. Log in on the frontend as a Super User and turn on Debug Mode to see which patterns matched
  4. Geo-detection filtering you out: if geo-detection is on and your browser language is not EU/EEA/UK, the visitor may be auto-accepted or the plugin skipped. Temporarily turn geo-detection off to test
  5. Demo mode is on: while Demo Mode is on, the plugin only works on the page chosen under Show on Page and does nothing on every other page
  6. Not a front-end HTML page: the plugin only runs on front-end HTML pages; administrator pages, JSON and feeds are left alone
  7. Caching: if your site uses page caching, the cached version may not include the consent box. Clear Joomla cache and any third-party cache (CDN, server-side)

The visitor hasn't accepted, or clicked Decline, but a map still shows on the page.

  1. Page was cached: clear your browser and server cache, then reload
  2. Custom map widget not detected: the plugin only removes what its patterns match. Use Debug Mode to confirm coverage. If nothing matches, add a Custom Regex Pattern in the Expert Mode tab
  3. Map built by JavaScript after page load: if a script creates the map in the browser, the server-side HTML may look clean while the map still appears. Block the script with a tighter custom pattern, or replace the embed with a {smartmap} shortcode
  4. Demo mode is on: demo mode never blocks maps; see Demo Mode

Maps Not Loading After Accept

Visitors click Load Google Maps but maps don't appear.

  1. Cookie not set: check the browser's developer tools for the slgm-consent cookie. If it's missing, the POST may have failed: check that a reverse proxy or security extension is not stripping the form token
  2. Page was cached without the consent cookie: clear caches and reload. Pages cached for visitors without consent don't contain the original map code
  3. Privacy browser extension: extensions such as uBlock Origin or Privacy Badger may block Google Maps on their own. Test in a browser with no extensions

{smartmap} Shortcode Problems

The shortcode shows as plain text, or no map appears.

  1. Shortcode disabled: check Enable {smartmap} Shortcode in the Shortcode tab
  2. Nothing to show: a shortcode needs address, or both lat and lng. Without them, the plugin leaves an HTML comment slgm: invalid {smartmap} in the page source instead of a map
  3. Shortcode inside a form or attribute: shortcodes are deliberately left alone inside the page head, <textarea> fields, tag attributes and front-end edit forms, so they are not expanded there
  4. Map type ignored with the Embed API: the Embed API supports roadmap and satellite only; terrain shows as roadmap and hybrid as satellite. Switch Embed Method to Keyless (no API key) for all four types
  5. Embed API map shows an error from Google: the key is wrong, restricted to another domain, or the Maps Embed API is not enabled for it in the Google Cloud console. Leaving the key empty falls back to the keyless embed

Custom Regex Pattern Problems

The custom pattern isn't matching.

  1. Missing delimiters: PHP regex requires / (or another delimiter) at start and end: /<div class="custom-map">.*?<\/div>/is. Paste the full /pattern/flags form
  2. Unescaped special characters: escape forward slashes in URLs (\/), dots (\.), and other regex metacharacters
  3. Missing is flags: include i (case-insensitive) and s (dotall, so . matches newlines in multi-line HTML)
  4. Pattern too greedy: use .*? (non-greedy) instead of .*, otherwise one match can swallow the rest of the page
  5. Pattern silently failing: an invalid pattern is ignored rather than breaking the page. Turn on Debug Mode; if the custom pattern shows no matches, build it against the exact HTML from the page source

Debug Output Not Visible

Debug Mode is on, but no debug box appears.

  1. Not logged in as a Super User: the debug box is shown only to Super Users logged in on the frontend; other visitors never see it
  2. No map on the page: the debug box lists matched patterns; a page without matches shows nothing

Custom Colors Not Applying

Custom theme colors don't appear on the frontend.

  1. Theme not set to Custom colors: the color pickers only take effect when Color Theme is set to Custom colors
  2. Dark mode mismatch: if you're testing in dark mode but only set light colors (or the other way round), the colors you expect won't show. Set the dark colors when Dark Mode is Auto or Always dark
  3. Browser cache: hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R)
  4. Template overrides: the plugin prints the custom colors once per page as CSS variables (--slgm-*). A template that styles .slgm-consent or .slgm-placeholder directly can still win

Geo-Detection Issues

Geo-detection isn't working as expected.

  1. Browser language vs location: geo-detection uses browser language preferences, not IP geolocation. A visitor with a German browser in the US will be treated as EU. This is by design
  2. English browsers: the bare language code en does not trigger consent (to avoid flagging en-us visitors). Only en-gb and en-ie trigger consent when the UK region is enabled
  3. Test with browser settings: change your browser's language preferences to a language from a consent-required region (e.g. de, fr, nb)
  4. Missing Accept-Language header: if the header is missing (some bots, API clients), the plugin shows the consent box as a safe default

Joomla Update System

Updates are not found or downloads fail.

  1. Plugin must be enabled: the plugin identifies your site to the update server through the site_url parameter. If the plugin is disabled, this parameter is not sent and downloads fail with "Failed to download package". Go to System > Manage > Plugins and make sure the plugin is Enabled
  2. Download key: if your update server requires a download key, enter it in System > Update > Update Sites. The plugin appends site_url alongside the download key automatically
  3. Server unreachable: make sure your server can reach the update server. Some hosting providers block outbound connections

Plugin Conflicts

The plugin conflicts with another extension.

  1. Duplicate consent managers: if another extension also manages Google Maps consent, disable one of them. Two consent managers cause double dialogs or maps that never load
  2. JavaScript errors: open the browser console (F12) and check for errors from other extensions
  3. Plugin ordering: in System > Manage > Plugins, Smart Local Google Maps should run before caching plugins so it sees the fully rendered HTML

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