topic Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder in ArcGIS Pro Questions

ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianWilson — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 05:13:20 GMT

I saved an MXD in ArcMap, then went to import it in ArcGIS Pro, and AGP cannot see the folder I used at all. I thought the problem might be in "Import" so I tried other file dialogs. Same thing. ArcMap + ArcCatalog = work, ArcGIS Pro = fail.

Since I saved only a minute ago from ArcMap, I know it's not a permissions problem.

Here is a screenshot of the AGP "Add Folder Connection" window on the left and an Explorer window on the right.

Owncloud is a sync program like DropBox. It works flawlessly with all other software I use including QGIS 3. I use it extensively to manage and back up my data.

AGP continues successfully to block every attempt I make learn how to use it. Migrating to it at work remains unlikely.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 06:05:39 GMT

According to the help, you can drag the "folder" over to catalog... like so

Some ArcGISIndexing thing pops up probably because it is not a real folder but folder like-ish.

Here is what happens with OneDrive at least

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 09:47:36 GMT

forgot the help topic link

Catalog pane, catalog view, and browse dialog box—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop

Connect to a folder—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop where it says

Tip:

You can drag folders from Windows Explorer to the Catalog pane or the catalog view to add them to a project.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

ThomasColson — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:31:42 GMT

I'm going to venture a guess that Pro, by design, will not recognize 3rd party "cloud" storage Windows Explorer extensions. As a workaround, try making that "cloud" folder it's own drive letter.

How to Map a Folder to a Drive Letter in Windows: 11 Steps

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianBaldwin — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:07:10 GMT

I successfully did this in the past when Pro failed to recognize Google Drive or Box folders, but those now appear when searching a directory. I would recommend mapping your 'folder' to a drive letter as well.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 21:09:56 GMT

Map folder (ie 11 step) versus drag from Explorer... I suppose that depends on the level of comfort that users have with working with computers

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianWilson — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 03:36:45 GMT

Great suggestion but it does not work. I copied the MXD out of owncloud so I could try it. The MXD import worked fine this way. I am currently only running AGP on this one machine so this will do for now.

I'm going to venture a guess that Pro, by design, will not recognize 3rd party "cloud" storage

You have reason to believe AGP is crippled due to bad design decisions? Can you share the source of your opinion? I searched around last night and could not find anything.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianWilson — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 03:38:43 GMT

I tried using drag and drop several places, and dragging the owncloud folder did not work. Thank for the suggestion, I am sure it will come in handy for other folders.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianWilson — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 03:45:21 GMT

It's really not 11 steps either, it's 2 so both methods fail and both are easy

1) Launch a command window by typing: cmd

2) Type: subst o: d:\owncloud

and finally undoing it (since it does not work) is subst o: /D

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 06:43:58 GMT

It works for OneDrive for others, as shown in the earlier image.

But I do have full Admin rights on my machine if that makes a difference.

As for the 11 step (or 2) program, I was thinking more along the people that Thomas Colson‌ has to provide instruction to as well as noob students

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

BrianWilson — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 05:07:23 GMT

Workaround: Run a cmd window as administrator then create a symlink.

mklink /D d:\owncloud-AGP d:\owncloud

From AGP I can now access the folder under the symlink name d:\owncloud-AGP.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

EllenNodwell_IntegraShare — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 19:20:22 GMT

To everyone here, considering the higher plane - the UX - since not all users have the system admin skills or capabilities or rights...to do the suggested workarounds with going into the back-end, through the command line...

With the newest version of ArcGIS Pro, the clicking and dragging from Windows Explorer does NOT work for the initial access to the OneDrive folder. It DOES work, once you set-up your project and have access to the Catalog - however, the issues related to initially accessing OneDrive are not simple to solve.

Since Microsoft and Esri are partners - it would seem that OneDrive, one of the basic storage platforms in Microsoft established several years ago, and widely used by many organizations, would be recognized by this software interface (ArcGIS Pro), as it has been in prior versions - as a set of folders or a link in ArcGIS Pro's user's folder view. Why is it not?

Think about it - is this a good thing for users to have to do the workaround?

Having to go through all these hoops and hurdles and the user having go out and do system admin re-configuring to make it work? It seems to me that use-ability is at risk here...

Furthermore, after jumping through some hoops, and then saving my project to my OneDrive folder (on my local machine), the next time I went to access the project, I got error messages and it could not be located on my local machine's OneDrive folder - I had to go out and download it from OneDrive via a web browser. Luckily, I was able to open the project and suffered no corruption issues.

I'll be bringing this up with Support, as in prior versions, we did not see the issue that we see with 2.3.1 - this is a backslide, not an improvement - or else it is a bug, not a feature; Definitely, it is not better for data access for Pro users when their files, projects, etc. are stored in OneDrive (or any other product, actually). After all, OneDrive just a storage drive or path which utilizes both local storage and the cloud - with synchronization.

This especially is not enabling mobile workers, where the advantages of offline and syncing to cloud when online are needed.

What we do not want users to be forced to do is go back and use thumb-drives, external hard drives, or other means, where they want to back-up and access their projects, data, etc., while using ArcGIS Pro.

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

EllenNodwell_IntegraShare — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 19:32:33 GMT

After digging deeper, when Dan Patterson‌ responded to me about this access issue, I found the problem solution - not a hard fix -

We continued to troubleshoot and explore - in this, we looked into another User's ArcGIS Pro initial folders pane, and OneDrive was present in their ArcGIS Pro file list.

We then went into the OneDrive properties in Windows Explorer, again - on the user-machine having difficulty.

We discovered when looking at the OneDrive Properties, under General, it showed OneDrive to be Hidden. Could this be the issue?

We unchecked the "Hidden" box

The files were then un-hidden; it took about a minute or two for Windows to un-hide the folders and files.

Then we opened ArcGIS Pro and the user can now see the OneDrive folder. Voila'! Problem solved.

We can see iCloud Drive - the DropBox is not installed, but we reckon that we might be able to see DropBox. We will be testing this.

For those who have this issue, check this out and see if it fixes the issue.

Thanks Dan Patterson‌ for getting our minds to "thinkin' about other possibilities"!

#OneDrive now is accessible and we will know how to fix this (fingers-crossed!).

Re: ArcGIS Pro fails to access folder

ElizabethStark — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 01:44:00 GMT

I looked into my OneDrive properties and it was not hidden but I am having this same problem. I unchecked the read only box just to see but it didn't help either...