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I'm trying to write a code for automating changing the source for some layers of a mxd document. I have three layers that should point to the same shapefile, they are only displayed with different symbology in the map. So, here is a version of what I tried:

#in this example, the shapefile I want is "C:\\Users\\USER_NAME\\folder\\new_shape.shp"
#this new shapefile IS NOT in the same directory as the previous one
#also, I tried first changing only one layer

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument('current')
principal = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd)[0]

lyr1 = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers('current', '', principal)[5]
lyr2 = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers('current', '', principal)[6]
lyr3 = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers('current', '', principal)[7]

lyr1.replaceDataSource("C:\\Users\\USER_NAME\\folder", "SHAPEFILE_WORKSPACE", 'new_shape')

From all the examples I found, this should do the trick. However, when I open the MXD, the layer's datasource is the same as before. This happens for any of the three layers.

I really couldn't figure out what is wrong in this code.

I'm using ArcGIS 10.5 and Python 2.7

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    You don't seem to have saved the changes (at least, it's not in your code). Not uncommon; in fact, this is a duplicate of a (probably closed) question from a few months back.
    – Vince
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 17:53
  • You say, using mxd.save()? I didn't add it to this sample of code here, but I have used it.
    – Karol Duarte
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 18:20
  • Well, since you don't specify the validate parameter, the default value of True is used, which is documented as "If set to True, a workspace will only be updated if the workspace_path value is a valid workspace. If it is not valid, the workspace will not be replaced. If set to False, the method will set the source to match the workspace_path, regardless of a valid match. In this case, if a match does not exist, then the data source would be broken." so your replacement is incorrect in some way. Not including the .shp suffix could be a cause.
    – Vince
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 18:56

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Someone from outside StackOverflow was able to help me, so I will share the solution, which was quite simple.

Adding '\\' to the end on my folder path made everything work fine for me!

I really have no idea why, since I haven't seen this in any of the examples I could find online, though.

But adding the .shp suffix to the shapefile name returns a ValueError, so ajusting only the path is the answer.

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