Synchronizing local edits with the server

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

When you are finished editing the local layers, you can synchronize the edits with the server. To do this, right-click the group layer containing the local layers, point to Edit Features, and click Synchronize Local Edits with Server. You can only synchronize edits one time if a file geodatabase is being used to store the local data. If you want to apply more edits in the future, you need to create a new local copy. Once edits from a file geodatabase are synchronized with the service, the data sources for the layers will be changed to reference the service. However, if you use an ArcSDE geodatabase to store the local copy of the data, you can perform multiple synchronizations. In addition, when ArcSDE is used, the synchronization process applies the latest changes from the service back to the local copy and the layers still reference the local copy. Note that if the data in the service is from a nonversioned ArcSDE geodatabase, you will not be able to store the local copy in ArcSDE. If you attempt this, an error stating that you cannot replicate nonversioned data will be displayed when you run Create Local Copy for Editing. To run the command successfully, do not set ArcSDE as the target geodatabase. See Setting options for editing server layers locally for steps on how to do this.

Conflicts are handled using a last in, wins policy. For example, if more than one editor is making edits to the same features, the synchronization process overwrites changes applied previously to these features by other editors.

When you no longer need to synchronize edits, you should disconnect the local copy from the server to clean up metadata on the client and server. The metadata cleanup process is important in that it aids server maintenance. If a file geodatabase is used to store the data locally, synchronizing also cleans up the metadata.

Steps:

1. Right-click the local copy group layer, point to Edit Features, then click Synchronize Local Edits With Server.
2. If you are storing the local data in ArcSDE and are done synchronizing edits, right-click the local copy group layer again, point to Edit Features, then click Disconnect Local Copy From Server.