topic Re: move project (aprx) in ArcGIS Pro Questions

move project (aprx)

JeffMeyer4 — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 18:21:42 GMT

Hi, I have a group of users all accessing data from geodatabases on a shared network drive. I've noticed that if someone copies or moves an aprx file to another folder on the network, all data links are broken. it's like ArcGIS pro is expecting relative paths by default, and resets all data paths to the new directory. is it possible to have an ArcGIS pro project keep the source data paths the same when the project is moved? the only workaround is to "save as" to the new directory, but often users want to simply move projects using windows explorer. thanks

Re: move project (aprx)

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 18:26:06 GMT

The toggle for 'relative pathnames' is gone.

Your work around is sound is you just want to move the aprx... otherwise for larger scale moves... bring the data with you, IF it is locally stored

Re: move project (aprx)

JeffMeyer4 — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 18:41:24 GMT

thank you Dan. For clarification, my end-users are used to simply moving MXD files around and placing them anywhere on the network. our central geodatabases are always in the same place on a network share (i.e. W:\GIS_Databases\database1.gdb). In ArcMap the data sources would remain intact when the MXD is moved. Now they are doing the same thing with APRX files and wondering why the data sources are broken.

From a long term data management point of view, this could be a problem for me if directories with many APRX files need to be moved. The central geodatabases will never move, only APRX files.

Re: move project (aprx)

JeffMeyer4 — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 19:48:56 GMT

i'm having some trouble recreating the issue consistently .. i'm a bit baffled. there must be something i'm missing.

Re: move project (aprx)

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 20:50:04 GMT

Why don't you write out a couple of examples... one where moving the aprx works, and one where it didn't. Maybe examining their paths and the data paths might make things clearer.

Re: move project (aprx)

MarcoBoeringa — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:32:48 GMT

Jeff,

As you experienced, ArcGIS Pro by default saves with relative paths.

However, this can only be done for those datasources that reside on the same drive as the *.aprx document. All other datasources will be saved with absolute paths.

E.g. take a look at these three situations:

- If the aprx resides on W:\, and the datasources (e.g. file geodatabases/shapefiles) as well, all the paths in the aprx will be relative.

- If the aprx resides on W:\, and some datasources reside on W😕 as well, but other datasources of the same project on e.g. D:\, then the datasources to W😕 will be relative, but the datasources pointing to D😕 will be absolute.

- If the aprx resides on D😕 but all datasources on W:\, all paths will be absolute.

I think your current confusion arises because you have a mixture of the above situations, with some ArcGIS Pro project documents having mixtures of relative and absolute paths, others only relative paths, and others only absolute paths.

Re: move project (aprx)

JeffreyMeyer — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 19:00:33 GMT

thank you Marco - what you said makes sense. I believe your analysis holds true if you have created a fresh new ArcGIS Pro project.

I have encountered some inconsistency with imported MXDs, and file paths breaking after the APRX file is copied and pasted using windows explorer. Perhaps this is to be expected.

I appreciate your thorough analysis.

Jeff

Re: move project (aprx)

JohnPlunkett — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 02:44:17 GMT

Hi there

I can reproduce this

Create a new Project

Create a new FGDB and Feature class

Create a new map

Add the new Feature class and create some data > Save edits

Save the Map and project

Close ArcGIS Pro

browse to the location of the APRX

Copy that APRX to a new location > (I just moved it up one directory folder)

Open the copied APRX and you get the error

Apr 17, 2018 2:43 PM - YouTube

Re: move project (aprx)

Port_of_Amsterdam — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 15:28:03 GMT

Hi John,

Although the problem was already clear to me the video demonstrates it nicely. We are slowly forced to move to Pro in our organisation and this is one of the problems we run into.

A big part of my/our job is keeping our filestorage tidy and one way to do that is moving data and mapdocuments around. While true that you can open and save a pro document under a different name as Dan suggested this is far from ideal, his other option of copying/moving the data is just asking for trouble.

Are you aware of any other workaround like setting absolute pathnames via arcpy like it was possible in arcmap (like this: https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000011678) or perhaps if it will be implemented in the future?

Re: move project (aprx)

MarcoBoeringa — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 18:04:45 GMT

One thing i do not fully understand is that in a situation where you regularily move projects and data, you probably want relative paths. It doesn't make much sense to move a project to a totally different folder structure in terms of finding it back. Nonetheless, if you do desire to always have absolute paths, then reffering back to my previous post, your best bet for now is to reserve a totally separate drive to store all of your project documents, and to never save data there. This way you will force Pro to always use absolute paths. E.g. always store all projects on E: and data on F: drive.

Re: move project (aprx)

Port_of_Amsterdam — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 10:52:10 GMT

To clarify the first part, it's ESRI that's branding everything as a project but we hardly work in project form so the name is a bit misleading.

We have a couple of databases with basic information that's used in a lot of mapdocuments but the information itself (on disk) has no relation to the folders where the mapdocuments are in except for perhaps 1 or 2 layers. What happens then if you move or copy the mapdocument is that those 1 or 2 layers that are in the same folder in your mapdocument will link fine with relative paths but the bulk of your layers doesn't. If you could still toggle the settings to absolute paths it would be the other way around which would save me a lot of time.

The workaround that you're suggesting is not really workable in our organisation, we smply can not justify a separate drive because our software has trouble with absolut path settings (mind, not the paths themselves, just the settings for it because it works fine if it's on separate drives). Also spreading those items around different drives would create other problems, possibly headaches and "lost" data.

Opening and saving in a different location is probably our best bet for now but knowing that it's just a setting that's not available is pretty annoying and we just keep grumblingand hoping that ESRI will implement it somehow.

Re: move project (aprx)

ThomasColson — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 11:06:18 GMT

Old Software: Can move mxd. Stuff doesn't stop working. Functioning;

New software. Can move aprx. Stuff stops working. Bug.

It's that simple.

Re: move project (aprx)

MarcoBoeringa — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 13:58:51 GMT

Hi Thomas,

Please note this is just my opinion, I don't work for ESRI, I am just a user like you:

This is one point where I unfortunately do not agree with your "simple" conclusion. The problem is, there are simply two types of ArcGIS users and organizational workflows: some WANT relative paths always, others DON'T (like the OP here), and both groups tend to have strong opinions about this.

ESRI actually probably decided to change the default based on numerous requests on the Forums and ArcGIS Ideas. E.g., see this strong plea for having relative paths as default instead of absolute ones:

For the love of god, make "Relative Paths for data source" the installation default.

For the love of god, make "Relative Paths for d... | GeoNet

I think the title speaks for itself... just like there are many adepts for absolute paths here in this thread, there are many organizations who have setups that actually benefit from having relative paths by default, even if this seems alien to the opposite group.

That said, given this situation, the only logical conclusion for ESRI should be to support both workflows... Keeping the "relative paths default", that means indeed implementing an "absolute path" option, so that users can switch the behavior of ArcGIS Pro at will and adjust for their organization's workflows.

Switching the default back to absolute paths would be senseless given the described situation.

Re: move project (aprx)

ChristianUtech — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 20:45:23 GMT

Hello Jeff and Everyone else,

I've run into this problem and it's also stopped us from rolling out a Pro template for the organisation. Yesterday I found some time to investigate this in detail and from what I can see have found the problem and a solution.

The issue must be related to a problem (bug?) in Pro with dealing with mapped network drives. All our data and APRX files are on what is mapped as our 'W:' drive and as we all found as soon as you copy or move the APRX file, all links are broken.

I first tried the same with data on my C: drive and APRX in W: and that worked fine.

That prompted me to use the full network path, so in our instance I used \\MOFS01\xxxx Store\xxxx_GIS\Base_Data\.. rather than W:\xxxx_GIS\Base_Data\.. and I can now move or copy the APRX around our W: and the paths do not break.

I hope this helps and solves everyone's Pro issues with broken data paths. I have only tested this on my PC, so am unsure if different OS versions have an impact on this.

Regards, Christian

Re: move project (aprx)

ElizabethZizzamia1 — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:18:25 GMT

Hello everyone,

I work at a university and regularly need to make ArcGIS Pro projects that I want students to copy and paste from a server on to a local drive. I sometimes use project packages but in certain instances, the referenced files are huge and I don't want them to download for 5 minutes (much less take up a bunch of space on a lab computer). I need to be able to make a .aprx file that can be copied to a new location and NOT have all the data links broken. Seems like such a simple thing.

For example, I open Pro, name it inside a project folder. I add a folder connection to where 2 large raster images are located. I add them to the map document. The images both have full paths \\servername\Sfolder\Ssubfolder...I save and close the project. Use a windows browser to copy and paste the whole project folder to a new location like local drive S:\Lfolder and open the project. The links are broken. Upon inspection, the data source has been changed to S:\folder\Sfolder\Ssubfolder...

Is there any way of avoiding this? Thanks for any and all help!!!

Beth

Re: move project (aprx)

Katie_Clark — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:24:25 GMT

Thank you! All these years later, I was running into this issue as well. Using the full network path seems to have solved the issue for me.

I was pretty ignorant and had to do some research on how exactly to get the full network path rather than the mapped file path. In case it helps anyone in the future.....a super easy and low-tech solution is just find the folder you want in file explorer, right click and drag into a word document. Then select "Create Hyperlink Here". This will give you the full path that you can copy and paste when you are setting the data source.

Original post where I found this solution: Copy UNC network path (not drive letter) for paths on mapped drives from Windows Explorer - Super User

Re: move project (aprx)

ASw93 — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 14:57:53 GMT

This still doesn't work for me. If I move an .aprx file, along with it's data still in the same relative path, the data sources within the .aprx file are absolute paths to where the data used to exist and so layers are disconnected. I can't work out when it uses relative or absolute paths but really want to be able to have relative paths in my .aprx file.

Re: move project (aprx)

MarkJacobi1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:34:13 GMT

Thank you for describing this. I'm experiencing these issues now and your description might help me understand what's happening as we make the transition to Pro. After the ease of moving the mxd's knowing the data never moves, these issues were/are both unexpected, and having serious impacts, especially assisting end users in other offices with less experience.

Re: move project (aprx)

LyonMNGIS — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 16:16:53 GMT

Has this limitation ever been corrected? I would like to move a couple aprx files around on my network, but I do not want everything to crash!

Re: move project (aprx)

MatthewRyan2 — Fri, 03 May 2024 07:46:45 GMT

The same thing is happening to me. We hold map documents on our shared network drive where they reference File GDB and when we copy them locally, the links are broken. It think the data is relative, even though the data is in a completely different directory!

We copy them locally in order to make changes before sharing them back with everyone else in the team by uploading them again.

I don't know why Pro would change the file path (as if it were relative) when it's clearly defined with the full UNC path. It worked with mxd files but it doesn't work with aprx files.