topic Re: Changing the name for a project file in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Changing the name for a project file

JasonShim — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 13:58:00 GMT

Hi,

Can someone show me how to change the name for a project file? For instance, I would like to change the name for "MyProject2" to something else, can I go the folder location where the .aprx file is stored, in this case is MyProject2 and change the name of the .aprx file to something else. I already have a DEM, shape files and raster datasets created under this project and am wondering if these files will be affected if I change the name of the .aprx file?

Thanks,

Re: Changing the name for a project file

DavidPike — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 14:41:33 GMT

No not at all, you can rename that .aprx without breaking any links to your data. Obviously if you changed the name of the folder that the .aprx is in, that would then break the source links to the data in the .aprx (which isn't really a big deal anyway to fix for a small amount of layers).

to answer your question, yes just go to the folder location and change the name of the .aprx project file (perhaps try it out by making a copy of the folder first if you're unsure).

Re: Changing the name for a project file

DanPatterson — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 15:56:19 GMT

To be on the safe side... why not use a "Save As" first

Other links to consider for other and related things

Rename project items—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Rename a geodatabase—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Re: Changing the name for a project file

DavidPike — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 16:07:04 GMT

From that documentation it indeed seems that your SaveAs is the suggested method.

Re: Changing the name for a project file

JasonShim — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 17:57:37 GMT

Thanks, David. I'll shall give it a try.

Re: Changing the name for a project file

JasonShim — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 17:57:59 GMT

Thank you, Dan!

Re: Changing the name for a project file

JasonShim — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 17:59:23 GMT

Thanks for the tips, Dan.

Re: Changing the name for a project file

MarcusOder — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 01:05:17 GMT

Stumbled across this while seeing if anyone has a new solution to renaming an old ArcGIS Pro Project. As a file system and data manager I'm not a fan of the Save->As method as it obfuscates the original windows file owner and version of the project. There has been an "under consideration" enhancement request for having ESRI write a tool to do this - see https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/renaming-arcgis-pro-project-with-its-aprx-file/idi-p/948100

The simple renaming of the .aprx file does essentially the same thing (I believe) as the builtin "Save As" while keeping file owner and file mod date the same.

However - and this is the tricky part - let's say you want to rename the Project and the associated Default Toolbox and Default Database that was created when the original project was created. The .aprx file is a ZIP archive with lots of serialized variables mostly stuffed into XML files. After renaming the .aprx - it still has has an internal GISPProject.xml file with references to <DefaultGeoDatabase> and <DefaultToolbox> which are set to the original name of the project. If these do not exist they will be created from scratch when opening the renamed project. This may be what is expected and not so expected in others - depends on what is required. Think of difference as having a mixed Toolbox or FGDB shared between the renamed project and the new project (The "Save As" or rename .aprx file method) or an archived Toolbox and FGDB representing the renamed name as a snapshot of the Toolbox and FGDB that existed at the time of Project rename. That will require some python or other code to manipulate the contents of the .aprx DocumentInfo xml - which can be accessed in ArcPy with the ArcGISProject class.

Re: Changing the name for a project file

RobBlash — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:38:44 GMT

Agree with all of this, and just gave a thumbs-up to the idea. Thanks for posting it.