The Register As Versioned and Unregister As Versioned options are inactivated for a certain feature datasets

Description

When a data owner in ArcMap right-clicks on a feature dataset both the 'Register As Versioned' and 'Unregister As Versioned' options are inactive (grayed out).

Cause

This issue occurs because of two factors.

• The feature dataset contains a mix of feature classes using both versioned and non-versioned archiving.
• Archiving is enabled on the feature dataset. 

Since the software detects versioned feature classes with archiving, it does not display the 'Unregister As Versioned' option.

Similarly, because the software detects non-versioned feature classes with archiving, it does not display the 'Register As Versioned' option. Therefore both the options are grayed out.

Solution or Workaround

Use one of the following options to resolve the issue:

• If all of the feature classes are required to maintain their current versions and archiving status, either split the feature classes into separate feature datasets according to the editing strategy, or move one group of feature classes to the root level of the geodatabase.
• If archiving need not be maintained, disable the archiving on the dataset. Following this, 'Register As Versioned' is no longer inactive. Registering the dataset as versioned now makes all of the feature classes in the dataset versioned. Optionally, re-enable archiving if needed.
• If the live archive link need not be maintained, but the historical data must be preserved, disable archiving on the feature dataset, and choose to keep the archive tables. Although disabling archiving on non-versioned data deletes the GDB_ARCHIVE_OID, GDB_FROM_DATE and GDB_TO_DATE fields from the primary feature class, electing to keep the archive class generates a separate _H table that can be used to maintain the data.