Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

MeenakshiSundaresan — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:05:06 GMT

I have a question about the following script in Tutorial 4-1 of the Esri Advanced Guide to Python book: when I run it, it produces a "FileExistsError"; the script is in fact creating a new folder and a duplicate .gdb file, but I don't know why. Below is the portion in question with the subsequent error message. Thanks!

source_fgdb_path = Path(r".\Parking_Violations_and_Neighborhoods.gdb")

arcpy.management.Compact(str(source_fgdb_path))

# The name of the folder to place the file geodatabase in
fgdb_folder_name = source_fgdb_path.stem
# The location of the folder to place the file geodatabase in
fgdb_folder_location = source_fgdb_path.parent
# The path to the folder to place the file geodatabase in
fgdb_folder_path = fgdb_folder_location.joinpath(fgdb_folder_name)
# The path of our copied file geodatabase
fgdb_path = fgdb_folder_path.joinpath(source_fgdb_path.name)

# Copy the file geodatabase to the new location
shutil.copytree(source_fgdb_path, fgdb_path)
# Zip the file geodatabase
zipped_fgdb = shutil.make_archive(
base_name=fgdb_folder_path,
# The name of the archive, not including the file extension
format="zip", # The archive format
root_dir=fgdb_folder_path, # The directory to archive
)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileExistsError                           Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[7], line 2
      1 # Copy the file geodatabase to the new location
----> 2 shutil.copytree(source_fgdb_path, fgdb_path)
      3 # Zip the file geodatabase
      4 zipped_fgdb = shutil.make_archive(
      5     base_name=fgdb_folder_path,
      6     # The name of the archive, not including the file extension
      7     format="zip", # The archive format
      8     root_dir=fgdb_folder_path, # The directory to archive
      9 )

File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\Lib\shutil.py:573, in copytree(src, dst, symlinks, ignore, copy_function, ignore_dangling_symlinks, dirs_exist_ok)
    571 with os.scandir(src) as itr:
    572     entries = list(itr)
--> 573 return _copytree(entries=entries, src=src, dst=dst, symlinks=symlinks,
    574                  ignore=ignore, copy_function=copy_function,
    575                  ignore_dangling_symlinks=ignore_dangling_symlinks,
    576                  dirs_exist_ok=dirs_exist_ok)

File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3\Lib\shutil.py:471, in _copytree(entries, src, dst, symlinks, ignore, copy_function, ignore_dangling_symlinks, dirs_exist_ok)
    468 else:
    469     ignored_names = ()
--> 471 os.makedirs(dst, exist_ok=dirs_exist_ok)
    472 errors = []
    473 use_srcentry = copy_function is copy2 or copy_function is copy

File <frozen os>:225, in makedirs(name, mode, exist_ok)

FileExistsError: [WinError 183]

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

Esri_Dave_Crawford — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 15:46:04 GMT

@MeenakshiSundaresan What version of ArcGIS Pro are you running?

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

MeenakshiSundaresan — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 02:33:02 GMT

Thanks for your response Dave. I'm running 3.5.4, but when I got the error, it was in Jupyter.

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

Esri_Dave_Crawford — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:14:15 GMT

I haven't been able to reproduce this on my end using Windows 11 and the Python environment that comes with ArcGIS Pro 3.6.0. I know when we wrote the book and tested it, we were working on Windows 10 with ArcGIS Pro 3.4.x.

Maybe consider printing/returning fgdb_folder_name and fgdb_folder_location. There may be something going on with your relative pathing depending on where it is on your machine.

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Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"

Re: Esri Advanced Guide to Python in ArcGis Tutorial 4-1 creating a "FileExistsError"