Edit an item's metadata to record information that is important for your organization to know about the item's origin and content. You can edit an item's metadata if you have permission.
- For items stored in a project, you can edit metadata if you have write access to the project.
- For items on the file system, you can edit metadata if you have write access to the location where the item is stored and its files are not read-only.
- For items in a geodatabase, you can edit metadata for an item if you have privileges to edit its data. For an enterprise geodatabase, metadata is only supported for the default version of the geodatabase; items can't have version-specific metadata content.
- For portal items, you can edit metadata for items you own. If you are an administrator of your ArcGIS organization, you can also edit metadata for items you do not own.
It may take some time to complete an item's metadata. You can save your changes and stop editing at any time—even if required information is missing—and come back later to finish your work. If you save and close the project with a metadata view open, you can start editing metadata again immediately when you reopen the project, as long as the item remains available and your privileges haven't changed with respect to it. The metadata view opens to the same page you worked on previously.
Several metadata views can be open at the same time. If you lose track of which metadata view is associated with which item, hover over the name of the item at the top of the Contents pane; a pop-up shows the item's type and location.
Learn about best practices for documenting items
Edit metadata on the Properties dialog box
For maps, layouts, reports, presentations, and other items stored in the project, you can edit the item description portion of the item's metadata on its Properties dialog box. If many layers or tables are selected, the changes are applied to all selected layers or tables.
Map layers, stand-alone tables, and videos can have full metadata stored in the project or can reference the data source's metadata. Use the drop-down list at the top of the Metadata tab on the Properties dialog box to choose one of those options. When these map contents are set to reference the data source's metadata, the item description portion of the data source's metadata is visible—but not editable—on the Properties dialog box.
When a map layer, stand-alone table, or video is set to have its own metadata, you can edit the item description portion of the layer's metadata on the Properties dialog box. For example, you can copy a data source's metadata to a map layer and edit its content to specifically describe the information portrayed by the map layer accounting for display queries, symbology choices, fields included, and so on.
Because metadata for project items and map contents are saved in the project, metadata updates are not permanent until the project is saved.
Tip:
To edit full metadata for a project item, or for map contents that are set to have their own metadata, right-click the entry in the Contents pane and click Edit Metadata 
.
Edit metadata for project items
Edit metadata for maps, layouts, reports, presentations, or other items stored in the project.
- Open a map, layout, report, presentation, or another project item.
- Right-click the project item at the top of the Contents pane and click Properties.
The Properties dialog box appears.
- Click the Metadata tab.
A brief version of the item's metadata appears on the tab.
- Describe the item.
- Click OK.
- Save the project.
Metadata for the project item is saved in the project with the item.
Edit metadata for map contents
In a map, when a layer, stand-alone table, or video is set to have its own metadata, you can edit that content on its Properties dialog box. If you select many layers, tables, or videos in a map, the changes you make are applied to all selected items.
- Open a map.
- Select one or more map layers, stand-alone tables, or videos in the Contents pane.
- Right-click the selected items and click Properties.
The Properties dialog box appears.
- Click the Metadata tab.
A brief version of the item's metadata appears on the tab.
- Click the drop-down list and click Layer has its own metadata, Table has its own metadata, or Video has its own metadata.
- Click Copy data source's metadata to this layer
.The Copy Source's Metadata message box appears. It warns you that any existing metadata already stored in the project will be overwritten.
- Click Yes.
The data source's metadata is copied to the map layer, stand-alone table, or video.
- Describe the layer, table, or video.
- Click OK.
- Save the project.
Metadata for the map content is saved in the project with the item.
A warning appears when you try to edit full metadata
If a map layer, stand-alone table, or video is using the Show metadata from data source (read-only) option and you click Edit Metadata on the layer's, table's, or video's context menu or on the Catalog tab on the ribbon from a catalog view, a warning message appears. You can't edit the data source's metadata directly from the layer, table, or video.
If you want the layer, table, or video to continue to reference the data source's metadata, you must browse to and select the data source in a catalog view and edit its metadata directly. Once the data source's metadata has been updated, those updates appear the next time you view metadata for the map's contents on the Properties dialog box.
Alternatively, set the layer, table, or video to have its own metadata on the Properties dialog box then proceed to Edit Metadata .
Edit metadata in the metadata view
In a metadata view, you can edit full, standards-based metadata for any item, including the project itself and a map's contents. Two metadata editors are available in ArcGIS Pro.
By default, the ArcGIS Pro classic metadata editor is used to edit metadata using the Item Description metadata style, which uses a single page to provide essential information describing the item. To provide more information choose a different metadata style. The same metadata editor that is available in ArcGIS Online is also available in ArcGIS Pro, and supports most metadata styles. Choose the metadata editor you want to use on the Options dialog box.
When you start editing an item's metadata, the selected metadata editor appears in the metadata view. Both metadata editors can be used to edit the same ArcGIS metadata content using the same rules for the selected metadata style.
- Open a catalog view, browse to the item whose metadata you want to edit, and select it.
- Apply a metadata template to the item if you have one.
- Optionally, synchronize a dataset's properties to an item's metadata.
- On the Catalog tab on the ribbon, in the Metadata group, click Edit .A metadata view appears. The selected metadata editor appears in the metadata view.
- Describe the item using the metadata editor by typing or selecting values.
- Save your changes:
- For project items and the contents of a map, where metadata is stored in the project—on the Metadata tab on the ribbon, click Apply
and save the project. Your metadata edits and all other changes are saved in the project. - For the project itself, datasets, files, tools, and other items referenced by the project, metadata is not stored in the project—on the Metadata tab on the ribbon, click Save
. Your metadata edits are saved with the item.
You can continue editing the item's metadata. Preview your changes by viewing the item's metadata in the catalog view.
- For project items and the contents of a map, where metadata is stored in the project—on the Metadata tab on the ribbon, click Apply
When you're finished editing the item's metadata, close the metadata view.
Use the ArcGIS Pro classic metadata editor
When you edit metadata using the ArcGIS Pro classic metadata editor, pages for editing metadata are loaded into the editor as specified by the selected metadata style. Each page is listed in the Contents pane.
The metadata style determines which metadata elements are mandatory, and which values are allowed to be recorded in those elements. If a page in the metadata editor has an element that is mandatory for the current metadata style and a value is not provided, the page has an invalid metadata icon 
. When you click the page in the Contents pane, validation messages appear at the top of the page.
To create a metadata record that meets the minimum requirements for the current metadata style, select each page with an invalid metadata icon and provide the content described by the validation message. When all validation errors on the page are resolved, the icon for the page changes to a valid metadata icon 
.
Use the ArcGIS metadata editor
When you edit metadata using the ArcGIS metadata editor, the editor has two pages that are listed in the Contents pane: Essential Metadata and All Metadata.
The Essential Metadata page provides access to all mandatory and suggested elements for the current metadata style on one page. In the third column of the editor, the Required tab lists elements that are mandatory for the current metadata style. The Suggested tab lists elements that are recommended for creating high quality metadata but are optional for the current metadata style. If the metadata view is too narrow to show all three columns, Show required elements appears at the top, and when you click it, the Required and Suggested tabs appear in a secondary window inside the metadata view.
The All Metadata page provides access to all ArcGIS metadata content in a manner that is appropriate for the current metadata style. Controls that describe a specific concept are organized onto a card, and those cards are organized in a manner that is similar to the ArcGIS Pro classic metadata editor. The required elements for each card are listed in the third column.
If you don't know where to find a specific metadata element, type the metadata element's name into the search bar in the corner of the All Metadata page and press Enter. By default, the search results list all cards associated with the metadata element throughout the item's metadata. Click the Show hidden results toggle button at the top of the search results to include only cards associated with mandatory elements in the search results.
When you click a mandatory or suggested element in the third column on either page, the controls for providing that content scroll into view. When a suitable value is provided, a green check appears next to the element in the list and the progress bar advances indicating how close the metadata is to completion.
Edit metadata with a Python script
If you need to perform the same action to update or manage metadata for many items, it is recommended that you use a Python script. The Metadata module, arcpy.metadata, is a Python module for accessing and managing metadata. Use it to perform any of the following actions:
- Update the same metadata element's value for many items.
- Synchronize the properties recorded in an item's metadata with the item's current information.
- Delete geoprocessing history for many items.
- Export metadata for many items to a standard-compliant metadata format.
- Import the same metadata template to many items.