Don't add a join to the index layer of a map series with dynamic elements

[ArthurKay]

I added a join to the feature class I was using as an index for a map series. There were a number of dynamic text items etc. They all lost their values. I thought maybe if I closed and reopened it, it would refresh and work. It could not reopen, so the file is basically corrupt. I saved a version before adding the join. However when I opened that I stupidly hit the "Load more recent version button" which I think just loaded the same corruption problem basically.  Any advice would be appreciated as I've lost a days worth of work. I learned you can make a copy and turn the aprx file to zip to explore its contents but it seems unlikely I'll be able to recover aspects of the file without deleting the major folders at this point. 

[ArthurKay]

I believe that I was able to solve my problem by creating a copy of the corrupt aprx file changing it to a .zip viewing its contents and deleting GISProject.xml. then change back to aprx i could open it again after it arcgis rebuilt a little since at that time it recognized the file to be corrupt. Some more finagling may be needed but at least I was able to recover my work. 

[TomBole]

Hi Arthur, 

Map Series should be able to accommodate a join to the index layer. The Map Series may need to be refreshed after adding/deleting the join - see Refresh a map series. It may be possible that refreshing the map series does not automatically refresh all the dynamic elements - such as dynamic text.  In these cases you may need to reset the field pathing for the element.

If these don't work there may be something specific in the data (referenced by the index layer and by the join table).  Or, this could be a simple bug.  Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Hope this helps, 

Tom