Attribute Transfer Tool Equivalency in ArcGIS Pro
The Attribute Transfer Tool behavior in ArcGIS Pro is not equivalent to the behavior of this tool in ArcMap Desktop. The tool behavior is only equivalent when the user's clicks on a single feature for both the source and the transfer targets, in which case no dialogs appear in either program. However, if the user ever clicks on more than one feature for either the attribute transfer source feature or destination feature in ArcMap Desktop, a dialog listing the features by their layer Display tab expression that provides access to a list of feature attributes appears to allow the user to select the exact feature they want to use as the source or destination feature. Clicking on more than one feature can occur when a user clicks on the boundary between two adjacent features in feature classes that aren't designed to have actual overlapping features and can't be avoided in feature classes that are designed to have overlapping features. An example of the dialogs that appear in ArcMap Desktop when more than one feature is clicked for either an attribute transfer source feature or destination feature is shown below:
In ArcGIS Pro when the user clicks on more than one feature for the source or the target no dialogs appear and the tool always uses the feature with the lowest ObjectID to do the transfer. If the user didn't want to use the feature with the lowest ObjectID for either the source or the target, the tool behavior nonetheless does a transfer based on that rule and results in data corruption. The ArcGIS Pro version of the Attribute Transfer tool needs to provide an option for the user to choose the source or destination feature they want whenever they click on more than one feature that provides the same functionality that the ArcMap Desktop Attribute Transfer tool dialogs above provide.
One more note to add, there was a mistake in the Help that has been fixed at ArcGIS Pro 3.5.
ArcGIS Pro 3.4 Help step 6 Note is incorrect:
Help at ArcGIS Pro 3.5 has been updated to:
I'm sure you are aware, but I wanted to point this out to any others that are reading: If you don't want to accidentally transfer attributes from a source layer to itself you can clear the field mapping that exists for that layer as a target and a source:
Hi @Melissa_B
If you clear the field mapping between the source layer and itself it should not being transferring attributes. However, I can see where you might be in a situation where you have a source feature overlapping the intended target feature. In that case, the new behavior of showing the chip for overlapping features would still show the chip asking you for the intended target of the overlapping features where you clicked. It comes down to editability.
The key step for that situation would be to turn off editability of the source layer since that's not the intended target and it will not be found by any target clicks of the transfer attributes tool. Source clicks are still allowed in that case.
For example, here my source is layerA and my target is layerB. If layerA has features that overlap features from layerB, as long as editability is turned off for layerA, I will only get the chip when there are overlapping features in layerB:
