Rebuilding address locators

[MikeAdams]

I am using ArcGIS 9.3.1.  I created several address locators, but when I attempt to rebuild any of them, ArcCatalog tells me "You cannot rebuild this address locator.  The address locator was created using a release of ArcGIS previous to ArcGIS 9.2.  Please create a new address locator."  All of these address locators were made using ArcGIS 9.3.1.

[WesleyAntal2]

I'm also with this problem, but used ArcMap 10.2

[CarmenGonsalves]

Hi Wesley,

I had a similar problem.  I had opened the Geocoding Toolbar at the top of 10.5 to make it easier to access the functions.  I discovered for whatever that I had to open the <Manage Address Locators> option and remove the locator I wanted to rebuild.  If I didn't remove it from the list first, it would error and tell me I could not rebuild it.  Hope this helps!

[BenDrury]

I am experiencing this same issue with ArcGIS Desktop 10.2.

I initially tried to rebuild an existing locator that was created with 10.1 and received the error "Can't rebuild locator".  So I deleted it and tried recreating it.  It initially appears to have successfully created the locator, however, if I try to rebuild it kicks out the error "The address locator was created using a release of ArcGIS previous to ArcGIS 9.2.  Please create a new locator."  And if I try to use it to create a composite locator it will not populate any 'Field Map' values.

Anyone else having these issues?

[WesleyAntal2]

I try with user sde and it's work.

must be something about permission!!!

[JoeBorgione]

I try with user sde and it's work.

must be something about permission!!!

So you are creating a locator within an SDE geodatatbase?  I would suggest you not do that, but rather keep it in it's own directory.  No problem to access or point to data in the SDE database, but it's much better practice not to store a locator as an object of any flavor of geodatabase; SDE, file, or personal.  You've already made a case supporting this, right?

[WesleyAntal2]

I did not create locator in the sde geodatabase, created with the User SDE in my geodatabase.

[JoeBorgione]

I did not create locator in the sde geodatabase, created with the User SDE in my geodatabase.

Not good practice at all to use the SDE for anything other than administrative purposes.

[KimOllivier]

I have never got the locator rebuild tool to work. Ever. I wonder what the tool is for!

My solution is to save the result tool that creates the locator in the first place and re-run it again from scratch.
I put the results into a small script with a copy-as-a-python-snippet and then use that.
It only takes a few minutes to build a new one so you are not saving much time.

I write the locator into a local file geodatabase, but this does not package properly for someone else, so I copy the locator into a file before packaging it to copy it into ArcServer.

[BrianOevermann]

Kim, and Wesley, and Katherine, and ...

Joe's remarks are spot on.

Kim, your workaround of copying the locator out of your file geodatabase to package it up sounds like a huge time-waster if you plan on doing this more than once.  I would suggest taking the time to re-create your locators outside of the geodatabase (or perhaps you can copy the existing locators out permanently).

To do so:
- Create a folder wherever you want to store the locator(s).  It should go without saying that this folder should have permissions set to allow access to whichever users need these locators, including the ArcGIS Server account if you want to register this folder with Server.
- In ArcCatalog, navigate to the folder and open it up.
- Right-click and select New-->Address Locator (or Composite Locator...)
- Construct your locator

I have my locators in a folder on my map server , which I can access via a mapped drive for administrative tasks like rebuilding as well as consuming them in ArcMap.  This folder is registered with Server, so the individual locators do not need to be copied to ArcGIS Server when publishing them.  Only my composite locator is copied to ArcGIS Server (because that is by design).

I am operating with a single map server, so your architecture may prevent you from using this methodology.  You could put the folder anywhere on your network that allows your ArcGIS Server account to access it.

Regarding rebuilding the locators:  I haven't used the ArcToolbox tool to do so, but use the right-click context menu option, which basically runs the same underlying process.  I have found that successful index rebuilding is hit-or-miss unless any map services containing the data used by the locators have been stopped.  No errors are thrown, I simply can't get new addresses to be successfully found without stopping the map services first.  The locator indexes never seem to get re-written otherwise. [Maybe Joe has a solution for MY issue?]