.GDB File

[MichelleAbramson]

Hello, 

I was sent a ".GDB File" not a folder, its over 2,000 KB.  It does not open like a geodatabase and I cant import it into ArcPro or AGOL. Is this something else besides a geodatabase? Is there any extra step I have to do to get the data? Or is this a mistake on the person who sent the data 

[KenBuja]

Is it possibly a renamed zip file?

[MichelleAbramson]

Thank you for the suggestion. I just checked and it doesn't appear so. Here is a picture below. 

[KenBuja]

Could it be a renamed Mobile Geodatabase (.geodatabase extension)?

[George_Thompson]

it looks like they sent you something that is not complete. The ".gdb" file is usually a folder (the file geodatabase) that contains all the files you need.

Maybe have the person send you a zip file of the entire .gdb folder. Here is an example of what may be in the .gdb folder:

[VinceAngelo · Accepted solution]

Since the "file" in "file geodatabase" is to distinguish it from an RDBMS-based geodatabase, it's important to know that file geodatabase is not ever a single file (it's a directory with many files within [currently a minimum of 41]).

If you have a single file, then the provider (or somewhere in between) messed up. You can try renaming to "....gdb.zip" and trying to open that, but even if it doesn't fail, you really ought to go back to the provider for a correctly named file. (Part of this is Microsoft's fault, for trying to make file suffixes optional by hiding them by default.)

- V

[MichelleAbramson]

Thank you !

[DarbyDeBruhl]

Sorry I am responding to this post months later, but I've just encountered this issue myself. I have made an ill-documented discovery that may or may not help passersby in the future...

Everyone else is right that an Esri file geodatabase is never a single file. However, it's worth noting that some remote sensing applications do handle individual .gdb files. For example, this article explains that ERDAS IMAGINE (and other Leica Geosystems software, presumably) uses a .gdb extension "for its implementation of a personal geodatabase" [.mdb in an Esri context] : https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/what-is-the-relation-between-the-files-folders-contain... More on this kind of .gdb -- "Generic Databases" -- here: https://catalyst.earth/catalyst-system-files/help/references/gdb_r/gdb2N100.html I'm not sure if you'd need ERDAS IMAGINE to open these and get them into a compatible format.

Software by Geosoft (Oasis Montaj, etc.) can also export yet another type of .gdb file -- the G stands for "Geosoft" on this one. Thankfully, they provide a free viewer that you can use to open your file and export it to another format: https://www.seequent.com/products-solutions/geosoft-viewer/ This is what mine ended up being -- I used the viewer to get my mystery .gdb as a .csv, which I'll then replot as a feature class in Pro.

So we've got at least 3 .gdb's out there, all used for geospatial data -- Esri's File Geodatabases, Generic Databases, and Geosoft Databases... Whew!

I know that it's not really their problem if people use other companies' software, but because this is all spatial data, I think it's reasonable to expect that users will try bringing these filetypes into an ArcGIS environment. Esri should document these distinctions more openly.

[DarbyDeBruhl]

Forgot to link the documentation for the Geosoft databases: https://help.seequent.com/Oasismontaj/2023.1/Content/ss/prepare_om/work_with_databases/c/oasis_datab...