Problem: Feature Service attachments created in ArcGIS Desktop are not found in ArcGIS Online pop-ups

[DanAllen]

I have about 3000 points with a small PDF attachment for each point (200 to 300kb attachment size).  When I publish to ArcGIS.com from ArcMap Desktop 10.4, it takes a long time, shows the attachments copying up to ArcGIS.com.  However when I view the feature service in ArcGIS.com Pop-up, there is no attachment. 

There is a know issue with this, but it relates to an "ObjectID" field being renamed, but in this case, my was not and still reads "ObjectID"  http://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000011888

Any thoughts or workarounds?  I recreated the entire layer and re-published it a second time, but the attachments still disappear in ArcGIS.com

Thanks

[KellyGerrow]

Hey Dan,

It sounds like there is an issue with the publishing process. I'd suggest getting in contact with Esri Technical Support to help troubleshoot the issue. They can look help look into the issue in more detail.

Are you publishing with ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro?

Two quick tests:

1. Are you able to create an SD file and then upload and publish it to ArcGIS Online? If so, try opening the SD file with 7 zip and see if the attachments are included in the FGDB that is located in the V101 folder.

2.  Can you verify if Attachments are enabled prior to publishing?

-Kelly

[DanAllen · Accepted solution]

Hi Kelly,

Thank you for your suggestions.  It ultimately led me down the path to figuring out this problem.  After several hours of methodically creating, re-creating, and re-publishing my feature class with attachments and changing one variable at a time, I stumbled upon the cause of my problem.

I used a match table to batch load the PDF attachments to my 3000 points.  In doing so, I manually created a field in my attribute table called "AttributeID".  As soon as I turned that column off in my attribute table, suddenly I was able to publish my feature class to ArcGIS.com again, without the attachments disappearing.  I was able to replicate this behavior in ArcMap 10.4.1, and ArcPro 2.0.1, so I'm not sure if this is a "bug" or not, but if you could report it that would be great.

Thanks

Dan 

[AlanRex1]

Hi Dan,

Was your field name called "AttributeID" or "AttachmentID"?  I was able to reproduce the problem when I had a field named "AttachmentID" but I wasn't able to repro with "AttributeID".  

All I did was create a blank feature class, add a feature, add an attachment and then add the field, before publishing.  If you think I missed a step that would also trigger the "AttributeID" problem, please let me know and I can check it out.

I logged a bug for what I was seeing:

BUG-000109491 - Attachments are lost when publishing a feature service to ArcGIS Online if source data contains a field named 'attachmentID'

Feel free to call in to Tech Support if you'd like to get attached to this bug.  

Regards,

Alan

[DanAllen]

Thanks Alan.  Must have been a typo on my reply.  It was "AttachmentID" that caused it to fail.