topic Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer in ArcGIS Online Questions

Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

Nordpil — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 08:46:12 GMT

I think I might have encountered a bug related to attachments for a hosted feature layer.

So I have a point layer with attachments, if I delete the feature I would assume that the attachment references are cascade deleted as well. Exporting the data to a file geodatabase confirms that.

BUT... if I now add a new point with the same GlobalID as the one deleted, there seems to be some ghost attachment references - it looks like there are attachments, and the REST api queryAttachments confirms that, but they all return 500 server error.

Removing any attachments before deletion of the feature is a workaround.

We have a workflow where we have a in-house geodatabase that periodically syncs with AGOL, and only features that are "active" should be accessible in the AGOL layer, so features are added and deleted and we want to preserve the GlobalID's so that the match the in-house egdb.

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

JesseCloutier — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:38:06 GMT

Hi @Nordpil, we appreciate you sharing a potential bug with the broader Esri Community; however, Esri does not actively track software defects posted here. The official channel for investigating and validating bugs is Esri Technical Support. All customers experiencing a potential software bug should leverage technical support to report and investigate the issue.

By reporting bugs through technical support, Esri can better track the scope and impact of the issue across all our customers and better prioritize it with our product teams. Our teams can also investigate the issue more thoroughly to see if there is a solution, workaround, or patch to get you back up and running as soon as possible.

As a reminder, Esri Community is primarily a self-service support platform where Esri users can ask or answer each other’s questions, share feature requests, and collaborate to solve problems with GIS.

*Note that this is a scripted message prompted when posts allude to a potential product bug.

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

Nordpil — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:47:29 GMT

I have submitted the case to our local reseller, they have reproduced and confirmed it and passed it on to ESRI.

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

JosephHilliard94 — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:43:07 GMT

did you get a resolution? we are having the same here!

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

Nordpil — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 15:50:53 GMT

I just checked if it was ever registered as a bug, but I am pretty sure it is still there. We have implemented in our routine (fme workspaces) to delete attachments using the rest api before removing a feature.

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

Nordpil — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 08:11:59 GMT

@JosephHilliard94 if you are in touch with ESRI support, you can check the status of bug-000175715

Re: Attachments bug when re-adding feature to a hosted layer

SoniaDickersonTCC — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:41:29 GMT

I was running into the same issue with hosted feature services on Arcgis Online. Attachments seemed to get deleted with some layers but not others. For the ones that were not deleting, I had set up the original layer in a geodatabase and turned on attachments in the gdb.featureclass, then I published as a web layer to AGO. After finding this post (Thank you) I turned off attachments in the AGO feature layer (which deleted all of the attachments), then turned it on again so that AGO would rebuild the Attachments related table and relationship class. After doing that, I reloaded the records and attachments. The attachments seem to delete when the records were deleted. We have an FME process that updates a primary layer with sublayer data/attachments so its key to maintain the globalid-rel_globalid relationship. I ran the process a couple times to make sure it was working and its been good so far.

I hope it works out for you.