Broken Links in ArcGIS Pro
Included in this tutorial
Identifying a broken link
Repairing broken links
Software version in examples: ArcGIS Pro 2.8.0
Tutorial Data: The tutorial includes demonstration with sample data available here.
Credits: L. Meisterlin with Moses Levich (2021)
Using a project folder and organizing your layers within it can help maintain data links. Still, moving files, renaming files, or opening a project on a different computer, can cause data connections links to break.
Identifying a Broken Link
broken links and their warning symbols
Broken data links are indicated with a red exclamation mark next to the layer's name in the Contents panel (and the corresponding layer is not visible in the map).
To fix broken links, ArcGIS Pro needs to know the new location or name of the source files. (If necessary, you may need to reestablish a new folder connection, covered in Adding and Ordering Layers in a Project.)
Repairing Links
The quickest way to repair the link is to click on one of the warning symbols (red exclamation mark) in the Contents pane. This will open a "Change Data Source" window. Navigate to the new location of the file associated with the broken layer link, select it, and click OK.
In the example below, the StandardDataPackage geodatabase has been moved from the "Data" folder to the "Data2" folder.
fixing links with the Change Data Source dialog
This process should repair the malfunctioning links. When repairing one link with this method, all other broken links whose files are in the same new location will also be repaired.
Alternatively, you can always access and reset a layer's source data in its Properties, by right-clicking on its name in the Contents panel and clicking through Properties > Source > Set Data Source.