Opening tools from the search window

[GerradJones]

Until recently, I was able to search for a tool and open it from the search window.  However, if I search for ANY tool (e.g., clip), I cannot open it from the search window.  If I go to the ArcToolbox, I can open all the trees and find the tools and open them from there with no problems.  This, of course, takes much longer.

Recently, I deleted all the files in my default geodatabase. The default geodatabase is on my company’s network drive and it was taking up all the allotted space I had.  I have been saving all of my “critical” files in a separate folder that wasn’t on the network, so I thought I could just delete everything in the default geodatabase.  I am not sure if this has anything to do with it, but before I deleted the files, I had no problems and after deleting the files, it stopped working.  I thought this was at least worth mentioning.

Does anyone know what the problem is or how I can fix it? 

Thank you very much for your time and help.  I greatly appreciate it.

[JenniferMcCall4 · Accepted solution]

Have you tried renaming your Esri folder in C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\ESRI?  This is my go-to solution when ArcMap or ArcCatalog have strange behaviour.

[GerradJones]

Thank you Jennifer!  That is a nifty trick.  After changing the name, everything worked as before.  I will have to remember that in the future.

[JayantaPoddar]

Hi Gerrad,

You should never delete the files within a GDB from Windows Explorer. Always delete the whole GDB, if required.

Close all ArcGIS applications. Delete the Default.gdb and start ArcMap again.

[GerradJones]

Hi Jayanta,

For some reason, I started having problems with ArcCatalog and I was receiving errors saying that I didn't have permission to delete files or that the files were read only.  After 10 minutes of trying to figure it out, I just went to windows explorer and deleted everything form there.  That was probably what caused the problem.