google geocode api unknown error for random cities

Question

I've been noticing that google geocoding api returns "unknown error" for some cities, some of the time.

Example from right now: curl 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Kansas%20City,%20KS,%20USA'

returns:

{ "results" : [], "status" : "UNKNOWN_ERROR" }

Also: curl 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Oklahoma%20City,%20OK'

returns:

{ "results" : [], "status" : "UNKNOWN_ERROR" }

while curl 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=New%20York%20%City,%20NY' works fine.

I had this problem the other day as well, but it seemed to have resolved itself & now it's back again.

Answer 1

This is ongoing issue on Google side reported on April 11 2018 in the Google issue tracker and handled in

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/77891715

Google is aware of this issue, acknowledged it and hopefully they will fix it soon. On issue tracker the priority was set to P2. Please star the bug to add your vote and subscribe to further notifications from Google.

UPDATE

The bug was marked as Fixed by Google on April 20, 2018.