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

[MarcoBoeringa]

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.

[JayantaPoddar]

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.

[Asrujit_SenGupta]

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

[MarcoBoeringa]

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

[Lake_Worth_BeachAdmin]

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

[JoshuaBixby]

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]

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.

[VinceAngelo]

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."