Maintain Attachments (Environment setting)

Tools that honor the Maintain Attachments environment setting will copy attachments from the input features to the output features.

Usage Notes

• The following tools will copy attachments:
  • Append
  • Copy
  • Copy Features
  • Copy Rows
  • Feature Class To Feature Class
  • Merge
  • Table To Table

  Note:

  The Copy tool will always copy attachments, regardless of the Maintain Attachments environment setting. This tool works similarly to a right-click copy and paste operation within the application.

• The output workspace must support attachments. Attachments will not be copied if the output workspace does not support attachments; for example, shapefiles and DBF files do not support attachments.
• Since relationship classes are used to maintain the linkage, and relationship classes require an ArcGIS Desktop Standard or ArcGIS Desktop Advanced license, a Desktop Standard or Desktop Advanced license is required to maintain attachments when copying features. With ArcGIS Desktop Basic, you can read and open attachments.

Dialog syntax

Maintain Attachments

• Checked—Attachments will be copied to the output feature class. This is the default.
• Unchecked—Attachments will not be copied to the output.

Scripting syntax

arcpy.env.maintainAttachments = True

maintainAttachments syntax

Parameter	Explanation
boolean_option	Specifies whether or not to copy attachments to the output features. The default is True.

import arcpy

# Set the maintainAttachments environment to False (no attachment copy).
arcpy.env.maintainAttachments = False