copy features, failed to register as versioned, geodatabase client is incompatible

[JayHodny]

Hello.  I thought I was performing a simple Copy Features from a FGDB in Pro into a versioned feature class on our enterprise GDB, which succeeded.  When I went to register the feature dataset as versioned, I received the following versioning error.  I tried to delete the new feature class and received the following delete error.  This all started by converting the labels from an enterprise feature class to graphics in a Pro project.  I then edited the label graphics, then converted them back to features (Graphics to Features), then used the Copy Features to create the new FC in the feature dataset on our enterprise GDB sde, for others to use as needed.  I am not sure what I can do next.  I have server management studio but I hesitate to delete from there.  Any help would be appreciated.

[KimGarbade]

Sounds like your ArcGIS Pro version might be out of step with your geodatabase version: 

Client and geodatabase compatibility—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

You are wise not to delete geodatabase objects using SSMS.

I would check your ArcGIS Pro version against your geodatabase version (you can use SSMS to open the SDE.SDE_Version table or query that table to see your gdb version). 

You could try connecting to the database using a different ArcGIS Pro version (one more compatible with your database version) and see if that helps. 

---------------------

P.S. I'm not suggesting you do it (but in case you infer from the above link it might be a course of action), but changing your geodatabase version isn't something I would do without thinking about it hard and planning for it with other concerned parties (I.E. What other departments might be effected, what versions of Pro does everyone in our organization use, what services might be using the database, what version of Enterprise is your organization using)...you could go from one problem to a bigger problem...Before you do anything like that back the database up and verify the backup was successful.  

[JayHodny]

Hello!  Many thanks for the quick reply.  The topic in general is a bit outside of my wheelhouse, so I struggle to understand completely, but let me provide some more information.  I'm also a novice with using SSMS.

In ArcCatalog, I can see our GDB is version 10.8.1, and the message says it matches our current ArcGIS release.  I am assuming this is referring to ArcMap (at 10.8.1)?    In reviewing the online documentation link you provided, it suggests our Pro versions are well ahead of our geodatabase version (second screen shot).  We are using Pro 2.9.2.  We updated our Pro users last week.  The 'graphics to feature' work I did yesterday, after the upgrade.  Just prior to the Pro upgrade last week, I did some similar Copy Feature work from Pro to our sde, into the same feature dataset, and had none of the issues I see now.  This has me wondering if the new Pro version is now too "new" to write new feature classes to sde from Pro, and we are now past the backward compatibility "window?"  I don't quite follow the SSMS steps you suggested to check the GDB version.  However, when I check the version in Pro, I get the same message as with Catalog, and the prompt to upgrade is greyed out.  I am not sure what is next to try, Esri support ticket?  Any further help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

EDIT:  My version of Pro was upgraded prior to the current feature class creation as well as the work I thought I did prior to the upgrade.  All of the feature class copying was performed post upgrade.

[JayHodny]

My FGDB created in the Pro project has this version.

[KimGarbade · Accepted solution]

It gets confusing for sure....  Not sure why you could write the data to an older database version with a newer client (I.E. ArcGIS Pro), but you can't delete that same data using the same client software.... Sorry to be of such little help, but a support case might be warranted. 

The only other thing I can think of is to find another computer with an older version of ArcGIS Pro on it (maybe someone who hasn't upgraded yet) and try deleting the data from that client. 

If you don't have an old version of Pro laying around you can uninstall your "newest" version and download  an older version from my.esri.com.  But that is a hassle because it takes a bunch of time to uninstall, download, install, test if that even solves your problem, then upgrade your newly installed old version back up to the current version.  Might be worth a test though, because this might be the tip of an iceberg in that all data written to this enterprise GDB using ArcGIS Pro 2.9.2. might create similar issues.

[JayHodny]

We had a similar issue happen about a year ago.  With Esri support we believe we identified the issue as failing (forgetting) to unregister the feature dataset as versioned, BEFORE, copying feature classes, renaming feature classes, etc.  Ultimately, we ended up working through and resolving the issue, including a full database compression.  We are going to repeat the workflow (after backing up the GDB) and see if we can clean up the issue. 

I was wondering when one adds a new feature class to a versioned feature dataset (without unregistering it as versioned), does the dataset automatically unregister as versioned?  

[JayHodny]

Good morning!  I found an earlier version of Pro (2.8.something).  We were able to delete the pesky feature class in sde after disconnecting all the enterprise GDB users.  Also, when we went to re-register the feature dataset as versioned, that setting had re-appeared.  I don't understand how/why this all works (e.g., reverting to an earlier version of Pro), but am relieved.  It also begs the question of will this happen again when creating new feature classes in our sde from Pro?  Or if we unregister the feature dataset prior to adding new feature classes, will this prevent the issue, and allow us to restore version registration on the dataset after?  In the meantime, we are going to perform a full compression of our GDB later today after user hours.  Thank you again for the various ideas to try, much appreciated!  Regards, Jay