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workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MatthewFoster

Hi Everyone,
This is driving me crazy. I will be working on editing a point shapefile (or feature class in a file geodatabase), adding points and an attribute for the ID as I go along. I can save the edits as I go (and I do), but after a few saves, the shapefile or feature class suddenly becomes read-only - or at least, that is what ArcGIS tells me, "Unable to save edits. Workspace or data source is read only". I never set anything to read only, and after successfully saving my file 3 times (in the latest case) it decides to give me this error on the fourth time! I have tried putting the geodatabase in a different directory, I've tried as a shapefile... Any ideas? This has happened repeatedly with different projects lately. Very frustrating

Thanks in advance,

Matt

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MathewCoyle

What version of ArcGIS and service pack are you using? Do you have any virus scanner running? Does it change to read only after you stop editing and start again, or is it only locked for a few seconds/minutes and release itself while you are still editing? Are you working locally or on a network resource?

MatthewFoster

Thanks for your reply Matthew. I am using ArcGIS 10.1 (no service pack). I'm not currently running antivirus. The feature class changes to read only while i'm editing - without stopping and starting. I notice it when I go to save. After several successful saves (without stopping editing) it suddenly decides that it's read only. Finally, I am working locally on my laptop. Thanks again for any ideas you may have.

Best,
Matt

MathewCoyle

Do you have indexing on? Either through the OS or through ArcCatalog? The only times I have seen this behaviour is when there is another process that is running in the back ground that monitors changes to files for indexing or what not. Usually these are virus scanners or index processes. I would go into your services and processes tabs in task manager and see what is running. While you are editing have your resource monitor window open and see what processes are using CPU, specifically around when the file changes to read-only.

JohnNiles

Anyone have any input on this problem? This just popped up out of the blue today, and it has halted all further work.

danielsdfn

same problem like you guys...5 hours of work will be blown away... thank you ESRI!!!

JohnNiles

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

MathewCoyle

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

Do you have a response to any of my suggestions above? If your issue is serious and affecting productivity I'd recommend contacting Esri support.

JasperTolsma

I have had the same problem recently. What helped me to save my edits, was to export the feature class to another geodatabase. In this way it was exported with all the edits and I didn't have to throw all my work away.

It's no solution to the actual problem, but I hope this helps some people who are about to throw away a lot of work because of this issue.

AdamCinderich1

This has happened to me 3 times in the last 7 days. The first time it happened was the first time I have ever seen this happen. I proceed with editing attributes in my digitized shapefile and randomly I'll get a message saying "Workspace is read-only, can't save edits". There is only ONE button to click "Okay" and when you click that, all of your unsaved edits disappear - not even giving you the opportunity to try and re-save, export, or anything!

At first I thought it happened to occur because I happened to click save edits at the EXACT same time my Dropbox was syncing but then I realized that working in Dropbox is the exact same as working locally because it saves to my computer's folder with or without an internet connection and simply syncs whenever the connection is available - so it couldn't be that.

Now that I am saving edits after every 4 or 5 edits (so annoying), I had it happen 2 more times yesterday. I have NO idea why this happens but it is so frustrating when clearly my file is not read only. I created the file, it is stored on my machine and I am the only one with access to the file.

Anybody else still having this same issue?

AdamCinderich1

same problem like you guys...5 hours of work will be blown away... thank you ESRI!!!

Thankfully I didn't lose 5 hours of work but I probably did lose about an hour's worth - so frustrating. Still no idea why this is continuing to happen (has happened to me 3 times now) or how to make it stop.

NeilCurri

This is happening to one of my students. She's using the trial download of 10.1 from ESRI on a laptop with Windows 7. Performance seems otherwise OK.

AdamCinderich1

I too am using a student license of 10.1 on a Windows 7 machine.

This is happening to one of my students. She's using the trial download of 10.1 from ESRI on a laptop with Windows 7. Performance seems otherwise OK.

Bahaa_Al_DinKhleifat

yes ... using ArcGIS 10.1 Desktop xp OS have the same problem

MattO_Neal

ArcMap 10.1 on Windows 7 here, having the same problem. What seems weird is it is intermittent, and I have been working on the same dataset on the same computer for a couple of weeks, with the same software (including antivirus -- MSSE) installed and running, etc... and only in the past 2 days have I had this error (and only sometimes).

JensHaffner

Same thing here while working with file geodatabases in ArcGIS 10.1...
We've been doing the same things for a year in 10.0 and we never saw this issue there.

RyanDammrose

I am also running into this problem. I am running ArcGIS 10.1 SP1 (Build 3143) on Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) and my file geodatabase periodically (and seemingly arbitrarily) becomes read only. I can get it to go back for a while sometimes by closing out completely and making sure to force close ArcGIS Cache Manager in processes and then restarting. It seems to have something to do with edit mode and swapping back and forth between. I haven't put my finger on it yet, but it is extremely inconvenient and annoying.

Bahaa_Al_DinKhleifat

yes you are right Mr. mattdoneal cause if you exclude ArcGIS processes it will be solved

Joeysmith

I would go into your services and processes tabs in task manager and see what is running.

EmilyMosen

I've had this problem many times before as well (both in 10.0 and 10.1). If you are editing a feature class or shapefile, exporting to a new file seems to be the way to work around not being able to save your changes. However, this doesn't seem to be an option for annotation feature classes, unfortunately.

I tried an experiment today after being unable to save my edits through the editor toolbar. I proceeded to close the ArcMap file in which I was working, knowing that I would be prompted, "do you want to save your edits?" and I was able to click yes and successfully save edits. (However, I believe I had tried that on another occasion with no success.)

I don't have an answer for why this happens but I theorize that it has something to do with our in-office server syncing with our backup cloud server. I also sometimes see my geodatabases spontaneously duplicating, and I won't know I've been working in a new geodatabase until later, and I'm pretty certain this problem is related to the syncing. I mention this because it might be useful to try working from one's hard drive when these problems arise.

Good luck everyone.

PatriciaSinel

I am running ArcGIS 10.1 (Desktop) with SP1. I keep getting the message ""Unable to save edits. Workspace or data source is read only" as well. Have any solutions been discovered?

LanceShipman

Are any of you running on a network drive? Is anyone viewing the data while you are editing the data? If they are you may seen behavior like this. Note this is by process, not user. I you are editing the data and you have ArcCatalog open then you may be blocking the the save of edits and receive an error of this nature.

Please contact Technical Support and have them help you with this issue.

GISTeam4

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem. Nowhere can I find any solution. I had some geometry problems with my feature class, but even after fixing that, it still happened. Today I have enabled caching for my layer, and it seems to work. It still happened, but much less often; in the three hours after enabling caching it has only locked up once, and also it's crashed once. Maybe that doesn't sound that good, but when it locks up on you every 5 minutes, it's really something.
I noticed in my task manager (the famous ctr alt del) that the cache manager kept running even when I exit ArcGIS; that's how I came up with the guess it could be something to do with caching. It might be worth a try. Also some program called AppROT EXE keeps running after closing ArcMAP. ArcGIS Connection also doesn't properly exit after closing ArcMAP. It annoys me 'cause I like stuff to behave neatly. Maybe it causes some of the problems.
I notice that when I'm very careful and do not edit many features at the same time, and be sure selections are cleared before saving, and wait patiently for one small thing to finish (for example just selecting one feature) before doing something else (enter an new attribute), the program locks up less often. But it doesn't only lock up. Sometimes it just all crashes on me. Yesterday I have sent like twenty error reports.
Normally I don't reply or post on internet but knowing it really can drive you mad not to mention all the work you can lose (I now save after every edit, annoying but not so annoying as to lose it all) I decided to pop this in. Hope it helps.
Good luck and keep saving.

P.S. I use stand alone ArcGIS basic license only so it couldn't be server related. I have ESRI ArcMAP 10.1 and recently installed service pack 1 for Desktop.
I work on an existing feature class (file geodatabase), I only adjust attributes and some merging/splitting the features (they are polygons). Very simple work, shouldn't give any problems, right? A very simple feature class too. No joins/relates, no nothing. Some of the attributes are using a domain, the rest is all simple text or numbers.

-EDIT- These four things seem to have done it for me;
1. Do not enable ArcGIS connection
2. Enable caching: Layers properties, auto cache.
3. Check geometry and fix when there are problems (these tools you can find in the toolbox)
4. Work slowly and carefully, maybe not the fastest way to work but it works. And you work carefully, so less mistakes (at least that's my thoughts). Be careful not to have too many features selected and don't edit a whole load of features at once.

Can't promiss anything but it might take away a lot of irritation!

KevinMayo

Add me to the list. This just started happening. I disabled the ArcGIS Online Connection and it seemed to work. Not ideal though because I regularly use basemap layers from ArcGIS Online for reference. Please fix this ESRI.

PatriciaSinel

I have contacted ESRI Support three times about this problem. After lengthy e-mails, chats, and phone calls, I still don't have a solution. I have enabled auto-caching, verified numerous permissions, shared my screen, changed my template name, remade my entire projects and exported my shapefiles into geodatabases. ESRI has no solution at this time, and tells me there could be a variety of issues of why my workspace becomes read-only and my edits can't be saved. I noticed the error messages started after I loaded 10.1. I am running ArcGIS for desktop (standalone) on Windows 7.

TiffanyStram

I'm having the same problem. It happens randomly, but often, and it's only happened since I've upgraded to 10.1 (SP1 is installed). It happened to a feature class created before upgrading and to a feature class created after upgrading. ArcMap has been the only thing open that would access the data. The geodatabase is on my hard drive and not shared with anyone. I'm using Windows 7, SP1, 64-bit. Not only is this frustrating - having to save often since I don't know when it won't save, but is my geodatabase going to be corrupted?

PatriciaSinel

This is what I received today from Tech Support. No real fix, but it tends to fix most performance issues according to the analyst.

"Have you tried resetting the registry keys? 1. Navigate to the Start Menu 2. Navigate to Run? 3. Type in "regedit" (to open the registry editor) 4. Click OK 5. Expand on the "hkey current user" folder in the folder tree 6. Expand on the "software" folder 7. Right click on the "ESRI" folder and rename the folder "ESRIold" Tab"

PatriciaSinel

This is the latest I get:

Now they tell me it may be a problem with my virus protection.

"This is an inconsistent behavior and to get it resolved we will have to narrow down the issue by using possible troubleshooting steps as there are no bugs reported having to do with this specific issue."

I find it hard to believe I am the only one to report this issue.

rususorin

Just ran into this problem the other day. Nothing worked: I tried creating a new geodatabase, exported the files. Finally gave up and after a re-install this problem didn't appear anymore.

Simple "fix" might just be a re-install.

SarahSkalon

I just ran into the same problem today in ArcMap 10.1. I was working for about an hour, saving as I went and out of nowhere, the workspace was read-only. I tried to export the "read-only" layer and it popped up another box giving me an error. My fix was to exit out of ArcMap, get back in, and re-export the layer again. This time, it exported with no issues. It's not really a "solution" because I lost all of my edits, but it's better than losing the entire layer I guess.

IB1

Add me to the list, just happened. I don't even know how much I've lost.

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