topic Favorites.json corruption in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Favorites.json corruption

RandyKreuziger1 — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 23:21:12 GMT

Since I do SDE administration, I've got about 2 dozen SDE connections, 8 ArcGIS Server in my ArcGIS Pro Favorites. Sometimes they disappear from the favorites list but not the favorites folder. In other words, they drop out of favorites.json. When I go to add one back in the new name ends in a (1). So I end up adding a duplicate to Favorites and click on the "Add to project" it will add both the original and the (1) to my project.

This has been occurring for well over a year in multiple versions of Pro. I tried deleting the duplicates and removed favorites.json but Pro doesn't know how to recreate it on its own so I restored the original. This acts more like a beta product than it does a professional software package that costs thousands a year. Sorry for the rant.

Re: Favorites.json corruption

RTPL_AU — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 02:28:28 GMT

@RandyKreuziger1
Rant away. We all love feeling as if we are yelling at the moon....

If on a corporate network, do you have roaming profiles set for your domain user account? (assume more likely than personal OneDrive issues as you mention SDE)

I've seen this while messing around with Pro settings and deleting parts of the user config files/folders while trying to find something that can cause bugginess in other parts.

If your Windows user profile is impacted by something network/domain related it may affect how Pro can access the files and cause it to recreate parts of it leading to the (1) versions, etc.

Re: Favorites.json corruption

SusanPollard — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 23:40:00 GMT

I have the same issue and wondering if you have found a solution. I am using ArcGIS Pro 3.5.2 and roaming profile

Re: Favorites.json corruption

RTPL_AU — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 23:56:56 GMT

@SusanPollard @RandyKreuziger1

What I sometimes do is to store job specific favourites (the .ags files etc I need) from the \Users\__user__\AppData\Roaming\Esri\ArcGISPro\Favorites\ to another folder on the network.

Add that network folder as a favourite.

It will show as a Folder rather than just list the contents. I've not seen it break this type of shortcut - but while trying to troubleshoot other things that shall not be named I've encountered the (1) issue often.

Now you have your favourites in a location accessible by others and from different machines.