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Tableau | Data visualisation

Background maps improvements

Adding custom Mapbox maps in Tableau 2020.3 is now a quick paste-the-URL job straight from the Background Maps menu.

Tim Ngwena •12 August 2020 •1 min read •2 min watch •1.6K

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In Tableau 2020.2 you added custom maps via Map > Background Maps > Map Services > Manage Maps > Add, then chose Mapbox and pasted the integration URL
In 2020.3 the option moved so you can add a Mapbox map directly from the Background Maps menu
To add a Mapbox map you paste the style URL and enter a style name, and the other fields prefill automatically
The 2020.3 update is a quality-of-life change with a more modern interface that makes adding custom maps simpler

0:00In Tableau 2020.3, Tableau have added some

0:02improvements

0:03to where you can find background maps in

0:05the menu options.

0:07Right now I'm in 2020.2.

0:08You can see that here in this information

0:11box

0:11just on the screen.

0:13I'm gonna close this and I'm gonna head

0:15over to Map.

0:15And previously, what you had to do with

0:17background maps

0:18is head over to this option and head down

0:21to Manage Apps.

0:22Once you'd open that, you'd get this Map

0:24Services box.

0:25And in here, you'd have to hit the Add

0:27button

0:28to get to the mapping servers that you

0:29wanted to add.

0:30In this case, I want to add a Mapbox map.

0:33I'd then get my star name.

0:35So I'd say, call this custom for now.

0:38I then need to switch over to Mapbox.

0:41And if I just do that very quickly,

0:43I'm gonna have to bring this in from

0:45another screen.

0:47I'm gonna just grab the URL, the

0:49integration URL here.

0:50I've got a third party selector selected

0:53here.

0:53And I'm gonna grab this URL.

0:55Then I'm gonna go back to Tableau,

0:57make sure I go back to the right version of

0:59Tableau

1:00for starters.

1:01I think this is the right version.

1:03Let me just double check.

1:04This is 2020.3.

1:06Let's go back to 2020.2.

1:10And then here, when I paste the URL,

1:12it actually prefills all the other fields.

1:15I hit OK.

1:16And now you see my map has changed

1:19instantly.

1:20If I hit Close and I switch over to 2020.3,

1:24which I can now see has got the old map,

1:27this is slightly different.

1:29The map options has actually moved.

1:30So previously, when I went to Background

1:33Maps,

1:34I didn't have a direct option to add Mapbox

1:37maps from here.

1:38So I can just go ahead, click that button.

1:41And when I add the style URL this time, you

1:44'll notice,

1:45actually that's the style name.

1:46I should just cut that.

1:48Just enter the URL here, add the style name

1:51here,

1:51custom, click OK.

1:55And that's all you need to do.

1:56It's a really, really simple process.

1:58So it's really, again, another quality of

2:00life improvement,

2:01updating that interface to be slightly more

2:04modern

2:04and making it easier to add custom maps to

2:08Tableau.

2:09OK, thanks for watching.

2:10If you've enjoyed this video, you know what

2:12to do.

2:12If you haven't enjoyed this video,

2:14let us know in the comments what you'd like

2:16to see more of.

2:16And be sure to check out some of the other

2:18videos on 2020.3

2:21and also some of the older videos

2:22on previous releases of Tableau.

Rollup

Tableau 2020.3 simplified how you add custom Mapbox background maps, cutting out several menu steps compared to the older workflow.

Tim compares adding a custom Mapbox map in Tableau 2020.2 against the same task in 2020.3, using a Mapbox style URL as the example.

The Breakdown

Old workflow: Manage Maps dialog 0:21

In 2020.2 you had to go to Map > Background Maps > Map Services > Manage Maps, then hit Add to reach the mapping server options and select Mapbox.
Name the map and fetch the integration URL 0:41

You'd give the map a name, switch to Mapbox to copy the integration URL from a third-party source, then return to Tableau.
Pasting the URL auto-fills the rest 1:00

Once you paste the URL into the field, Tableau prefills the other required fields automatically, and clicking OK updates the map instantly — this auto-fill behaviour works the same in both versions.
New workflow: direct option in Background Maps menu 1:21

In 2020.3 the Mapbox option is available straight from the Background Maps menu, removing the need to go through Manage Maps first.
Add the map with just a URL and style name 1:42

You paste the style URL and enter a style name directly, and the process finishes there — no separate Manage Maps dialog needed, making it a quicker end-to-end task.

Worth Knowing

It's purely a quality-of-life interface change — the underlying capability to add custom Mapbox maps was already there in 2020.2, just buried deeper in the menus.

Use It When

Reach for this when you want to bring a custom Mapbox style into Tableau as a background map without digging through the older Manage Maps dialog.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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