PROBLEM
In ArcGIS Online, hosted feature layers can be exported in various formats. However, when exporting as shapefiles, field names exceeding ten characters are truncated to only ten characters. For example, ‘City in California,’ ‘Latitude of City,’ and ‘Longitude of City’ are truncated to ‘City_in_Ca,’ ‘Latitude_o’, and ‘Longitude_o’, respectively. The image below shows the truncated field names when a shapefile is exported from ArcGIS Online and opened in ArcGIS Pro.
This is a known limitation for shapefiles. Shapefiles use the dBASE file format to store attribute information of features, which imposes a ten-character limitation for field names. Refer to the following resources for more information on exporting shapefiles:
Choose either one of the methods below to display field names with more than ten characters.
Create an alias for field names exceeding ten characters in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro
Note: In ArcMap, right-click the truncated field names, and click Properties. Rename in the Alias column.
Export the hosted feature layer as a file geodatabase (FGDB) from ArcGIS Online
The image below shows field names with more than ten characters are not truncated.
Get help from ArcGIS experts
Download the Esri Support App