topic Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly. in Data Management Questions

I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 15:59:42 GMT

I have imported 100s of other individual shapefiles into many other personal database files, but I have one shapefile that will not import properly. ArcMap will import the file, but it does not appear the same. This is a fairly large shapefile (114 MB) and the mdb file is nearly 2GB.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 17:16:54 GMT

size limits probably, you should be using file geodatabases if possible

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

XanderBakker — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 18:45:54 GMT

Absolutely a size problem as Dan Patterson mentions:

Because they are stored in Access databases, personal geodatabases have a maximum size of 2 GB

Source: What is a personal geodatabase?—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

You should really consider moving away from Personal Geodatabases. Even if you are still not touching the limits, performance is really bad when a PGDB gets more than ½ -1 GB:

The effective limit before performance degrades is typically between 250 and 500 MB per Access database file.

Source: Types of geodatabases—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS Desktop

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

JayantaPoddar — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 22:52:20 GMT

Try using a File GDB to overcome the size limitation, unless you have got only ArcGIS Desktop Basic license.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 01:16:33 GMT

I want to thank you all very much. I crated a file geodatabase as you suggested and it worked perfectly! Much gratitude. Greg

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

XanderBakker — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 02:06:17 GMT

Please mark the post by Dan Patterson as the correct answer.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 18:22:49 GMT

Having imported the shapefile into a file geodatabase, I find that 69 out of 370,051 attribute table records did NOT import with the rest. I am stymied as to why this happened, without any error or notification. Help??? Thank you all.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

XanderBakker — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 18:56:18 GMT

It is strange that there is not error message when not all the records are imported. Could you run a Check Geometry—Help | ArcGIS Desktop on the shapefile to see if there are any records that have error which may have prevented them from being imported? Since you have a large input file, it could take some time to run.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 23:17:38 GMT

I ran it, and have a table showing a null geometry error on 5 entries.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

DanPatterson_Retired — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 23:42:47 GMT

Run the Repair Geometry (on a copy) and see how many records you end up with. At least you can export the table to at least save the tabular data as it stands as well

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 17:35:37 GMT

I ran the repair. It removed the 5 entries with null geometry. But when I tried to export the data, I got several error messages. A shapefile was created, but it is still missing the 69 entries.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 18:36:02 GMT

So if you still have the attributes in the original, export those 'missing' records, provide them some geometry then append them together with the other data

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

FLTCMapping — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:57:09 GMT

I appreciate your patience and help in trying to help me solve my problem. I maintain the maps for the Finger Lakes Trail Conference, a non profit group in New York State. Our trail consists of over 1000 miles of public footpath that travels across the state. We have 70 maps. I know just enough about ArcMap to maintain our maps. I am trying to move our shapefiles into GDB files for consistency. The shapefile that I am having trouble with consists of all public roads in the state. To provide a specific example of my problem, there is a single road that shows on the map when I use the shapefile as the source for the layer. The same road does not show when I use the GDB element created by importing the same shapefile. The entry for this road is in both tables. It has all the same values in every field. I am completely stymied as to why it is drawn on the map when using the shapefile as source, but not when using the GDB file as source. Any further help to unravel this mystery is greatly appreciated.

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:45:47 GMT

Is there any chance that the shapefile has an undefined coordinate system or one that has a different one than the geodatabase?

Right-click on the shapefile, select properties and coordinate system (plus have a cruise through the other tabs)... what does it report?

Repeat for the geodatabase layers

Report what they are as best you can

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

curtvprice — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 03:13:20 GMT

.mdb files also do not delete records from tables (this is for performance reasons) when you delete or change records, rows are just marked as deleted. You can remove these ghost records (and sometimes dramatically improve the performance of an .mdb) by running a Compact on the database.

Compact file and personal geodatabases—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

Re: I have one shapefile that will not import into a personal database properly.

curtvprice — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 03:16:14 GMT

Suggest starting a new thread, no one will see this new question!