Failed to open table Error creating map member

[mariorizario]

This is the second time I have run into this problem, and not sure what is going on.

I was editing polygons in an existing shapefile when I saved it it said something along the lines of "number of shapes do not match records" and a few of the polygons that I had created had disappeared.  I shut it down, and restarted ArcPro, and now the shapefiles won't load at all. Instead I get the following message:

Failed to open table.

Error:

Error creating map member.

This is the second time I have run into this problem. I originally thought it was because there were a lot of records within the shapefile (>20,000) so I clipped the shapefile to only include records I was editing. This seemed to work for a while until I got the message today.

Any ideas? This is the second time this has happened and each time I have lost about 3-4 days of work. My process seems to work fine until the 3-4 day.

[Eugene_Adkins · Accepted solution]

Only an idea, but have you ever noticed if (and this is contingent upon the use of the attribute table) after creating a polygon and then entering the attribute information that you have accidentally pressed enter causing the attribute table entry to go down one row (ultimately creating a new row of attribute information without an accompanying polygon) and you enter attribute information in this row without realizing it? This accidental workflow can create a conflict between the number of actual polygon features and the records in the polygon’s attribute table.

[mariorizario]

Yup, that probably is the case and what happened. Is there anyway to remove
that blank entry and fix the problem?

[Eugene_Adkins]

If you have some fields setup as not nullable you may have to address that (only if they will not delete), but other than that possible issue you should be able to simply highlight the attribute table row and delete it.

If that happens to resolve your issue be sure to mark it as solved by identifying the reply as the solution. It may help someone else in the future.

[mariorizario]

Unfortunately I don't know how to open and view the attribute table outside of Arc to delete the rows. 

[Eugene_Adkins]

What environment are you working in?

[mariorizario]

ArcGIS Pro project view

[Eugene_Adkins]

Right click the polygon layer in your table of contents. From there you'll find the option to click on/open the attribute table.

Here is some ESRI based documentation for working with attribute tables: Tables—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

[mariorizario]

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately when I try to open the table I get the same error message, "Failed to open table. Error: Error creating map member.

Same when I try to open the table in catalog. 

I was able to open up the DBF file with FME Data Inspector, and it seems like only the records I created are there, and there are no blank attribute rows. 

I opened the other offending shapefile, and there also seems to be no blank attribute rows, and it seems like my edits were made to the comments.

[DanPatterson]

copy the shapefile into a locally saved file geodatabase and do your edits there.

It could be the shapefile causing the issues, and if the featureclass in the gdb edits fine, you can always export the result back to a shapefile if you need that as a final format