Trouble using updateConnectionProperties in ArcPy

Question

I have inherited a number of ArcMap projects, where the data sources have been broken by various people's file admin. Shapefiles have been moved from one folder to another, but subdirectory organisation remains the same. I am trying to fix the links using updateConnectionProperties. I use the following code on individual shapefiles, but cannot get the desired result.

variable "newsource" returns a correct filepath (printed by line 7) but I think line 8 is the problem as "not possible" is printed. No errors are returned. Any help appreciated. Thanks

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Users\CAddison\Documents\ArcGIS\Test001.mxd")
for lyr in arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd):
	try:
		oldsource = lyr.dataSource
		newsource = oldsource[0:53]+str("\NEW\")+oldsource[65:]
		print newsource
		lyr.updateConnectionProperties(oldsource, newsource)
	except:
		print "not possible"

Anonymous User · Answer

No, it can be a folder if needed.

Cjaddison82 · Answer

Thanks a lot. This looks really useful, will give it a whirl. Pardon my ignorance, but does your "newpth" have to direct to a .gdb? Can this be used for individual .shp as I'm trying to do, where the .shp hasn't been added to a .gdb?

Anonymous User · Answer

We've had mixed success with findAndReplaceWorkspacePath for mxds.

import arcpy, os
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

# get mxd
mxd_pth = r"W:\GISRequests\DCI\2016MJ\2016_MJ_project.mxd"
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(mxd_pth)
oldpth = r"W:\GISRequests\DCI\2016MJ"
newpth = r"W:\GISRequests\DCI\2016MJp\2016 MJ Project Geodatabase.gdb"

featureclasses = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd)

for lyr in featureclasses:
    lyrname = lyr.name
    if lyr.supports("DATASOURCE"):
        if lyr.dataSource == os.path.join(oldpth, lyrname):
            arcpy.AddMessage("Updating: {}".format(lyrname))
            lyr.findAndReplaceWorkspacePath(oldpth, newpth)
mxd.save()
del mxd