Preferences > Validator Settings

The JOSM Validator is a feature of JOSM which checks and fixes invalid data.

Usage

• Click on the new tick icon in the vertical toolbar to show the validator panel on the right.
• Select the data you want to validate (or deselect to validate everything)
• Click on the Validate button at the bottom of the validator panel

While some of the errors must be manually fixed, most of them can be automatically fixed. Just select the error or errors and click the Fix button to automatically fix them. You can select multiple errors, and all of them will be fixed.

The validator is an automatic test tool. It can show you errors in the data, but it may also tell you errors, which aren't real.

Don't fix errors when you aren't sure something is really wrong.

This will check the data and display all errors, categorized as errors, warnings, and other, depending on the severity of the error. By default only warnings of lever error and warning will be displayed. Warnings of lever other produce a lot more validation errors for valid data and thus need more care from the user.

Validation preferences

In this preference settings, you can activate only the tests you need. By default, all error and warning tests are active.

These are the validations performed by the validator:

	Validation	Description	How to fix
	Duplicated nodes	Checks that there are no nodes in the very same location	Merge the nodes into only one, adding the properties from all nodes to the merged one
	Duplicated way nodes	Checks that ways contain no loop edges (i.e., a single step from a node to itself)	Split the way, and delete the way consisting of the loop edge.
	Reversed coastline: land not on left side	Checks for coastlines that are not counter-clockwise or that are otherwise misplaced (coastline misused as inland lake)	Reverse coastline
	Unconnected coastline: coastline ways do not form closed loops	Checks for coastlines ways that are not connected to the end of other coastline ways
	Unordered coastline: coastline ways are not connected start-to-end	Checks for coastline ways of which either the start is not connected to the end of another coastline or the end is not connected to the start of another coastline	Reverse coastline
	Incomplete ways	Checks for ways with zero or only one node	Removes the way
	Check property keys	Checks misspelled property keys. See the words.cfg for file of misspelled property keys	Replace wrong key with right one
	Check property values	Checks misspelled property values. Uses the tagging presets file for checking	Correct spelling
	Empty properties	Checks for properties with empty values	Remove the empty properties
	Crossing ways	Checks for ways (with highway/railway/waterway tags) that crosses in same layer with no crossing node	Add appropriate layer (and possibly bridge or tunnel)
	Unordered ways	Checks that all segments in a way are properly ordered	Reorder the way
	Overlapping (high)ways	Checks for two (high)ways that share the same nodes	Remove the double (high)way
	Self-intersecting ways	Check if a way crosses itself	Remove the self-crossing, remove overlapping parts or split way
	Similar named ways	Checks for ways with very similar names, possibly a typo	Fix names or ignore false warning
	Unclosed ways	Checks that way types, which should be closed really are closed	Close unclosed ways
	Untagged ways	Checks for untagged ways	Either describe them correctly or remove ways when useless
	Way end node near other highway	End point of a way is very near to other ways	Connect the ways or when really unconnected set a 'noexit' tag to prevent further warnings
	Style for outer way mismatches	Within a multipolygon relation, one of the tags of the relation and the outer ways is shared but with different values	Copy relation related tags to the relation itself
	Style for inner way equals multipolygon	Within a multipolygon relation, one of the tags of the relation and the outer ways is shared and has the same value	Remove tag from inner way
	FIXMES	Checks for any property with the word "FIXME" inside	Resolve the mentioned issue
	Highway without a reference	Checks if there is a [[Key:ref|ref tag]] for highways that are tagged tertiary. Not always required, see for instance [[NL:Map_Features#Wegen]]	Add ref property or ignore
	Key 'x' invalid. - ...	Check for illegal key combinations, names and similar issues	Fix the issue when possible
	Nodes with the same name	Check if two nodes have equal name	Join nodes when possible, ignore otherwise
	Overlapping areas	Checks if areas overlap	Remove overlapping only when really wrong.
	Unknown propery value	Checks for proper use of tags	Remove or change incorrectly used tag
	Untagged and unconnected nodes	Checks rogue nodes	Delete unused nodes when they have no further tags
	No style in multipolygon relation	The multipolygon relation is missing a tag describing what it represents	For a building, add building=yes to the relation etc.

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