File or personal geodatabase

These upgrades are optional, but if you do not upgrade them, you will not have access to the latest network dataset or parcel fabric functionality. Arc GIS Desktop. Connect to the folder that contains the file or personal geodatabase you want to upgrade. If you do not already have a backup of your data, make a backup copy of the geodatabase before proceeding.

Right-click the geodatabase and click Copy. Right-click the folder into which you want to place the backup and click Paste. Right-click the geodatabase to upgrade and click Properties. Click the General tab. They also select the relevant keywords and operators for you. However, if you have a WHERE clause defined for a layer in a personal geodatabase, it may not work on the same layer once you've moved its source data into a file geodatabase.

Another reason a WHERE clause may not work is that file geodatabases support fewer operators and functions than are supported by personal geodatabases, and file geodatabases provide limited support for subqueries.

There is little that differs in how you use geoprocessing tools on file geodatabases compared to personal geodatabases:. Unlike personal and enterprise geodatabases, file geodatabases allow you to optionally store vector data in a compressed, read-only format to reduce storage requirements. The compressed data is a direct access format.

The data looks the same as if it was decompressed, and you perform all read-only operations the same way, whether through a command in the Catalog tree, geoprocessing, or ArcObjects. For more information, see About compressing file geodatabase data.

If you have an application written in ArcObjects and want to switch the data it accesses from a personal to a file geodatabase, consider the following:. Apart from these differences, ArcObjects works the same on file geodatabases as on personal geodatabases. The following can help improve and maintain file geodatabase performance:. Whenever you add, edit, or delete a feature or record, ArcGIS needs to update the indexes. If you are making the changes on a small dataset or making the changes to just a few records, such as 10 records out of 1 million, the time it takes for ArcGIS to update the indexes after each incremental change will not be an issue.

However, if you are making the changes to a large number of records, such as , out of 1 million, updating the indexes for the many incremental changes may take much longer than if you delete the indexes before you start, then add the indexes after you have completed the changes. Deciding whether to drop indexes in other cases involves trade-offs and may not be obvious.

Similarly, developers writing loaders or converters with ArcObjects should consider using load-only mode whenever a large number of records are being loaded.

Load-only mode suspends the updating of all attribute and spatial indexes until features have been imported.

If your geodatabase was created using an ArcGIS 10 or earlier client, you may want to upgrade it. Upgrading a file or personal geodatabase is optional in most cases, but if you do not upgrade, you will not have access to newer functionality. You can use the Upgrade Geodatabase geoprocessing tool or a Python script to upgrade a file or personal geodatabase. Follow these steps to upgrade a 9. Having a backup copy of the geodatabase allows you to revert to the previous version of the geodatabase if needed.

If an upgrade is needed, the Upgrade Geodatabase button is active. If the Upgrade Geodatabase button is not active, it could be because the connecting client is at the same release as your geodatabase or your geodatabase is not at a supported upgradable release. The Upgrade Geodatabase geoprocessing tool opens.