Allow to disable local disk indexing in configSetting file for ArcGIS Pro 3.3 and up

[AntheaTung]

Hi,

We have been using ArcGIS Pro 2.7 and 2.9 for the past five years.  We find the ArcGIS Pro indexing default settings (which automatically creates an ArcGIS Pro Indexing Task Scheduler job) slows down our environment.  We work with the UN data and they are fairly large.  We have used the configsSetting file to disable indexing for ArcGIS Pro 2.x and this works good for us. 

We are in the midst of upgrading to ArcGIS Pro 3.3, and it introduces new indexing.  There is new local disk indexing option in ArcGIS Pro 3.3 and the configsSetting does not allow to disable the Local Disk indexing.  In ArcGIS Pro 3.3 automatically creates the ArcGIS Pro Indexing job by default.  Our users download the ArcGIS Pro Project package from Portal to their machine's local C drive.  The re-indexing job will run and thus will slow down our users on their machines.

We would like an enhancement to add the option to disable the local disk indexing using the ConfigsSetting file in ArcGIS Pro 3.3.  

[TimOrmsby]

Hi Anthea,

Changes to indexing UI and functionality were made at the 3.2 release, but the setting to turn off indexing in the Pro.settingsConfig file didn't change. This is the file you mean, right? It still works as expected according to our testing on a 3.3 software version.

<Catalog> <EnableIndexing isLocked="true">false</EnableIndexing> </Catalog>

If it doesn't work for you, are you able to open a case with Esri Support and have them troubleshoot the problem?

Tim

[NaicongLi]

Hello @AntheaTung ,

As @TimOrmsby mentioned above, in ArcGIS PRo 3.2, no changes were made to the methods that administrators can use to enable and disable indexing. Set the EnableIndexing setting to false in a Pro.settingsConfig file authored by administrators to turn off indexing of any content stored on a local disk (as well as on network locations and in enterprise geodatabases) - see https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/catalog-settings.htm#GUID-48DFBD36-63FE-4EC4-B3...

As you noticed, in ArcGIS Pro 3.2, Options dialog box, Indexing page, there is a new setting for "Local disks" that can be turned on or off (part of the effort to give users finer control over what and when they want to index).  However this setting is governed by the main switch "Index items", which is controlled by the EnableIndexing setting mentioned above.  If EnableIndexing is set to false by your administrator, then "Index items" will be toggled off in the Options dialog box, and the setting for "Local disks" will have no effect, regardless whether it was checked earlier:

When indexing is completely turned off like this, you may still see an indexing task in the Task Scheduler on a computer, depending on whether there was an indexing task scheduled on that computer before the administrator turned off indexing. In this scenario, indexing still would not take up resources on this computer, because as soon as the task is invoked, the administrator's setting would take effect and the indexing task would end immediately.

If this is not what you are experiencing, please open a case with Esri Support and have them troubleshoot the problem.

Thank you very much for your feedback.