ArcGIS Online Table Join fails without explanation

[Anonymous User]

Goal

Create a one-to-many join between a hosted feature layer and hosted standalone table on a common string field.

Data

• TEST_trees (Hosted Feature Layer)
• TEST_species (Hosted Standalone Table

Summary

TEST_trees contains individual records of trees (randomly created in this instance) each with a string value for the field COMMONNAME.

TEST_species contains a single record for each tree species. The field  Common_name_type_first is a unique, string field. The values in this field were used to generate the values for COMMONNAME in TEST_trees.

I have attempted to carry out every combination of tabular join using the Join Features analysis tool in ArcGIS Online.

Join Type	Target Layer	Target  Field	Join Layer	Join Field
one-to-one	TEST_trees	COMMONNAME	TEST_species	Common_name_type_first
one-to-one	TEST_species	Common_name_type_first	TEST_trees	COMMONNAME
one-to-many	TEST_trees	COMMONNAME	TEST_species	Common_name_type_first
one-to-many	TEST_species	Common_name_type_first	TEST_trees	COMMONNAME

Each of these failed. Each produced the error "Unable to add feature service definition" with the exception of the join condition in row 1. It returned the error "JoinFeatures failed."

I was able to successfully carry out the join using the layers linked above using ArcGIS Pro. I have examined the documentation on joins in ArcGIS Online and have been unable to ascertain from it why this join would fail. I have made the data listed above public and available for download. Any ideas of what I might be missing here?

[AlanRex1]

Ryan Cooper‌

Can you create a Tech Support case for this (Esri Support Contact Support )?  
If you do, please feel free to let me know the case number and I can follow up with the analyst.

[Joseph_Kinyon]

Ryan,

I tested a one to many join on the feature class and table you provided on ArcGIS online using the analysis tool.
It created a successful join first time no problem.
Please review, as I was unable to solve your challenge as I didn't encounter.
I posted a link to this successful feature that I shared and made public to your Twitter message.
I will delete this content in 2 weeks.

Joe

[Anonymous User]

Thank you for checking this out. I'm curious, what was the process you went through to copy my data and generate hosted services on your account?

I ask this because I think I've sort of figured out what was causing my issues. I originally published the TEST_species standalone table straight from an XLSX sheet. Today I tried publishing it from a feature table in a File Geodatabase and the join worked as expected. I'm thinking there was some minor corruption from the XLSX sheet that snuck into the original hosted standalone table.

[Joseph_Kinyon]

Oh yes, I think it's because the geodatabas is indexed and the Excel is not.

I did not know these details, I believe you introspection on your workflow is correct.

Joe

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, one of those details I failed to add in the heat of my troubleshooting. Thanks again for taking the time to help we work this out.

[JenniferSmits]

Just writing this down for my future self's sake (and others) - my successful workaround was to make a view of the offending feature layer (originally published from survey123) - no special settings. Then join the view (which i realise creates a view of a view) but it works! In Map Viewer Classic.