Can a <10.5 ArcGIS client connect to a 10.5 File Geodatabase?

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03-10-2017 11:05 AM
MarcoBoeringa
MVP Regular Contributor

Hi all,

After I upgraded to 10.5, I noticed in the ArcGIS 10.5 Help that the webpage about Client and geodatabase compatibility suggests that ArcGIS releases below 10.5 may be incapable to connect to a 10.5 File Geodatabase. 10.5 is not listed for the 10.1-10.4.x releases.

Now I guess this may be an oversight in the Help, especially since the Create File GDB tool does not list a new option for creating <10.5 release File Geodatabases, except the ones that were already available at 10.4.x (10.0/9.3/9.2), but since I don't have an older setup to test this, can someone tell me whether 10.5 File Geodatabases can be read by older versions of ArcGIS? I am aware of the general concept of no new functionality being available when accessing from an older client, I am just interested to know whether the Help is in error here.

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7 Replies
JayantaPoddar
MVP Esteemed Contributor

The attached zipped file has a folder containing a File GDB created in ArcMap 10.5. 

Please test if you are able to open it in older versions.



Think Location
Asrujit_SenGupta
MVP Regular Contributor

Seems to be a documentation error. I could open the 10.5 File gdb using ArcGIS Desktop 10.4\10.4.1.

MarcoBoeringa
MVP Regular Contributor

Ok, thanks Asrujit, as I suspected a possibly minor documentation error. Should be easy to fix.

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Lake_Worth_BeachAdmin
Occasional Contributor III

The sample 10.5 GDB worked fine for me in 10.3.1 as well. 

JoshuaBixby
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Using ArcPy with ArcGIS 10.5, we can see that the file geodatabase version remains the same as from 10.0 - 10.4.x.

>>> folder = # path to temp folder
>>> fgdb = arcpy.CreateFileGDB_management(folder, "fgdb_105", "CURRENT")
>>> desc = arcpy.Describe(fgdb)
>>> desc.release
u'3,0,0'
>>> ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

It also looks like 10.5 ArcPy Describe Workspace properties has not been updated to reflect that 10.5 also uses the 3,0,0 release of the file geodatabase.

MarcoBoeringa
MVP Regular Contributor

Thanks Joshua. That's a good one! I have been learning ArcPy and Python quite well over the past three years, but there always remain these hidden corners you haven't explored yet. I hadn't realized such a method existed.

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VinceAngelo
Esri Esteemed Contributor

File geodatabase format itself hasn't changed in a long time, but geodatabase capabilities of ArcGIS have changed. So the answer is likely to be "Yes, it will work, if you're not using a 10.5-specific data structure."

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