An invalid character was found in text content.

[MeganZoch]

I'm trying to bring feature data within a geodatabase into an .mxd document (ArcView 10.0). When I attempt to add it I get the "Open Failed" message: Error opening feature class. An invalid character was found in text content.

I've noticed this has happened to a couple of feature files within a geodatabase that were used in .mxd's prior to compression. Now the data is compressed in the geodatabase. I tried to uncompress to see if they'd work but still do not. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[JakeSkinner]

Hi Megan,

You may be encountering a bug that is now resolved in ArcGIS 10.1:

NIM060270  Compressing and Uncompressing a file geodatabase with the  Preview Tab open in ArcCatalog corrupts the last feature class previewed

As a workaround, try exporting the feature class to a shapefile and see if you are able to preview the shapefile.

[MeganZoch]

Thank you for your help.

I haven't upgraded to 10.1 yet though I assume it'll happen in the near future. Also I tried to "Export to Shapefile (single)" (by right-clicking on the file) and I got the following message:

ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
No support for this geometry type.
An invalid character was found in text content.
Failed to execute (FeatureClassToFeatureClass).

Any suggestions to fixing this without the 10.1 upgrade? Thank you.

[JakeSkinner]

Try creating a new feature class in another File Geodatabase and then use the Simple Data Loader to load data from the corrupt feature class to this one.

[MeganZoch]

I attempted what you suggested and recieved the Data Source Error "Failed in opening data source."