Anyone getting random General Function Failure error's with Windows 10 and ArcMap 10.4.1?

[JeffJones7]

Our company recently upgraded to new Windows 10 desktops. At the same time we upgraded from ArcMap 10.2 to ArcMap 10.4. I am now regularly getting random "General Function Failure" error's while using ArcMap. It typically happens when I am simply navigating the map, panning and zooming around and selecting features and working with the Table data. I am mostly working with existing MXD's that I started working with while I was using 10.2. [Edit]I believe they have all not been updated to 10.4 MXD's.I believe all MXD's started as 10.2 MXD's and have all now been saved in 10.4. I have tried starting an MXD from scratch in 10.4 and seem to be having the same issue, maybe just a little less often. [/Edit]

Anyone have this experience? Or and suggestions on what is going on or how best to approach troubleshooting?

[WestervilleGIS]

The UNC paths definitely help.  I think our issue was something related to the Group Policy that will map the shared drives to a particular "letter" for our GIS users.  It seems the policy refreshes every few minutes for some people and when it does it briefly breaks that mapped network drive and then instantaneously remaps it.  That is just enough to break any connections to the file GDBs that are stored on the shared drives.

[timdunlevie]

Thanks for the reply.

This is exactly whats going on.

Our IT dept. mentioned this might be happening.

So did you solve your problem by adding a different/updated policy with regards to network shares? Or you just put up with it?

Personally, UNC paths have helped me alot.

Whilst, one user it didnt really change things.

Thanks,

Tim

Sent on the go with Vodafone

[WestervilleGIS]

We have more or less just put up with it.  Most people arent using File GDBs stored on our network and the few that are we have just changed their sourcing to UNC paths.

We may be looking to switch to Google File Stream at some point and I am not sure if the Group Policy functions the same way with mapping drives.

[timdunlevie]

Thanks.

I cant believe your IT people havent tried fixing the group policy functionality.

Im pushing my group hard to come up with a fix.

I dare say i will probably have to put up with the odd error message when using UNC paths. If it happens once a day I can put up with that...it was happening about 20 times a day off the mapped drives.

Thanks,

Tim

Sent on the go with Vodafone

[MollyWatson1]

Our IT Division changed our Windows 10 group policy settings from "Replace" to "Update" and that seems to have resolved our general function failure issues. We haven't heard of it happening any more. Users also don't need to use UNC paths to connect to their data. 

[timdunlevie]

Awesome!

Thanks for the response Molly!

I now wait for our IT to deliver!!!

Tim

Sent on the go with Vodafone

[PatrickYoung]

I am having the same issues reported here with file geodatabases stored on a shared drive and running 10.5.1. The UNC path solution seems to let me run consecutive geoprocessing tools, but I still can't modify the gdb through the Catalog window pane without getting the general function failure error even though I'm connecting to the gdb through a UNC path connection. I will look into the group policy idea to see if that helps.

[KatieHeim1]

Can you address specifically which group policy your IT modified? We are having the same issue (general function failure on GDBs) but IT says there are too many policies and they won't change them all. But if they knew specific ones, we could try that.

Thanks!

Katie

[MollyWatson]

Hi Katie,

I followed up with our IT Division on your question about which group policy settings were updated. Their response is:

"You have to change how the drives are mapped through group policy, we had them set to replace once we changed them to update this fixed the issue.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1139165-windows-10-losing-mapped-drives

http://eddiejackson.net/wp/?p=16319

https://www.qdoscc.com/blog/following-windows-10-upgrade-mapped-drives-disconnect-briefly

Here are some links that will help with what to change and why."

Hope this helps your IT Department.

[DavidTilman]

Molly, Carine, Tom, and everyone else,

Thank you for taking the time to post this issue on the community page, and to follow up with everyone once the solution was identified.  I have been encountering the same issue for over a year, and as you all know, it is incredibly frustrating.  That is an understatement.  Now I need to work with the IT staff in my organization to convince them to make the necessary changes.  

My situation was even more frustrating because I work at a NATO school where we have 15+ students in each course, and this error was occurring on each student's machine dozens of times per day.  I have worked with ArcMap for almost 20 years and all of my "workarounds" were not working!  Thank you again, so very much for continuing to post updates to this issue.