In Pro 2.1, AGOL hosted feature service item metadata is no longer attached when viewed in Pro

[ThomasColson]

In Pro 2.0.1, when adding an AGOL HFS layer to a "New Map" via the Add Data icon, when right clicking on the layer in the TOC, selecting Properties, Metadata, all of the AGOL metadata is present (Title, Tags, Summary, Description, Credits, Use Limitations, Thumbnail). 

In 2.1, same add data workflow, same AGOL source, when right-clicking on the layer in the TOC, select Properties, Metadata, only the title and the tags are populated. All other elements are blank, as is when you select "Edit" or "view" metadata from the right-click action. 

This is pretty problematic, as I put a great deal of time into getting the AGOL metadata elements populated so the "Item Information" green line always reports "High". As I'm trying to use Pro to produce more downstream content (e.g Offline Map Package), having to re-create/re-edit all of the metadata doesn't seem very productive. 

In trying to nail this down, I investigated (and discarded) number/length of tags, SQL reserved keywords, views hanging from the service, sync/edit settings....as the cause, this applies to all HFS's. So it appears something was introduced in 2.1 that worked in 2.0.1...

[AletaVienneau]

Take a look at the entries in the map's TOC in Pro. The entries you get are not always the same depending on how the feature layer was published and how it is added to the map. Sometimes the entry in the TOC is a group layer. Try expanding the group layer in the TOC and see if the metadata is available on the sublayer. 

[ThomasColson]

This issue is consistent with all feature services that are a single-feature-class service (not grouped), and is the same issue when viewing the metadata from the root (group) layer or the actual (sub) layer. However, "how it gets published" got me to thinking, and I've narrowed this down to: This behavior is only exhibited in HFS layers published by Pro. And to answer your next question, yes, all of the metadata items are fully published during the pro-publishing-workflow...which is how the metadata ended up on AGOL in the first place. Changing the metadata viewing preference in Options does not change the behavior. And, as a final follow up, this behavior wasn't an issue in 2.0.1...so what's different? 

[AletaVienneau]

The metadata for the feature layer... was this created in Pro before the feature layer was published, or on the item in AGOL after feature layer was published? EDIT: please confirm which version of Pro the feature layer was published with.

[ThomasColson]

My workflow has always been to create the item metadata in the map (now project) before publishing...If I need to make a change to the AGOL item meta, I'll do it in the source document (project) and republish. 

• Start Pro
• Add Feature Class
• Populate Metadata, both at the Map, and the layer in the TOC. 
• Publish to AGOL

The version doing the publishing is 2.0.1., as I haven't yet certified 2.1 to be installed on anything other than a test machine.... Which shouldn't make a difference....I hope we're not going down the road where an organization has to globally update its GIS software just so something as simple as viewing item metadata from AGOL remains consistent...

However, to test your question, I made some changes to the AGOL meta in AGOL, and ONLY those changes showed up when I add the HFS to Pro. I changed tags, and item summary, those appear in meta view in Pro, however, ALL AGOL item meta is populated (e.g restrictions on use), and that doesn't show. 

[AletaVienneau]

I only ask about the Pro version because there are changes in Pro 2.1 specifically relating to new capabilities for authoring metadata at the map layer level, and also how/when metadata is accessed for map layers when data is added to a Pro map. This is described in the What's New, and in the Help for viewing metadata under the heading "View content on the Properties dialog box". It shouldn't make a difference what version you published with, but knowing which version of Pro you used I know not to ask questions that would be specific to a layer's properties in 2.1. I haven't been able to reproduce the problem you describe, but I can investigate further publishing and accessing metadata using those versions of Pro.