osmtracker can't download tiles because it's blocked by openstreetmap.org

Question

Around 2 March 2019, OSMtracker for Android stopped displaying background maps, as reported by various users on Github.

One user explains that the problem is caused by openstreetmap.org blocking tile download requests with the agent string "osmdroid". This can be verified as follows:

$ wget https://b.tile.openstreetmap.org/12/1206/1539.png
2019-03-17 13:20:31 (7.90 KB/s) - ‘1539.png’ saved [40312/40312]

$ wget -U zzzzzzzz https://b.tile.openstreetmap.org/12/1206/1540.png
2019-03-17 13:20:58 (7.89 KB/s) - ‘1539.png.1’ saved [40312/40312]

$ wget -U osmdroid https://b.tile.openstreetmap.org/12/1206/1540.png
2019-03-17 13:21:17 ERROR 403: Forbidden.

Can this be fixed? (Either by unblocking osmdroid on the server, or by changing the user agent string used by OSMtracker)?

EDIT: Ok, SomeoneElse's answer led me to more information. The server block was on purpose because the server is overwhelmed by requests naming user-agent "osmdroid". This is contrary to policy. The policy is that apps are supposed to set their own user-agent. However, the policy wasn't enforced for many years, allowing apps like osmtracker to work fine despite violating the policy, until now. More threads about it: 1 2 3. So it looks like we need an OSMtracker app developer to fix it...the remaining question is simply how to make that happen?

Answer 1

Looks like a bug in the app to me (actually, it looks like they aren't following the tile usage policy). I've commented on the github issue in the osmtracker repository.

Edit following extra info in question:

So it looks like we need an OSMtracker app developer to fix it...the remaining question is simply how to make that happen?

This github issue has contributions from an OSM server admin, a developer of the library and the developer of the app. All of these people are likely volunteers. OSMtracker is a free app and Osmdroid is a free library. Why, exactly, should the people involved drop everything to resolve your problem? I'm sure it'll get resolved as soon as the people involved can fit it in to their real-world schedules.

For the avoidance of doubt - OSM data is free (subject to licence), but its servers are not. Neither Osmdroid nor OSMtracker are OSM "products" - both are developed by third parties and are entirely unrelated to OpenStreetMap itself, except that they try and make use of OSM's servers for free.

osmtracker can't download tiles because it's blocked by openstreetmap.org

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