Error Reading Package Contents from ArcGIS online

[ChristinaHupy]

I have a student who can logon onto ArcGIS online using her global user account from ArcMap (v10). She tries to add data from ArcGIS online from ArcMap (v10), clicks on any of the available maps, it appears to load, and then she recieves an error stating "Error Reading Package Contents".  She has tried this on several machines on different days. All other students are able to open the ArcGIS online layers via ArcMap (v10) with no problems.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Christina Hupy

[MikeMinami]

Aimee,

You can use the ArcGISFileHandler utility to set the directory to unpack layers. You'll find the executable here:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin\ArcGISFileHandler.exe

At the bottom of the dialog, you can set the location to unpack packages.

Thanks,

Mike

[WaltBulawa]

I am using Windows 7 (64bit) and am experiencing the same problem.  I do not have "ArcGISFileHandler.exe" on my computer (per Windows 7 search).  So what now?

[ChrisFox3]

I am using Windows 7 (64bit) and am experiencing the same problem.  I do not have "ArcGISFileHandler.exe" on my computer (per Windows 7 search).  So what now?

Walt,

You have to have the file handler executable or your wouldn't be able to run the software. On windows 64 bit the default location the file would be located is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin

However, if you changed the location of the install you can find the file in the same relative path. for example if you installed in D:\My Programs it would be located in:

D:\My Programs\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin

[WaltBulawa]

You are right - I found the file.

So, in that I am experiencing this problem - to where do I want to redirect the unpacking?

It's was set on "Automatically select location".  I set it to "D:/ESRI_unpacking".  That did not correct the problem.

[ChrisFox3]

For those of you running Windows 7: if you have redirected your My Documents folder to a network drive you will not be able to use the basemaps or ArcGIS Online.  Windows 7 does not allow you to index a mapped drive and the map packages do use indexing.  The only way we have found to get around this is to have your My Documents folder pointing your local hard drive.

Hi Amber,

I setup this test scenario. I have 2 Windows 7 machines on the internal network. I share a folder on on the 2nd machine. I mapped the location of the shared folder from the second maching on the first computer as the E:/ Drive. I created a folder called documents on the E:/ Drive. I then browsed to the My Documents folder in my C:/Users/UserName folder, right-clicked to open its properties, and changed to the location of that folder to the E:/Documents folder. I then started ArcMap and attempted to open a basemap. It opened succesfully and I confirmed that it did indeed unpack the layer to the E:/Documents folder or the shared folder on my second machine.

Could you confirm this was the configuration you had? If not, how as it different? Could you pass along the OS of the server machine you are redirecting your My Documents to? If anyone else has a similar environment and can reproduce the issue could you please share the details?

[ChrisFox3]

You are right - I found the file.

So, in that I am experiencing this problem - to where do I want to redirect the unpacking?

It's was set on "Automatically select location".  I set it to "D:/ESRI_unpacking".  That did not correct the problem.

Hi Walt,

If that is a location you have read/write permissions to then it is unlikely that the cause of the problem is due to the location it is attempting to be unpackaged to. At this point I would recommend you contact technical support so that they may continue troubleshooting the issue and potentially use some other tools to determine why this process is failing.

[WaltBulawa]

I ended up using the suggestioon posted above: "How about accessing the basemaps through this link? http://links.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/en/arcmap931/layers"

It worked.

[AimeeMandeville]

FYI - I noticed a difference between the versions of Arcmap in my situation.  I created the layer package on a computer running ArcMap Build 2800.  the users having difficulty reading this file were running Arcmap Build 2414.  I recreated the layer package using build 2414 and there were no problems for any user. 

Aimee

[ChrisFox3]

FYI - I noticed a difference between the versions of Arcmap in my situation.  I created the layer package on a computer running ArcMap Build 2800.  the users having difficulty reading this file were running Arcmap Build 2414.  I recreated the layer package using build 2414 and there were no problems for any user. 

Aimee

Hi Aimee,

That is a good point and is worth mentioning. What you are finding is expected behavior. With the release of Service Pack 1 for ArcGIS 10 (Build 2800) the technology used to compress and zip packages changed and as a result customers without service pack 1 are unable to unpack those packages. For customers at 10 (Build 2414) the solution is to upgrade to service pack 1. For customers at 9.3.1 Service Pack 2 who wish to use layer packages created at 10 Service Pack 1 they should install the ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 2 Desktop Layer Packaging Patch.

[BillRose]

We have the same problem here as originally posted except that we are using Windows XP sp3 and ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 sp1 (build 2800). We are attempting to open a map package downloaded from a public ArcGIS Online map. The ArcMap error message is "Could not open the specified file."