topic Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1 in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

KamillaHum — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:03:35 GMT

Hello!

I have an ArcGIS Enterprise 11.3 environment with DataStore relational and tilecache configured on the same machine. Soon, I am upgrading the environment to 12.1. The tilecache store is configured but empty, so I would like to remove the tilecache before upgrading to 12.1. The command store utility disabledatastore is not available in 11.3, and it is not an option here to upgrade to 11.4/11.5 before upgrading to 12.1.

Q: Is there a way to safely permanently remove an empty tilecache at 11.3?
Q: Will the upgrade to 12.1 be successful with a configured but empty tilecache?
Q: Can the tilecache be removed by 1) taking a backup of relational store, 2) removing both relational and tilecache stores, 3) uninstall DataStore, 4) re-install DataStore, 5) run restoredatastore of only the relational store?

Thanks for all input on this.

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

JakeSkinner — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 19:27:12 GMT

Hi @KamillaHum,

You can execute the unregisterdatastore command to unregister the tile cache. Then you can change the application from the Control Panel by right-clicking.

You will be presented with the option to Modify the application.

When proceeding through the wizard, uncheck the Tile Cache, but keep Relational checked.

Note, Tile Cache is missing b/c this is 12.1.

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

KamillaHum — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 07:19:06 GMT

Hello @JakeSkinner

Thank you for your reply,

Do I need to remove anything in the arcgisdatastore content folder after removal of the tilecache?
By following this method it should be safe to upgrade to 12.1?

Thanks again!

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

JakeSkinner — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:53:21 GMT

@KamillaHum no, you won't need to remove anything from the arcgisdatastore folder. Yes, you will be good to upgrade to 12.1.

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

Sarah_Hanson — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 23:06:15 GMT

If the deployment does not have any hosted scene layers present, you should be able to upgrade directly from 11.3 to 12.1 without concern for the tile cache data store. When upgrading to ArcGIS Enterprise 12.0 or later, the software will automatically remove the tile cache data store from the deployment.

To verify the tile cache data store does not have any cache contents stored in it that need to be migrated to the object store using the MigrateSceneServices utility (available in 11.5), you can use a Python script. This KB has the details: How To: Inventory the ArcGIS Data Store tile cache data store contents using a Python script

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

KamillaHum — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:43:25 GMT

Thanks @JakeSkinner and @Sarah_Hanson for your responses

I ran the Python script to identify any TileCache content, and the result was:

D:\temp>python inventory_tile_cache_data_store_contents.py
Sizes shown in MB:
{ }

So based on what you are writing, Sarah, I should not need to remove the tilecache before upgrading because it is empty. I will run the upgrade asap and confirm if that is the case. After this I can mark one of your replies as the solution.

Re: Remove empty tilecache 11.3 before upgrade to 12.1

Sarah_Hanson — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:24:54 GMT

Yes, your understanding is correct. This script is further validation that the tile cache data store is empty, and your system does not have any hosted scene layer caches that require migration to the object store before moving to 12.x.