My ArcGIS Pro template is 9GB. My ArcMap equivalent template is 5MB. Why?

[wilwaters]

No wonder it took so long to upload to ArcGIS Online.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Perhaps you can provide so details

[wilwaters]

I don't know where to start. I have some questions - what is the average size of a Pro template? What is a Pro template? The size makes me think it has packaged up all of the data, not just the list of data sources and how to symbolize it like a .MXD is. The thing is, all the data sources listed in the Pro template is way less than 9GB in size.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

The link is here to examine what templates are...the section is quite extensive

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/help/projects/what-is-a-project-template.htm

There is no such thing as an average template size.

[wilwaters]

Thanks for the tip. I am guessing Pro tried to copy all the data in the project I was using to create the template. This seems silly as a default. I'm assuming it is the default setting, because I didn't change anything when I used the project to create a template. Anyway, regardless there is far less than 9GB of data that the project's layers are pointed at, so I'm still interested to know what might be causing it.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

to quote   a template can provide either complete datasets or schema-only data definitions

You will have to analyze whether this is for person use or distribution to others and what is contained in the project.

I just created a bare bones template...it was 20 Kb in size

[wilwaters]

As another test I’ve been trying to
use this 9GB template to start a new project. It’s been <5 min now since
selecting it but nothing has happened… still loading. RAM use went up to 4GB
before dropping off to 3.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

it is full of crap then...have you removed extraneous history from the project? deleted any unnecessary files or files that were used in geoprocessing operations?

​You might want to go through this toolset

An overview of the Package toolset—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS for Desktop

and compact or otherwise simplify any geodatabases you are using

An overview of the File Geodatabase toolset—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS for Desktop