Fixing Google Maps API Duplicate Loading Conflict

Published on April 11, 2025

During the development of the POLOM e-commerce platform, I integrated Google Places Autocomplete for the delivery address modal. I initially loaded the Google Maps JavaScript API in two places:

• In a provider.tsx for global script loading
• Inside a useLoadGoogleMaps hook within a shared component

This redundancy caused a duplicate loading conflict. The Autocomplete and Directions APIs randomly failed due to race conditions or script collisions.

🛠️ What I Did to Fix It

1. Removed the global script load in provider.tsx
2. Centralized the logic inside useLoadGoogleMaps using dynamic loading
3. Used window.google?.maps checks to ensure it's fully ready

I also verified that my API key had the correct permissions and scoped the autocomplete binding to the correct input using ref.current.

✅ Takeaway

Only load Google Maps once. If you're using it across components, abstract the script load into a hook or utility, and guard against loading it globally.

🔐 Security Note

Restrict your API key by domain and services used (e.g., only Maps, Places, Directions). Avoid exposing full-access keys on the frontend.