ArcGIS Pro Database Connections Folder - Organization

[BenGrod]

I'm a novice ArcGIS Pro user so forgive me for such a simple question but is there a way to put all of your Database Connection files in one location which is recognized by all Projects you open? Currently it appears that each Project has a list of Database Connection files saved under your My Documents\ArcGIS\Projects\MyProject1 folder. Is there a way to direct ArcGIS Pro to look in another folder which contains your complete set of Database Connection files (.sde). We have a ton of SDE connection files that need to be recreated in ArcGIS Pro and it would be nice to create them once and share them to all projects and users. Thanks in advance for your help.

[George_Thompson]

I think that is the expected behavior. Once you add a connection to your project, it creates a "pointer" to where it was in the DB folder. As your screenshot shows, it gives the path to the .sde connection file. Is that the location that you "copied" the connection from?

[KaseyCox]

Yes,  is there a way to "Add it to project" and then sever that connection, so that I that I can change my connection without changing the original?  

when a database connection to created in the project, it saves the file in the C:\Users\kcox\Documents\ArcGIS\Projects\QC, however when i paste the connection string in there, it does not add them to the project.  

[George_Thompson]

Ok, I think that once you paste it into the Project folder (as you referenced above), you will still need to "Add to Project". That will just add the .sde file in your local folder. That will "break" the connection.

I do not believe that it adds .sde files automatically to the project. That is for a variety of reasons that I can think of.

[KaseyCox]

Thank you George!!!  I got failure when trying to add them as a bundle (selecting all of them), but doing 1 by 1 did work!  

[George_Thompson]

Please accept that as a solution for others to find easily.

Not sure about the error when adding them as a bundle........ maybe an enhancement 😁

[JenniferKuntz1]

Another thing you might find useful is to create a project template that has the connections you need. The template will store the connections as well as other items you might want to have as a standard part of your projects. When you create a new project, you can use the template to add the connections and other items to the project.