Overwrite Web Layer removes all features from online hosted layer

Question

My organization has been extremely frustrated with this issue. We often need to overwrite feature layers on AGOL, but have been experiencing a situation where the overwrite initiated in Pro goes through without an issue, but upon viewing the updated layer in AGOL, all the features have been removed. Publishing new layers works fine, but overwriting an existing layer removes all features and results in an empty feature layer, when the original layer in Pro has features.

Field and symbology changes are correctly inherited into web maps containing the layer, but all actual features are gone. Has anyone experienced this or found a solution or explanation?

ThomasThorsen1 · Answer

is there a write up on truncate and append for AGOL? I made the same mistake.

rptonka12 · Answer

There was one hidden field in the layer coming from our Pro geodatabase - if you're able to point me to that bug report I'd be curious to see if it sounds like a similar problem. I tried making that field visible and overwriting again, but I still have zero features even though the newly visible field was correctly updated in the AGOL schema.

rptonka12 · Answer

No filters in AGOL in the primary layer, though we do have a view layer set up that filters the data (although we run into this issue even when there aren't view layers involved). No messages in Pro other than saying the layer was overwritten successfully.

In the past I've assumed that appending requires us to upload a zipped shapefile to AGOL, where overwriting was convenient because it allowed us to work directly from a geodatabase without creating a bunch of new files through exporting and zipping. But it looks like I can add my hosted feature layers from AGOL right into Pro if I'm logged in - have you had success making edits in Pro this way and having them reflected back in AGOL?