View metadata

Item metadata includes the information on an item page and the standards-based metadata that the item owner or an administrator defines for the item.

You can view both types of metadata for items that are shared with you. See View and use items for information about viewing information on the item page.

The option available to you to access standards-based metadata for an item depends on several factors, as described below.

• If an organization administrator has enabled editing metadata, an Edit metadata button appears on each item page for the owner of the item and for organization administrators. Item owners and organization administrators use the button to access the item's metadata. For hosted feature layers, owners and organization administrators can access metadata for individual layers by clicking Edit metadata.
• If an organization administrator has enabled editing metadata, everyone else who has access to the item can click the View metadata button on the item page to view the metadata in the metadata style configured for the organization.
• If editing metadata is not enabled, everyone with access to an item can click the View metadata button to view the metadata for the item.
• Metadata can be accessed for individual layers in a hosted feature layer. To open the layer's page, click the layer name in the Layers list on the Overview tab of the hosted feature layer's item page. As with the other items, which button you click depends on the organization setting and your role in the organization. Click either the View metadata or Edit metadata button to view the layer's metadata.

View metadata for an item

The following steps describe how users who are not the owner of the item or who are not organization administrators can view a subset of standards-based metadata for an item. Item owners and administrators can use the steps in Edit metadata to open the metadata editor when they need to view all metadata.

1. Open the item page.

   Organization members access the item page from the Content tab. If an organization member shares the short URL for the item page with you, you can use it to access the item page. If the item is shared with the public, you can use the short URL to access the item page without signing in to the organization.

   The item page opens to the Overview tab.

2. Click View metadata.

   Tip:

   You may need to click the expand button to see all options.

   If the item is a hosted feature layer or hosted table, you can view each sublayer's metadata. To access the metadata editor for a sublayer, click the sublayer name in the Layers or Tables section of the Overview tab.

   Metadata properties appear. The properties available to you depend on whether you are signed in to the organization and what privileges you are assigned.

Tips for viewing metadata

Consider the following when viewing metadata:

• To view layer-level metadata for public layers with FGDC styling, your organization must allow anonymous access. If your organization is private—that is, if anonymous access is disabled—layer-level metadata for public layers is available by default with ISO styling.
• For information about the metadata styles that ArcGIS Online supports, see Metadata in ArcGIS Online.
• Answers to common questions about metadata in ArcGIS Online can be found in the Metadata section of the FAQ page.