workspace suddenly becomes read-only

MatthewFoster · ‎11-20-2012

Hi Everyone,
This is driving me crazy. I will be working on editing a point shapefile (or feature class in a file geodatabase), adding points and an attribute for the ID as I go along. I can save the edits as I go (and I do), but after a few saves, the shapefile or feature class suddenly becomes read-only - or at least, that is what ArcGIS tells me, "Unable to save edits. Workspace or data source is read only". I never set anything to read only, and after successfully saving my file 3 times (in the latest case) it decides to give me this error on the fourth time! I have tried putting the geodatabase in a different directory, I've tried as a shapefile... Any ideas? This has happened repeatedly with different projects lately. Very frustrating

Thanks in advance,

Matt

MathewCoyle · ‎11-20-2012

What version of ArcGIS and service pack are you using? Do you have any virus scanner running? Does it change to read only after you stop editing and start again, or is it only locked for a few seconds/minutes and release itself while you are still editing? Are you working locally or on a network resource?

MatthewFoster · ‎11-20-2012

Thanks for your reply Matthew. I am using ArcGIS 10.1 (no service pack). I'm not currently running antivirus. The feature class changes to read only while i'm editing - without stopping and starting. I notice it when I go to save. After several successful saves (without stopping editing) it suddenly decides that it's read only. Finally, I am working locally on my laptop. Thanks again for any ideas you may have.

Best,
Matt

MathewCoyle · ‎11-20-2012

Do you have indexing on? Either through the OS or through ArcCatalog? The only times I have seen this behaviour is when there is another process that is running in the back ground that monitors changes to files for indexing or what not. Usually these are virus scanners or index processes. I would go into your services and processes tabs in task manager and see what is running. While you are editing have your resource monitor window open and see what processes are using CPU, specifically around when the file changes to read-only.

JohnNiles · ‎01-03-2013

Anyone have any input on this problem? This just popped up out of the blue today, and it has halted all further work.

danielsdfn · ‎01-11-2013

same problem like you guys...5 hours of work will be blown away... thank you ESRI!!!

JohnNiles · ‎01-22-2013

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

MathewCoyle · ‎01-23-2013

Hello? Can ANYONE speak to this?

Do you have a response to any of my suggestions above? If your issue is serious and affecting productivity I'd recommend contacting Esri support.

JasperTolsma · ‎01-29-2013

I have had the same problem recently. What helped me to save my edits, was to export the feature class to another geodatabase. In this way it was exported with all the edits and I didn't have to throw all my work away.

It's no solution to the actual problem, but I hope this helps some people who are about to throw away a lot of work because of this issue.

AdamCinderich1 · ‎02-10-2013

This has happened to me 3 times in the last 7 days. The first time it happened was the first time I have ever seen this happen. I proceed with editing attributes in my digitized shapefile and randomly I'll get a message saying "Workspace is read-only, can't save edits". There is only ONE button to click "Okay" and when you click that, all of your unsaved edits disappear - not even giving you the opportunity to try and re-save, export, or anything!

At first I thought it happened to occur because I happened to click save edits at the EXACT same time my Dropbox was syncing but then I realized that working in Dropbox is the exact same as working locally because it saves to my computer's folder with or without an internet connection and simply syncs whenever the connection is available - so it couldn't be that.

Now that I am saving edits after every 4 or 5 edits (so annoying), I had it happen 2 more times yesterday. I have NO idea why this happens but it is so frustrating when clearly my file is not read only. I created the file, it is stored on my machine and I am the only one with access to the file.

Anybody else still having this same issue?