idea Fix bug BUG-000165754 in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Fix bug BUG-000165754

PuenteAdmin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 02:26:48 GMT

Currently, non-hosted feature services published to ArcGIS Enterprise 11.x with the latest version of ArcGIS Pro do not honor a very important and basic requirement: prevent the successful submission of records with missing data in required fields. This is not acceptable, as there are mission critical editing and data entry scenarios in which null values should NEVER be allowed. Here is the response I received from ESRI customer service on this BUG.

This behavior is related to how ArcGIS Pro handles non-nullable fields when publishing services. When a field is configured not to accept NULL values and the service is published from ArcGIS Pro, the application automatically assigns a blank space (" ") as the field value. This is done to ensure the field does not contain a NULL value.

It is important to note that ArcGIS Pro only validates whether a field value is NULL; it does not evaluate whether the value is meaningful. Since a blank space (" ") is technically a valid value and not NULL, it passes validation and is not flagged as an error during publishing.

This behavior is expected, has existed for a long time, and is working as designed. It is not considered a software defect and will not change.

For reference, please see the following article: https://support.esri.com/en-us/bug/in-portal-for-arcgis-map-viewer-a-new-feature-record-ca-bug-000165754

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The part that is most frustrating is the notion that "This behavior is expected, has existed for a long time, and is working as designed. It is not considered a software defect and will not change."

More than 20 of our customers, each with multiple users, is reporting major issues related to this BUG that is not even being considered for remediation by ESRI.

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754

WetherbeeDorshow — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 16:05:23 GMT

This is a major problem for us as well. We have dozens of customers affected by this very nasty bug. Note that this same issue holds for ArcGIS Online as well. Any app or webmap that uses ArcGIS Pro to publish allows submission of edits despite missing data in required fields.

https://support.esri.com/en-us/bug/in-portal-for-arcgis-map-viewer-a-new-feature-record-ca-bug-000165754

FIX THIS PELASE!

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754

SimonSchütte_ct — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:30:34 GMT

This could be a workaround in some use cases: How To: Prevent NULL and Empty String Values in an Attribute Table in ArcGIS Pro

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754 - Status changed to: Closed

SSWoodward — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:15:36 GMT

Thanks for everyone's contributions here.

In a geodatabase, as well as in both hosted and by-reference feature services, setting a field to disallow null values is not a proxy for making user input to that field "required". When a field is marked to disallow nulls but receives no input, the field will be set to zero, a date equivalent of zero, or an empty string to satisfy the requirement that no <null> value is stored in the field.

The ArcGIS Online Map Viewer does enforce that users explicitly provide a value for the field during manual editing workflows when a field is marked as non-nullable. This is not a requirement of the service or of the geodatabase that holds the referenced data. Users are always able to use GP tools like append, data access cursors, or another preferred method to add features to a feature service layer or geodatabase feature class and no requirement to provide a value for non-nullable fields is enforced. As mentioned by support this is a long standing pattern. Changing this pattern would be a breaking change for many workflows and is not under consideration.

As described in the KB article referenced by @SimonSchütte_ct and linked again here, if users would like to enforce a "required" field value they will need to configure a constraint attribute rule that defines the criteria for acceptable field values for the field. This is the only way to create a "required" field at the database or service level.

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754

PuenteAdmin — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 12:44:45 GMT

So, now we have to apply this constraint to every required field, despite the fact that the database already has those fields set as null? I do not understand why this is "by design". This adds a significant amount of work to manage a process that was not an issue before the migration from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. Very inconvenient. We have more than 20 clients with services that have more than 8 layers, each with more than 5 fields that are required. The same is true for many of our colleagues in other companies and organizations. This feels like going backwards.

I do not understand.

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754

RachelMoscarella — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:07:03 GMT

Hello,

The suggested workaround from @SSWoodward and @SimonSchütte_ct works in ArcGIS Pro, but does not resolve the issue with edits in webmaps and experience builder that use non-hosted feature services registered in ArcGIS Online. The constraints were added, the feature service published to enterprise, and the same very problematic issue persists: fields marked as non-nullable in the database with constraints that match the suggested arcade syntax and parameters STILL allow empty records to be saved. Please advise.

Re: Fix bug BUG-000165754

PuenteAdmin — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:10:24 GMT

See above. Workaround suggested does not resolve issue with non-hosted feature services when using ArcGIS Online WebMaps and Experience builder editor widgets. Please advise or tell us how we get someone at esri to help with this. Customer service (after dozens of exchanges) could not help us and suggested we post an idea here...