Import a KML or KMZ into Google Earth

A .kml is a text file of shapes and points with a location for each. A .kmz is the same file zipped, usually with its icons inside. Google Earth treats them identically, and everything Prepared Ground ships is a .kmz.

Before you start: unzip the download, not the file

The download is a .zip. Inside it are the .kmz and a few Markdown documents. Extract the zip first — on Windows, right-click → Extract All; on a Mac, double-click — and import the .kmz from inside it. Google Earth will not open the .zip itself.

Do not go one step further and unzip the .kmz. It is a zip too, but Google Earth wants it intact.

Google Earth (web)

1. Open earth.google.com and sign in.

2. Click New (top left) and choose Import file to map project, then upload the file from your device. Google Earth creates a new project and imports into it in one step.

   

   Already inside a project? In the Map contents panel click +, then Import file → Upload from device. Both routes lead to the same place.

   

3. Pick the .kmz.

4. Google Earth asks How do you want to add this data? Choose Map features and click Finish. Not “Data layer”: a data layer is a flat, read-only rendering with Google’s own styling — the colours go, the folders collapse, and nothing is clickable. Map features keep all three. The “up to 10k” in the dialog is the per-project limit, and one Prepared Ground layer is well inside it.

   

5. A Data processing complete notice appears and the file shows up in Map contents as a folder, greyed out because everything inside it is hidden. Click the eye icon on it to show it, then expand it with the arrow to reach the folders inside — each of which has its own eye icon.

   

The project saves itself to Google Drive as you work and is listed under Map projects next time. Click the title — it starts as Untitled map project — to rename it.

Google Earth Pro (desktop)

1. File → Open (Ctrl+O, ⌘+O on a Mac) and pick the .kmz. Dragging the file onto the globe does the same thing, and so does double-clicking it in a file manager if Pro is installed.
2. It lands in the Places panel under Temporary Places.
3. Tick the top folder to draw it. Expand it with the triangle to reach the folders inside.
4. To keep it, right-click the folder and choose Save to My Places, or File → Save → Save My Places. Pro also asks on exit.

Google Earth (mobile)

Open Projects, choose Open or Import, and pick the file from your phone’s storage. It works, but the screen is small for a county-scale overlay; use it for checking one place, not for filtering.

After it loads

• Everything arrives hidden. The top folder is greyed out on purpose, so the first click is always the eye icon (web) or the tick box (Pro) on it.
• Zoom out. These layers are drawn at county scale. If you are looking at one street, you are inside a single shape and will see nothing.
• Sub-folders are the filter. Every band or tier is its own folder with its own eye icon or tick box. Reading the map is mostly choosing which of them to draw.

How many files fit

Google Earth holds roughly 10,000 features and 250,000 vertices per project. The Well Depth alone is about 73,000 vertices; the complete set is about 34,100 features and 1.8 million vertices. Import all of it at once and Google Earth refuses the file, or quietly demotes it to a flat, read-only data layer with the colours gone. That is why every Prepared Ground layer is a separate .kmz: you load the two or three a question needs, read them together, then swap them out. The README.md in each download has a table of what every layer costs, so you can see in advance what will sit together.

When it goes wrong

The most common mistake looks like this. In the import dialog, Data layer is the wrong choice:

And this is what it produces: every county a bare outline, no tiers, no colours, nothing to click. Delete the layer and import again, choosing Map features.

Next: the filtering guide. If you have not opened Google Earth before, How to use Google Earth first.