Creating Local Copies to Edit removes Attachments

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11-03-2020 02:47 PM
Henry
by
Occasional Contributor II

Hi all,

Have had an issue lately with creating local copies of our organization's services to edit in ArcMap. We are using ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7.1 and we have a field team using Collector and Survey123. The layers in question are optimized for Offline use, with Sync and Editing enabled. Essentially every time I create a local copy for editing in ArcMap of a Feature Service, the geographic data copies correctly, but the photo attachments are missing

To sum up my workflow and issues I have:

  • Add feature service from portal into ArcMap .mxd
    • I am able to use the Identify tool to view photo attachments to the data
  • Right click and create local copy of data to edit
    • Creates local copy for a while, and then a Feature Class is copied to the FeatureServiceLocalEdits folder in a geodatabase alongside an (empty) attachment table and relationship class.

This presents a huge issue because if I were to republish and overwrite the original service with important edits that were made, critical attachments would be missing, and the originals removed.

Has anyone has any similar issues or has a solution/workaround? Is there something wrong with the configuration of my service? I have read elsewhere that attachments do not always copy correctly when editing and sync is enabled. I could disable those features but it would cause a disruption to our active field crew and the replicas of the service they may be using.

Many thanks

Henry
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7 Replies
by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Henry,

Are the feature services that you are taking offline hosted feature services, or referenced from an enterprise geodatabase?

-Calvin

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Henry
by
Occasional Contributor II

Hi Calvin,

I believe the features I am attempting to pull down to create local copies of are Offline Hosted Features services. When looking at their path in REST Service Directory they are under a Hosted folder, whereas the enterprise geodatabase layers are in a different folder. Apologies if this is a silly question, but do you the best way to differentiate between what is referenced from an enterprise geodatabase vs. what is not, either via Portal Administrator or Server Manager? I'm working with several layers that were created before I came on into this position.

Henry
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Henry,

We would expect the "Create Local Copy for Editing" workflow to work for hosted feature layers with attachments. Is the layer you are working with fairly large? Have you tried using the same workflow on a hosted feature layer containing just a few attachments and compared the behavior?

As for your other point, if the service is in the Hosted folder, then it is considered a hosted feature service. For other services, the easiest way to check how they were published is by exploring the Services Workspace property from Server Manager: Review service workspaces in Server Manager—ArcGIS Server | Documentation for ArcGIS Enterprise 

Thanks,

Calvin

Henry
by
Occasional Contributor II

The attachments can be large photos at times and the layer takes several minutes to download completely when initially making a local copy for editing.

I have tried the same steps with several of the smaller layers with the same results. I will create a fresh hosted service with a few attachments to test it further.

Thanks for the tip!

Henry

Henry
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Henry
by
Occasional Contributor II

So I've tried this same process with a number of other layers added from Portal to ArcMap and every time I create local copies to edit, the attachments do not copy as well. Regardless of size, regardless of my geoprocessing environment set to maintain attachments.

Henry
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Henry
by
Occasional Contributor II

Wanted to update and mention that, after contacting tech support, this appears to be an established bug between ArcMap and ArcGIS Online.

Reference BUG-000104720https://support.esri.com/en/bugs/nimbus/QlVHLTAwMDEwNDcyMA==

Not sure when it will be fixed or not, but there it is.

Henry
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JacobBradley
New Contributor II

I know it's been over a year but do you know if this bug was ever fixed? I'm having the same issue

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