Why does Arc say my file has no projection when I try to Export Feature Attribute to ASCII

[AdrianRamanzin]

I have a point shapefile, and I'am trying to export the data into excel using the Export Feature Attribute to ASCII tool. For some reason it doesn't work. I get error 000916 : The input feature class does not appear to contain projected data. Except that it does have projected data.

[RobertBorchert · Accepted solution]

It could be because your shape file has not been assigned a projection. You can display shape file data that is not projected.

Navigate to where your shape file is located.

shape file are actually a collection of several files that work together. One of the files that does not have to be there for the shape file to work is the .prj file as pictured below.

If you don't have one of these files then your shape file is not projected.   Go to the shape file in Catalog and assign it a projection.

Also open the shape file in ArcGIS and open its table.  Open its table and sort by area or length. If you have any values that are zero they could be causing issue as well.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

Even if your shapefile has a .prj file and is in coordinates of the projeciton, as Robert Borchert  mentioned, you may still need to assign a projeciton tot he shapefile. 

A few versions of ArcGIS ago, there was a change to the format or names of projections, or something similar.   Even if the parameters are exactly the same, and the older shapefile work fines with the projection file as is, the newer ArcGIS may not recognize the name.  

In ArcCatalog, you can navigate to the shapefile and assign the correct projection name (do this on a copy to test).  Do not project, just assign.  Check out this help topic which includes link to several ways to update the projection file.

Fundamentals of a shapefile's coordinate system—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

[DanPatterson_Retired]

If the coordinates are in the range  X: -180 to 180... Y: -90 to 90

good change they aren't projected.  Regardless of the prj file, whether it was defined or not, correctly or incorrectly, try looking at the coordinates.  It could be an innocuous question/warning that things are not as they appear.

Never trust a *.prj file unless you can confirm that it matches the actual data's coordinates.

[JayantaPoddar]

If I consider that the spatial reference of the shapefile is correct, why don't you use Table To Excel tool. In case you want the coordinates, you could calculate the X and Y coordinates using Calculate Geometry using Add Geometry Attributes tool , prior to converting them to Excel.

[AdrianRamanzin]

My work place only has 10.1 for some reason.