# Interpolating coordinates gives whale error message

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates-gives-whale-error-message/77433>\
**Category:** Bug Reports\
**Created:** [April 7, 2026, 7:45am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates-gives-whale-error-message/77433 "2026-04-07T07:45:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![optilete](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/optilete/32/1908_2.png) [@optilete](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/optilete)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 7:45am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates-gives-whale-error-message/77433/1 "2026-04-07T07:45:16Z")

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**Platform** : website with Chrome

**Browser** , if a website issue: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/345943475/edit?interpolate\_coordinates=true](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/345943475/edit?interpolate_coordinates=true)

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/345943530/edit?interpolate\_coordinates=true](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/345943530/edit?interpolate_coordinates=true)

**URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages**:

**Screenshots of what you are seeing** : the famous whale

**Description of problem** :

Interpollating coordinates gives whale error message

For Q, see tutorial: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates/5170](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates/5170)

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**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates-gives-whale-error-message/77433/2 "2026-04-07T13:26:24Z")

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> [@Interpolating Coordinates](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates/5170/1):
>
> if you have an obs that has no coordinates and you have other obs from the same day and all those obs from that day have times

the last condition (“and all those obs from that day have times”) does not seem to be satisfied. in your examples, the nearest observations in time are other observations without locations.

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**Author:** ![optilete](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/optilete/32/1908_2.png) [@optilete](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/optilete)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/interpolating-coordinates-gives-whale-error-message/77433/3 "2026-04-07T18:15:45Z")

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There is no closing observation with a correct time and a correct location on this date. Strange you cannot add a correct timestamp to an observation in the GUI, so testing was a bit diffcult. I thought that ‘‘the nearest observations in time are other observations without locations’’ is not the real problem, but the missing of a closing observation with coordinates.\

Thanks for your time.

Adding an error message that there is no valid closing observation should be nice, but I will leave it this way, cause Kueda described it as a niche feature.