Hi,
I work in the GIS dept. of a local UK council.
We support the ArcGIS users within the organisation.
We have one particular user who is having an odd issue that I cannot get to the bottom of.
When he first loads up ArcMap 10.7.1 on a morning and opens the mxd he typically works from. He had red exclamation marks against some of his layers. This has been an issue for some users whilst home working as sometimes our VPN drops connection to the councils shared drives / databases and its a case of getting then re connected to the VPN.
However, he is working in the office so has a direct connection. Also , if the VPN issue occurs the same drives where data is stored also will no longer be accessible via windows explorer.
From speaking to the user he has stated that all the drives are still accessible via windows explorer. However if he right clicks on a layer with an exclamation mark and tries to repoint or amend the data source , when he navigates to the same drive / folder via "Add Data" or ArcCatalog the folders do not show any loadable data, as if they are empty.
But, from what he has described if he closes the mxd and leaves it in his words "for a while" then goes back and reopens the mxd the layers will then often be present upon reloading. I am at a loss as to why this is happening. Personally I think it is a network issue but the fact that the drives are accessible via windows explorer makes me think our networks team will say its a software issues !!
My final step if I cant get any possible answers here is to completely remove all traces of ArcGIS rom his system and do a full reinstall but that would be my last option.
If anyone can offer and possible advice it ill be much appreciated
thanks
Ben