Disappering layout

[mlee]

I have a huge problem and wanted to know if I'm the only one on earth or if it's a general bug.

PROBLEM:
At irregular intervals (sometimes 1 time a month, sometimes 3 times a day) the entire content of a layout disappears.

The process is always similar:
I am in the layout view editing the content (moving/copying/adjusting graphic elements) and all of a sudden a misbehaviour occurs. Most common I can no longer select individual elements in the layout view under "contents". For example, the object is displayed, but I cannot change the visibility.
Another example is that I change the text in a text fiel and both the old and the new text are displayed after completion. In the map view, I can select one text object and continue working, but the other remains displayed.

Just this wouldn't be that bad. But:
When I save the project and reopen it, all map content is deleted. The layout with all settings such as "Page Setup" still exists, but all content (graphic elements, map frames, etc.) is permanently lost.

I discussed this intensively with the ESRI support about one a year ago. After a malfunction I previously copied that aprx, before reopening it in ArcGIS. This file could be opened with IZARC. All contents of the entire project were displayed correctly. We then opened the file in ArcGIS Pro and saw an empty layout. Next, we saved it and reopenend in IZARC.... And the whole layout was now empty as well.
This means that the support team was able to face the error, but no solution was found at the time. Neither what causes the issue, nor how to fix the file.
The rest of the document (maps, layouts, whatever ...) is unaffected.

Until then, I worked in a virtual environment on a Mac (which is not ideal). In the meantime, I work 100% on a Windows computer, without a virtual machine.
After a quiet start-up phase, the frequency has increased in the recent month. Hence my cry for help!
Have you ever encountered that problem?

[SuzanneFordyce]

This has just happened to me. I lost a day's worth of work!! So frustrating. Let's hope for a fix.

[Nelson_Schaefer]

Hello @SuzanneFordyce 

I work for Esri Technical Support and I am currently trying to find a common denominator that these reports of disappearing layout incidents have in common.
Only a small group of users are reporting this problem and it does not appear to be a general problem with ArcGIS Pro so far. Therefore, I think it is essential to find out what these users have in common to see if we can find some kind of pattern.

I currently suspect that this behavior may be related to network drives.
A network drive is any storage drive that is not physically located on your computer but can be accessed via the company network or VPN, for example.

Therefore, it would be very helpful if you could describe whether a network drive or file server was in play at the time the problem occurred. For example, the ArcGIS Pro project file (.aprx) could be on a network drive or only the geodatabase/data sources.

I appreciate any information on this. Thank you.

[CRennyGIS]

Hi, I experienced this problem when working in office connected to the company network. The project file and some of the data were located on a network drive. 

[SuzanneFordyce]

Hi @Nelson_Schaefer, I work for local gov and we use network drives for pretty much everything. Projects are stored on our in-house servers, accessed through network drives, as well as most of our data. Data stored in a combination of FGDs and SDEs. So far, I believe I am the only one (of three GIS people) that has experienced this in our organization. We all use the same drives. For me, it has occurred three times since September, each while working on different projects.

[Jessica369]

Happened to me today 😞  first time, this is a major concern ESRI please do something :'( 

[Nelson_Schaefer]

Hello @Jessica369 

I work for Esri Technical Support and I am currently trying to find a common denominator that these reports of disappearing layout incidents have in common.
Only a small group of users are reporting this problem and it does not appear to be a general problem with ArcGIS Pro so far. Therefore, I think it is essential to find out what these users have in common to see if we can find some kind of pattern.

I currently suspect that this behavior may be related to network drives.
A network drive is any storage drive that is not physically located on your computer but can be accessed via the company network or VPN, for example.

Therefore, it would be very helpful if you could describe whether a network drive or file server was in play at the time the problem occurred. For example, the ArcGIS Pro project file (.aprx) could be on a network drive or only the geodatabase/data sources.

I appreciate any information on this. Thank you.

[Jessica369]

I experienced this issue while working in-office. I was not using a VPN at the time. My workstation setup involves a Remote Desktop Connection to a desktop tower, and the project data is stored on a shared server. As of now, I am the only one to have experienced this problem once. 

[DanielleKairovicius1]

Hi @Jessica369 , 

We appreciate your patience in working through these issues with Pro. This sounds like you have  good reproducible case for us to investigate. Esri would like to assist you further and I'd be happy to log a new tech support case for you to keep troubleshooting the issue. 

Thanks for your feedback. 

[DrewCover]

AAAAHHHH!  Just happened to me as well, running Pro 3.3.  Also happened to both my coworkers in the last month.  Its diabolical, since it doesnt matter how often you save, and most IT backups come at end of previous day.  So, lost a whole day of work and now contemplating moving back to ArcMAP 

This is scary esri! 

info: I first noticed a layout text element acting strange when I tried to move it around, so I saved/reopened annnd everythings gone. - Dont save once you notice something screwy, just close/reopen.

I only had two layouts open and in the project, only map was default 'Map' with one Imagery service layer, and they were templates loaded from a layout file, pretty sure these templates were originally loaded from old ArcMAP .mxds.  Data is on a local server.  Windows 11 23H2 22631.4317.  Intel Core i7-13700, 64G RAM.  Sophos Security

[Nelson_Schaefer]

Hello @DrewCover 

I work for Esri Technical Support and I am currently trying to find a common denominator that these reports of disappearing layout incidents have in common.
Only a small group of users are reporting this problem and it does not appear to be a general problem with ArcGIS Pro so far. Therefore, I think it is essential to find out what these users have in common to see if we can find some kind of pattern.

I currently suspect that this behavior may be related to network drives.
A network drive is any storage drive that is not physically located on your computer but can be accessed via the company network or VPN, for example.

Therefore, it would be very helpful if you could describe whether a network drive or file server was in play at the time the problem occurred. For example, the ArcGIS Pro project file (.aprx) could be on a network drive or only the geodatabase/data sources.

I appreciate any information on this. Thank you.