topic Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

JeanetteHarlow1 — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 21:09:35 GMT

When I update and save an xlsx sheet, the changes are not reflected in Arc GIS PRO. Does anyone else have this problem? Has anyone found a specific method to making the changes reflect?

I usually have to turn off PRO and then restart the program for the changes to be reflected. That said, recently I noticed that even turning off the software and restarting that the changes don't reflect in PRO.

Please note, I make the change in excel. I save the file. I close Excel.

In PRO I remove the old sheet from the Contents pane and refresh the homefile the spreadsheet is in. I also refresh the folder the spreadsheet is in. And I do this in a variety of order.

It also seems that just being patient does not work.

I have had this problem for many PRO versions and currently am running 2.5.0

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

DanPatterson — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 22:03:12 GMT

Jeanette Harlow From

Work with Microsoft Excel files in ArcGIS Pro—Excel | Documentation

under Limitations

Excel tables are read-only in ArcGIS Pro; however, they can be edited in Excel while you have a worksheet open in the Contents pane (stand-alone table layer). The layer will only display the updated (saved) values for edits made outside of ArcGIS Pro when ArcGIS Pro has been closed and reopened.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

JoeBorgione — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 03:41:05 GMT

It also seems that just being patient does not work Nothing is more true when working with Excel in ArcGis Pro...

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

BarryKronenfeld1 — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 21:11:27 GMT

Yes I have this problem too. It's not just that Excel files are read-only, the problem is that ArcGIS Pro won't reread an excel file once it's been read once. One would think the "refresh" command would do this but it doesn't work for me. I have to close Pro down and open it again every time. Very frustrating when I'm working through a large Excel file with lat/lon values and using ArcGIS Pro to find typos.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

JoeBorgione — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 17:33:37 GMT

If I may make a suggestion: unless you have a compelling reason to leave your data in the excel format, convert the excel worksheet into an ArcGIS geodatabase table and perform your edits there. Excel is a spreadsheet; ArcGIS is a database management system. You'll have far less headaches if you treat your data as a database.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

BarryKronenfeld1 — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 20:35:27 GMT

Sure, I know. But I have reasons for keeping the data in Excel (will be using it as an exercise in a class where students don't know GIS) and I have this naive idea that maybe somebody from ESRI is watching these message boards and will fix the actual problem. It would be a really easy programming fix, the functionality is already there just need to call the function that reads the Excel file whenever the user hits the refresh button in the Catalog pane.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

DanPatterson — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 21:05:16 GMT

Work with Microsoft Excel files in ArcGIS Pro—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Excel tables are read-only in ArcGIS Pro; however, they can be edited in Excel while you have a worksheet open in the Contents pane (stand-alone table layer). The layer will only display the updated (saved) values for edits made outside of ArcGIS Pro when ArcGIS Pro has been closed and reopened.

One simple reason that the "refresh" would be a bad idea is when the student enters a piece of text in a numeric field... what should happen? should the whole field be turned to text? or an error message tossed up?

There are many other scenarios where a lot more than a simple "refresh" won't help.

Use the opportunity to show the students that working with gdb tables is very similar in some respects to working with spreadsheets... but different... they won't rely less on the familiar and be able to apply their skills to a new environment.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

BarryKronenfeld1 — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 04:51:25 GMT

Use the opportunity to show the students that working with gdb tables is very similar in some respects to working with spreadsheets

This is just my own prep work. No students involved (yet).

One simple reason that the "refresh" would be a bad idea is when the student enters a piece of text in a numeric field... what should happen?

The "refresh" option is in the Catalog pane not the Map pane, there's no data entry going on in Pro when this happens.

As I understand it, the "refresh" option in Catalog should show any changes to files, folders, etc. made outside of ArcGIS Pro since the Catalog pane was last refreshed. That's exactly what's happening here, the Excel file is being edited outside of ArcGIS Pro. So shouldn't a Catalog "refresh" clear any old memory of the file?

So let me walk through my case in a bit more detail, I wasn't very clear the first time around:

1. From catalog, I right-click on the Excel file to create a point feature class from lat/lon. The resulting point feature class (but not the Excel file) then gets added to a map.

2. On the map I notice a mistake in one of the point locations.

3. I remove the point layer from the map, save the map, refresh the catalog pane, etc. Pretty much do everything I can think of to make ArcGIS Pro "forget" the excel file (which again was never added to the map anyway) short of closing Pro down completely.

4. I edit the excel file (in MS Excel, not in ArcGIS Pro) and save it.

5. Back in ArcGIS Pro, I repeat step (1) to create a (brand new) point layer from the Excel file and add it to the map.

So when I create the point layer in step (5) I expect it to be "as if" I were reading the Excel file for the very first time. Why wouldn't it be? But somehow ArcGIS Pro "remembers" the Excel file the way it was the first time around, and doesn't read the file with the new edits I've just saved. The lat/lon mistake, which I fixed in Excel, is still there on the map. No, I should say it is there AGAIN. Why? To me, this is just odd behavior...

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

DanPatterson — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 11:05:47 GMT

I think you need to remove the excel file from Pro in catalog as well, save the project, edit outside Pro, then re-add. The 'refresh' should occur when the excel file is removed and the project is saved. When you remove it from the map, there is still a reference to it in the Standalone Tables section in the map's Contents pane. It needs to be removed as well.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

LisaSenn — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 06:38:22 GMT

Simply version up your filename, so it cannot figure out it's the old one with minor changes!!! 😄

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

ValerieZimmer — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 03:35:20 GMT

Still no solution for this? Really?

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

wayfaringrob — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 21:51:23 GMT

Strange, this is no longer in the Limitations, but it is still true.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

EmilyGriswold — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:57:42 GMT

Agreed, this is mind boggling. There are very valid reasons for working from Excel, and Refresh should do just that.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

Bud — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 19:59:14 GMT

I've seen the same issue in Pro 3.2.1 very recently. I refreshed the Excel file in Catalog, but it had no effect. The edits I made to Excel did not appear in the attribute table in Pro.

However, I tried testing it again just now (3.2.1), and couldn't reproduce the issue. Refreshing in Catalog worked. So that's interesting.

Video:

(view in My Videos)

By the way, if you want Esri to change functionality like this, I think you'd have better success posting an idea instead of commenting on it in a question. Or submit a case to Esri Support and ask them to report the issue as a bug.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

Wayne_Rennick — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:54:16 GMT

I'm super confused by what's going on here. So, does ArcGIS Pro make a copy of the excel sheets when they are added to the project? What other file types also have this behavior? This is not how it worked in ArcMap. (this is not better)

We all know that Excel isn't the best place to store data, BUT it's used all the time in organizations when collaborating between different people. So, it's crazy to make us remove the tables (and any joins that have been created) to have ArcGIS Pro see the data.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

VilleJärvinen — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 11:55:16 GMT

With ArcGIS Pro 3.2.1 (21-03-2025) the bug is still there. Adding data from an edited Excel file does not read the data from the Excel file, rather ArcGIS Pro adds outdated data from some unknown cache. The Excel file needs to be renamed for ArcGIS Pro to actually update the data.

Re: Excel spreadsheet update not updating in PRO

Wayne_Rennick — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 18:13:17 GMT

Look for a geoprocessing tool to refresh Excel. I don't know when it was implemented but it solves a lot of the issues.

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/data-management/refresh-excel.htm