Corrupt .APRX file

Question

Hi, I believe I have a corrupt .APRX file and am looking for any help on how to restore it. On Thursday, during its automatic backup process, the program became stuck and I couldn't save my file. When I looked for information on how to troubleshoot, one piece of advice on the internet said to investigate the .backups folder, which I did, but mistakenly assumed that deleting the files in that folder might help me unstick the automatic backup and save. It did not, and instead now my project folder seems to be corrupted, showing this message:

I used the newest version of ArcGIS for this project, so there's no way it was saved using a newer version. I am trying to contact my IT Admin to see if the folder (which is a Dropbox folder) can be restored from a date of before Thursday, but since it is the weekend, trying to fix it myself. Anyone have any suggestions?

Jrostek_Bouldercounty · Answer

Hi there,

Yesterday, I had the exact same problem happen to my project. The project was going through a "Back-up in Progress" phase and my layers stopped rendering. I knew I had an issue after +20min of spinning. I attempted to save the project but received an error from ArcGIS Pro saying it failed to save my project at that time. Prior to this, I routinely saved my work.

However, when I go to reopen the project I get this see screenshot (que hot steam from ears). When I check the project file it's now an XML..?

Is there any solution to overcome a corrupted .aprx file? I think one mistake I made was not saving the project as a different name when I first received the unable to save error. At the same time, I didn't want to have to rename the project, nor did I expect for my .aprx file to become and .xml only.

Thanks

AdrianWelsh · Answer

This may be unrelated but my computer did an automatic update (Dell BIOS settings) and it made my aprx files hang when I tried to open them. I had to go back and reinstall the drivers needed for Pro 3.0, especially the Access Database Driver since I had Excel files in my aprx projects.

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/excel/prepare-to-work-with-excel-in-arcgis-pro.htm#LI_6C0EF8ACE83C4599AFC35141822488C4

Maybe reinstalling some drivers could help?

mvolz47 · Answer

I don't think ESRI fully supports cloud storage at this time.  One recommendation I would make is to use local or network storage in the future.  This capability for full support is still on ESRIs road map for Pro.