Network Management

Intelligent Maps Displays Black Background When Using Animated PNG Image in SolarWinds Platform

This article provides information about an issue in SolarWinds Platform Intelligent Maps where animated PNG images set as background (via URL) intermittently fail to load or render correctly, resulting in a persistent black background screen. This behavior has been identified by our development team and is currently under investigation for resolution in a future product update.

First published date

6/22/2025 11:18 PM

Last published date

12/11/2025 6:11 PM

Overview

In SolarWinds Platform, after transitioning from Network Atlas to Intelligent Maps, users may encounter an issue where the map background appears black when an animated PNG image is set as the background. When clicking the "Reload" button below the URL field in the map editor, the background image may briefly appear for a millisecond before reverting to a black screen. This issue is particularly noticeable when using dynamic external image URLs, such as those providing animated weather maps (e.g., https://example.com/staticmaps/wu/wxtype/county_loc/pie/animate.png).

 

Example observed behavior:

  • Map background remains black.
  • Clicking “Reload” briefly shows the image for a millisecond before returning to black.
  • Network tab confirms successful HTTP 200 status when loading the image.
  • No specific error is logged in the browser or SolarWinds Platform logs related to this failure.
  • The issue is more frequent with existing maps imported from Network Atlas but can also occur with newly created maps.

 

This is a known issue currently being tracked by the SolarWinds development team. There is no official timeline yet for the fix, but it is targeted for inclusion in a future platform update.

Product section

Network Performance Monitor

Cause

The issue is caused by the way Intelligent Maps handles animated PNG (APNG) or dynamically updated external image sources. If the image changes at set intervals (e.g., every 15 minutes), and lacks defined GIF/APNG frame durations, Intelligent Maps may fail to render it correctly.

 

Additionally, this issue tends to occur more often with maps imported from Network Atlas, where static rendering worked previously but is now unsupported or rendered inconsistently in Intelligent Maps.

Resolution

This issue is addressed in SolarWinds Platform 2026.1, available now as a release candidate. This fix will continue to be validated during this phase before general availability. Consider upgrading your environment. If you cannot upgrade, use the workaround below.

 

Workaround Steps (May work in some environments):

  1. Open the affected map in Map Editor.
  2. Click the "Reload" button under the Background section.
  3. Set the Refresh Interval to 1 minute.
  4. Save the map.
  5. Open the map in viewer mode (More > View).
  6. Press CTRL + F5 to hard-reload the browser tab.
  7. Leave the viewer open for 5–10 minutes.

Note: This workaround has been successful in some cases but is not guaranteed. Due to the flaky behavior, success may vary.

 

Alternative Workaround:

Use a different external image URL from a static or more reliably formatted image source. Avoid using animated or dynamically changing images that update frequently or lack frame duration metadata.

 

Note: Updates regarding the resolution of this issue will be published in the official SolarWinds product release notes.