extract by attributes not working reliably

[EllenFehrs]

I am working on a project in ArcMap. Sometimes the Spatial Analyst > Extract By Attributes tool will just...not work on my classified rasters. Occasionally I can exit the program, immediately open it again, and all of a sudden the Extract By Attributes tool works again. It’s just super frustrating because the tool is really unpredictable, and shutting down the program doesn’t always work out.

I’d like to understand what’s happening. I haven’t changed any settings in ArcMap…input is the same, output name is the same, Map Document Properties (written to a File Geodatabase) are the same. I don’t type in my “Where clause,” I use the functions and values given.

The last few times this happened, I got the 010162 error (a.k.a. Unable to open raster dataset, which went away after restarting ArcMap) and the ever-helpful 999999.

[Anonymous User]

Greetings,

I would like to investigate this issue and am wondering if you could help me. What I would like to get from you is your sample data, and which version of ArcMap you are using. If you are able to do so, I will send you instructions to upload your data on our FTP site. Here is my email, please send me an email so that I can send you ftp instructions.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Regards,
Dana

[curtvprice]

Elle, Is background processing enabled? I have found sometimes the layer doesn't get passed successfully from ArcMap to the background geoprocessor (or back). This can cause all kinds of unexpected error messages.

[EllenFehrs]

I've tried it with the background processing both enabled and disabled, so I don't think that's quite the issue. Thanks, though! (: