ArcMap and ArcCatalog both show the a "?" next to several shapefiles in the catalog window. Additionally, a two-letter prefix "ml" has been added to the file name, but only when viewed in Catalog, not in Windows File Explorer. I am unable to open, load or even view properties of these files. Coworkers do not have this problem with the same files (in a networked shared folder). There are other files in the same folder that do not have this issue. This question is related, but the problem there was a missing .dbf file. All files that I have showing this error contain files with extensions: .cpg, .dbf, .prj, .sbn, .sbx, .shp, .shp.xml, .shx, so this didn't solve my issue.
What I have tried:
- Adding file to ArcMap .mxd. Got error "Error: failed to open the dataset"
- Opening file in ArcCatalog. Got error "Error: failed to open the dataset"
- I was able to successfully open and view the same file from within Python/Geopandas with no problems, so I assume this is an ArcGIS-specific issue.
- I can open and use any of these shapefiles in QGIS without any issues.
I'm running ArcGIS version 10.5.1 on Windows 10.
What am I missing?
EDIT based on comments: The folder where these files are located, "County Layers (check against Shared Data)", is not a .gdb folder, nor is it in one. There are other .shp files in this same folder without this issue.
Here's all the component files of ParcelAddressOwner.shp as shown in File Explorer:
Based on Michael Stimson's comment, I used Geopandas to write out a new .shp file. I wrote the file, titled "Zone A Project Creeks - wtrcrs_line_Test.shp", to 3 different folders: 1) the original folder "County Layers" 2) one level up in "Data" and 3) two levels up in "GIS". Note that the file saved to folders "Data" and "GIS" in the image below do not have the ? or "ml" prefix.
Here's the full catalog window of these folders and test files.
This suggests a problem with the folder itself, but I'm not sure what. It has the same permissions as other folders at this level and above it.
.gdb
directory this is completely correct response to corrupting the file geodatabase.