ArcGIS Pro 3.0 won't remove locators from project

[DavidColey]

Hello - I keep removing locator files\objects that no longer exist (the ones that show a red !) from the Catalog pane in Pro 3.0 by right-click>remove from project. 

But the locator files keep re-appearing no matter how many times  I remove them.  As a result, every time I try to switch to another project without exiting Pro first, I get an 'Invalid Locator' warning box that will not close no matter how many times I click it forcing a shutdown of Pro from Task Manager:

[ShanaBritt]

It sounds like your projects contain the classic locators that were deprecated in ArcGIS Pro 3.0, so this message will pop up for each classic locator (*.loc, *.loc.xml, *.lox) that is not a service referenced in the project. These locators will need to be recreated using the Create Locator or Create Feature Locator tool (*.loc, *.loz). To avoid these errors with your projects you would need to open them in Pro 2.9 and remove them and save the project before opening them in Pro 3.0. Geocode services that are based on the classic locator can still be added to the project and used. https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/migrate-2x-to-3.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_CAF5C09ED07F4...

When you have opened your existing projects in Pro 3.0 and removed them from the Locators group in the Catalog pane have you saved the project and after saving you are still prompted with the invalid locator message? I would also double check for the invalid locators in the Provider Settings if you are able to access it in the Locate pane.

[DavidColey]

Thanks for the reply @ShanaBritt  Yes sadly, I thought I had recreated 2 of 3 locators but in fact 2 were still 10.x (*.loc, *.loc.xml, *.lox). After re-creating the locators as 2.9 (*.loc, *.loz) style locators in the same file location and with the same name, the project at 3.0 will open without the 'Invalid Locator' message.

However, even after removing the updated file-based locators from the 3.0 project, upon a locator 'refresh' from the catalog pane, the file-based locators are re-added to the project, suggesting to me they are never actually removed from the aprx.  As you note, they would have had to have been removed at 2.9.  Maybe a 3.1 patch will fix this. 

For me, I am using this as an opportunity to re-create new, clean 3.0 pro projects in a new directory location and then migrating data, folders, styles, etc.  I am isolating my pro project used to create my address locators in an entirely separate location (separate from the home location). - hopefully this will keep  things cleaner.

[ShanaBritt]

@DavidColey I would submit this issue with the 2.9 project to Support so that a bug can be logged for us to evaluate and determine the cause and if it can be resolved in a future patch. It's possible that there are still some references in the aprx to locators. If you package the 2.9 project as a project package and extract it to a new folder, do the removed locators still show up?

[DavidColey]

ok thanks again for the reply @ShanaBritt .  If I get a chance to replicate my directory structure on another machine that has 2.9.x installed, I will try,

[DanHaasken]

So, if I'm getting this error message, my only option is to go back to Pro 2.9.x and delete the locators from my projects, save them and then re-install 3.0.x and open them? How ridiculous!!! I have numerous projects that I need to open in Pro 3.0.x and this is just not a workable solution...

[ShanaBritt]

Did you plan to update you classic locators (deprecated) to the new locators when moving to ArcGIS Pro 3.0?

If you make a copy of an existing project, then open it in Pro 3.0 and remove the broken locators from the Locators group in the Catalog pane then save the project and close Pro, Do you still get the invalid locator message when you open the project again?

-Shana

[DanHaasken]

I had thought I updated my locators but whenever I open a project in 3.0.1 and remove the locators and save the project, I continue to receive the error message upon re-opening the saved project.

[DavidColey]

So for me I created a new project folder to hold all of my 3.x projects.  Then, I created a new aprx in 3x and named it the same as my old 2.9.x project.  Then I copied any gdbs from the old project to the new project in windows explorer. 

Then I opened the 2.9.x in one Pro instance, and the new project in a 2nd Pro instance.  From there I just copied my maps, notebooks, charts from the 2x project to the 3x projects.   For any custom scripts and models I just created new toolboxes in 3x and copied the scripts and models from 2x. 

Then I added in any folders and directories I needed, lastly in each map I re-sourced the layers to point at the correct 3x directory file gdb (if file gdb sourced).

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but really the most time consuming part was re-sourcing the layers in the maps and models.  Even then, the benefits of re-building new 3.x aprx's was well worth the effort to have new clean projects and no more locator errors - or any other 2.9x errors.

[DanHaasken]

That does sound like a lot of work. The weird thing with my issue is that I don't always receive the locator error message even when opening the same project.