Join Photos in FGDB to shapefile

Question

I have a FGDB that has photos pertaining to certain polygons. I want to join the photos in the FGDB to the polygons in the shapefile. I am having trouble doing this. When I join the FGDB to the shapefile the photos don't come through. I have enabled attachments for both tables. Any help is appreciated!

ThomasHoman · Answer

Agreed @SeaRM - just ran into this issue today for both shapefile and link issues.

New Vendor wants shapefile with pics. No go.

If you are going to do hyperlink route make sure of the longevity of the link and a backup. Old project vendor delivered gdb data in 2020 with links to now defunct file sharing service but client found media delivered with report that had backups of photos.

SeaRM · Answer

What format of the photos do you have? Are there in the Raster field оr just like attachments?

By the way, Raster field or attachments are not supported by the shapefile format.

https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/problem-attachments-are-not-retained-when-exporting-a-f-000024982#:~:text=Shapefiles%20do%20not%20support%20attachments.

I can recommend you the same as I've seen in another community topic: try to use just a field with hyperlinks to the photos and you can configure your pop-ups to see the pictures inside pop-ups exploring your shapefile's data. Or you can keep data in the geodatabase and attach the photos.