Error 000229 when trying to Clip

GIS1 · ‎07-30-2012

Hi friends,

I am experiencing a weird issue. We have a layer that seems fine. It is visible in our map and we are able to manipulate it in many ways. However, when trying to clip it out given a shapefile, we get the following error:

Error 000229 Cannot open blah blah blah

The ESRI help is not very helpful on this:
http://help.arcgis.com/EN/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00vp00000005000229.htm

Obviously, the data exists, we can see it on our map. Furthermore, performing the same clip on a different computer works just fine. It's just this one computer that seems to be experiencing this issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Robert_LeClair · ‎03-13-2013

One possibility for the Error 000229 code is after installing SP1 for Desktop Background Geoprocessing (64-bit) AND storing one's data in a Personal for MS Access geodatabase, the clip operation will fail. You may read more about this at: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//002100000040000000

If this is not the case, then I would recommend calling Esri Support Services (Desktop) to create an incident so that an analyst may resolve the error.

Regards,

Robert LeClair
Esri-Denver

JoshThompson1 · ‎03-13-2013

I suspect that this issue it may very well be related to how the layer is named in the ArcMap TOC. As a test, I would suggest trying to run the tool from ArcCatalog/ArcToolBox rather than running it from ArcMap. That way you will avoid any TOC layer name issues.

If you are successful with the ArcCatalog method, then the next test in debugging the error caused by running it through ArcMap would be to rename the layer in your TOC to something very simple.

Josh

gregmohler · ‎03-22-2013

What you get from esri:
"The data is not accessible. It is likely either invalid or not available."
I got this error from a permissions issue from an IDLE window (no arcmap/toolbox/catalog/toc). The SDE database connection doesn't give me access to view/edit/etc the feature classes, hence the not available error. Changing the path to something knowingly wrong gives the usual error000732:"...does not exist or not supported"
Also had problems at home with Windows being wonky about permissions.
edit: My admin guy just ran the script on the files I couldn't access

RobThomas · ‎03-25-2013

I've had this problem with clip, joins, and selections when performing geoprocessing in the Python Command Window. Everything runs fine in ArcGIS 10.0, so this is definitely a 10.1 bug. It occurred before and after installing SP1 for Desktop Background Geoprocessing (64-bit). The error occurs on shapefiles and feature classes (GDB). I can run some commands referencing a layer and have it work fine, close ArcMap, open later to run the same commands and receive the error...Sometimes the error would appear for a different layer that didn't give me a problem before. Nothing change in the TOC or with the layers. FRUSTRATING...

My workaround...Every time I received the error I was referencing a grouped layer. Being grouped didn't cause the problem, as it occasionally worked with the same grouped layer, but errors only occurred on a grouped layers. If I moved the layer outside of the group the errors always went away. I've tried several ways to reference the layer (e.g. r'GROUP\lyr', 'GROUP\lyr', 'lyr) but could not find a solution.

As someone else mentioned, sometimes restarting ArcMap helps too.

TimothyPierce · ‎06-27-2013

Running 10.1. First time encountering this problem for me. In this case, navigating to the feature classes for Input Features and Clip Features did the trick (as opposed to drag/drop or using drop-down menus). Thanks for the workaround, blbrock.

RandyMcGregor · ‎07-23-2013

I'm getting this same error except when trying to merge datasets. It's very annoying and can't find any explanation for it. The data is added to arcmap, displays without issue and appears in the drop down list of the tool, but as soon as you run the tool it gives the error 000229. After the tool has failed, when ticking the layers on and off I get the red exclamation mark signalling a broken data link, but the source location is as it should be.

I managed to get the merge to work by exporting the datasets into a new gdb. Any ideas what the problem is though? Are the files corrupted in some way and are there other ways to resolve it?

I get this error periodically, and I simply don't get it. The file that it "can't open" is perfectly fine, and it is not being editied, so a lock is not the issue (there should not be a lock on it, anyway). It cannot be used as an input. What would prevent a file from being usable as an input?

KieranParsons · ‎09-04-2013

I still receive this annoying, pointless, frustrating error message, when all I want to do it union two simple datasets.

Did anyone find a solution? Seems like ESRI won't help.

ChrisErtel · ‎09-17-2013

It has definitely got something to do with data being grouped in the TOC.

Come on ESRI, fix this!

EricaMcCormick · ‎12-05-2013

I tried many of the helpful and thoughtful suggestions here, but this one was the culprit for me (running 10.2). As soon as I moved them out of a group, Erase worked. Thanks for the troubleshooting!

I've had this problem with clip, joins, and selections when performing geoprocessing in the Python Command Window. Everything runs fine in ArcGIS 10.0, so this is definitely a 10.1 bug. It occurred before and after installing SP1 for Desktop Background Geoprocessing (64-bit). The error occurs on shapefiles and feature classes (GDB). I can run some commands referencing a layer and have it work fine, close ArcMap, open later to run the same commands and receive the error...Sometimes the error would appear for a different layer that didn't give me a problem before. Nothing change in the TOC or with the layers. FRUSTRATING...

My workaround...Every time I received the error I was referencing a grouped layer. Being grouped didn't cause the problem, as it occasionally worked with the same grouped layer, but errors only occurred on a grouped layers. If I moved the layer outside of the group the errors always went away. I've tried several ways to reference the layer (e.g. r'GROUP\lyr', 'GROUP\lyr', 'lyr) but could not find a solution.

As someone else mentioned, sometimes restarting ArcMap helps too.

Anonymous User · ‎01-06-2014

I was getting the same error when trying to Clip. I turned off background processing and voila, no more error! Hope this can help someone!

Cheers,
Brendan