ArcGIS Pro "Project not found" error, missing .aprx and toolbox.

DM_GISServices · ‎04-01-2020

Hello all,

I had a project I was working on in ArcGIS Pro earlier today in which I had a toolbox with a few models, a script, and FME tools. A few minutes after having closed out Pro, I re-opened it and tried to open the project from the "Recent Projects" link. I then got a "Project not found" error with the message (attachment included), "Sorry, we couldn't find your project. Do you want to remove the project shortcut from your list of recent projects?" Instead of removing it I navigated to the project in Windows Explorer and found the .aprx to be missing along with the toolbox in which I had been doing work. I had searched about this problem a year or two ago (a coworker experienced this problem) and was able to find that a couple people had run into this before, but searching now seems to bring no results. I wanted to ask you all - have you had this problem of ArcGIS Pro disappearing projects before and were you able to recover your projects without restoring previous versions of the project's parent folder? I have spent a long time working on this project and would like to avoid having to start even from a recovery point.

-Max

EDIT: Please post here if you have had this problem too! There does not seem to be a solution at this point, but the more people that can share their experiences having this problem the more likely we are to be able to find out where this problem is stemming.

DM_GISServices · ‎06-01-2020

Though I wish you didn't have this problem in the first place, I am glad you brought it up here. I thought it may have been a fluke or must have been going crazy. Right now I hesitate to use Pro because now it means that in addition to saving, I manually copy the project folder every time I save. If you are able to figure this out without having to restore a backup (if that is even an option), please let us know how! In the meantime I wish you luck and hope others that may be having this problem can let us know so that we may be able to work with ESRI and narrow down the issue.

-Max

LauraEDugan · ‎04-05-2021

I experienced this issue this morning. I have been working in a project (on my C: drive) for a few months, and this morning when I tried to open it, it was gone. Thankfully, in the project folder, there is a folder called .backups that must have been automatically generated, and in it was a backup of the project. I have no idea why the original project disappeared, though. Also, luckily, this automatically generated backup seems to contain an up-to-date version of the project. Very strange.

TI · ‎05-26-2021

I have just experienced this serious issue. I left the GIS server running an analysis overnight. When I got back to it this morning, the analysis had completed. I attempted to close ArcGIS Pro, but the project failed to save (I didn't record the error at that point). I then closed it without saving, as nothing in the project itself should have changed recently (just the data).

Then I attempted to re-open the project, but it didn't exist (same errors as others have found here, including missing .aprx file)!

There were no backups in the projects ".backups" folder, so I've now had to log a job with our IT people to have the .aprx file recovered from their backups.

This is a fairly horrific experience, being fairly new to ArcGIS Pro, and about to start transitioning our entire organisation to Pro.

TimothyRudzik · ‎01-25-2022

My experience most closely resembles yours. I left a project open overnight and worked in it for a couple hours the next morning. When I tried to save it I got a generic error that it failed to save (I also forgot to record the error).

I then tried to save-as but got the same generic fail message. Next I closed my tabs which was several maps but still could not save. When I tried to re-open a map Pro froze for a couple minutes and then crashed. It did prompt me to send a report to ESRI which i did.

Upon trying to re-open the project it could not be found. I searched for it using File Explorer with no luck. It didn't exist in the .backups folder either. I am still waiting for my IT support to try to restore it. BTW I am using 2.9.1.

PatrickSullivan-WRA · ‎10-06-2022

I had the same exact experience last night (and now numerous times in the last couple of months). The projects file and all backups are gone, though the gdb and every other element of the project are still intact. These files have all been used and stored on a shared network drive. I've had to create a local copy of the project file to be safe. If not for my backups, this issue could be absolutely catastrophic.

Laurent · ‎10-20-2021

I experienced same problem few days ago. On ArcGIS Pro 2.6.3, having a local (hard drive) project and toolbox containing model builders and FME tool with Interoperability. After running a model builder calling the FME tool, I closed my project. After closing, it did not exist anymore, the toolbox disappeared as well as .lyrx files. Backups was empty, but "luckily", GDB is not lost.

This is scary. Waiting an answer from support... Updating to 2.8 now

JasonClay · ‎11-08-2021

Good afternoon. I just had the same issue, and found your post. I searched the recycle bin and could not find my missing .aprx

Fortunately I was able to recover it. It seems I had it placed in a generic MyProject folder that I did delete. I simply forgot to name the project. I hope you found a solution to your problem and it was not a silly as mine.

Best to you!

GISHelp · ‎02-10-2022

Unfortunately this just happened to my colleague. ALL THE FILES in the project folder are gone. (.aprx, .py, etc.) His toolbox is empty... everything he worked on has disappeared. I wish that there was a solution to this. And moreso, I wish that this error made sense in the slightest. How can EVERYTHING disappear?!

TasBarsdell · ‎04-28-2022

I just had the same error. Working on a Pro Project (Pro 2.9.2 in the morning and the Data Interoperability workspace I was testing stopped running. Trying to Drop and Create a Feature class in a file geodatabase. I closed Data Interoperability and Pro and now the Project has vanished from my C drive. Oddly the file geodatabase is still there but not the Project. The fme workspaces which were saved in another folder location have also vanished. The .backups folder is also empty. That will teach me for not backing up data. Even the Temp folder (C:\Users\TasB\AppData\Local\Temp) is empty. Is there any other place to search for the missing Project or at least for the fme workspaces?

Kevin_Haynes · ‎08-16-2022

The same thing happened to me. I left an aprx running a geoprocessing tool overnight. When I got to my computer in the morning, the tools seemed to produce outputs but I couldn't see them, so I tried to save and restart Pro but it wouldn't let me save. I closed it anyways and when I went to open it back up the file was gone out of my server folder. I opened pro to click on it from the recent projects list but it wasn't there either. The file geodatabase was there but not the aprx. Luckily, we have a server recovery thing, so I restored the folder to the last timestamp and the aprx came back.