topic Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only in Data Management Questions

workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MatthewFoster — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:17:51 GMT

Hi Everyone,
This is driving me crazy. I will be working on editing a point shapefile (or feature class in a file geodatabase), adding points and an attribute for the ID as I go along. I can save the edits as I go (and I do), but after a few saves, the shapefile or feature class suddenly becomes read-only - or at least, that is what ArcGIS tells me, "Unable to save edits. Workspace or data source is read only". I never set anything to read only, and after successfully saving my file 3 times (in the latest case) it decides to give me this error on the fourth time! I have tried putting the geodatabase in a different directory, I've tried as a shapefile... Any ideas? This has happened repeatedly with different projects lately. Very frustrating

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MathewCoyle — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:54:09 GMT

What version of ArcGIS and service pack are you using? Do you have any virus scanner running? Does it change to read only after you stop editing and start again, or is it only locked for a few seconds/minutes and release itself while you are still editing? Are you working locally or on a network resource?

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MatthewFoster — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:08:10 GMT

Thanks for your reply Matthew. I am using ArcGIS 10.1 (no service pack). I'm not currently running antivirus. The feature class changes to read only while i'm editing - without stopping and starting. I notice it when I go to save. After several successful saves (without stopping editing) it suddenly decides that it's read only. Finally, I am working locally on my laptop. Thanks again for any ideas you may have.

Best,
Matt

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MathewCoyle — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:09:12 GMT

Do you have indexing on? Either through the OS or through ArcCatalog? The only times I have seen this behaviour is when there is another process that is running in the back ground that monitors changes to files for indexing or what not. Usually these are virus scanners or index processes. I would go into your services and processes tabs in task manager and see what is running. While you are editing have your resource monitor window open and see what processes are using CPU, specifically around when the file changes to read-only.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

JohnNiles — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:25:32 GMT

Anyone have any input on this problem? This just popped up out of the blue today, and it has halted all further work.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

danielsdfn — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:18:17 GMT

same problem like you guys...5 hours of work will be blown away... thank you ESRI!!!

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

JohnNiles — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:57:12 GMT

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MathewCoyle — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:56:41 GMT

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

Do you have a response to any of my suggestions above? If your issue is serious and affecting productivity I'd recommend contacting Esri support.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

JasperTolsma — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:19:58 GMT

I have had the same problem recently. What helped me to save my edits, was to export the feature class to another geodatabase. In this way it was exported with all the edits and I didn't have to throw all my work away.

It's no solution to the actual problem, but I hope this helps some people who are about to throw away a lot of work because of this issue.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

AdamCinderich1 — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:31:20 GMT

This has happened to me 3 times in the last 7 days. The first time it happened was the first time I have ever seen this happen. I proceed with editing attributes in my digitized shapefile and randomly I'll get a message saying "Workspace is read-only, can't save edits". There is only ONE button to click "Okay" and when you click that, all of your unsaved edits disappear - not even giving you the opportunity to try and re-save, export, or anything!

At first I thought it happened to occur because I happened to click save edits at the EXACT same time my Dropbox was syncing but then I realized that working in Dropbox is the exact same as working locally because it saves to my computer's folder with or without an internet connection and simply syncs whenever the connection is available - so it couldn't be that.

Now that I am saving edits after every 4 or 5 edits (so annoying), I had it happen 2 more times yesterday. I have NO idea why this happens but it is so frustrating when clearly my file is not read only. I created the file, it is stored on my machine and I am the only one with access to the file.

Anybody else still having this same issue?

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

AdamCinderich1 — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:32:46 GMT

same problem like you guys...5 hours of work will be blown away... thank you ESRI!!!

Thankfully I didn't lose 5 hours of work but I probably did lose about an hour's worth - so frustrating. Still no idea why this is continuing to happen (has happened to me 3 times now) or how to make it stop.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

NeilCurri — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:50:39 GMT

This is happening to one of my students. She's using the trial download of 10.1 from ESRI on a laptop with Windows 7. Performance seems otherwise OK.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

AdamCinderich1 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:02:44 GMT

I too am using a student license of 10.1 on a Windows 7 machine.

This is happening to one of my students. She's using the trial download of 10.1 from ESRI on a laptop with Windows 7. Performance seems otherwise OK.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

Bahaa_Al_DinKhleifat — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:03:48 GMT

yes ... using ArcGIS 10.1 Desktop xp OS have the same problem

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MattO_Neal — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:50:52 GMT

ArcMap 10.1 on Windows 7 here, having the same problem. What seems weird is it is intermittent, and I have been working on the same dataset on the same computer for a couple of weeks, with the same software (including antivirus -- MSSE) installed and running, etc... and only in the past 2 days have I had this error (and only sometimes).

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

JensHaffner — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:57:10 GMT

Same thing here while working with file geodatabases in ArcGIS 10.1...
We've been doing the same things for a year in 10.0 and we never saw this issue there.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

RyanDammrose — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:46:03 GMT

I am also running into this problem. I am running ArcGIS 10.1 SP1 (Build 3143) on Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) and my file geodatabase periodically (and seemingly arbitrarily) becomes read only. I can get it to go back for a while sometimes by closing out completely and making sure to force close ArcGIS Cache Manager in processes and then restarting. It seems to have something to do with edit mode and swapping back and forth between. I haven't put my finger on it yet, but it is extremely inconvenient and annoying.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

Bahaa_Al_DinKhleifat — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 06:10:55 GMT

yes you are right Mr. mattdoneal cause if you exclude ArcGIS processes it will be solved

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

Joeysmith — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:12:24 GMT

I would go into your services and processes tabs in task manager and see what is running.

Re: workspace suddenly becomes read-only

EmilyMosen — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:34:30 GMT

I've had this problem many times before as well (both in 10.0 and 10.1). If you are editing a feature class or shapefile, exporting to a new file seems to be the way to work around not being able to save your changes. However, this doesn't seem to be an option for annotation feature classes, unfortunately.

I tried an experiment today after being unable to save my edits through the editor toolbar. I proceeded to close the ArcMap file in which I was working, knowing that I would be prompted, "do you want to save your edits?" and I was able to click yes and successfully save edits. (However, I believe I had tried that on another occasion with no success.)

I don't have an answer for why this happens but I theorize that it has something to do with our in-office server syncing with our backup cloud server. I also sometimes see my geodatabases spontaneously duplicating, and I won't know I've been working in a new geodatabase until later, and I'm pretty certain this problem is related to the syncing. I mention this because it might be useful to try working from one's hard drive when these problems arise.

Good luck everyone.