topic Re: ArcGIS Pro Project Issues when Moving Between Minor Versions in ArcGIS Pro Questions

ArcGIS Pro Project Issues when Moving Between Minor Versions

ZacharyUhlmann1 — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:08:45 GMT

Hi. Does anyone have an empirical or otherwise non-anecdotal handle on exceptions to ESRI's guidance regarding working on Pro Projects (.aprx) across different versions.

Open a project (bottom of page: "Open a project created in a different ArcGIS Pro version"). This ESRI documentation states that traversing across minor versions is functional i.e. 3.0.2 to 3.3.4, etc. is theoretically fine.

A project I produced a year ago on 3.0.2 was recently worked on buy a coworker - a new layout was created, more data, another map, etc. She is on 3.2.0. I am now on 3.3.4. When I open it to inspect and edit, it stalls indefinitely when I try Activating the Layout.

Is ESRI incorrect in their assertion that traversing minor versions is functional?

Thanks,

Zach

Re: ArcGIS Pro Project Issues when Moving Between Minor Versions

AyanPalit — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 11:46:32 GMT

@ZacharyUhlmann1 So project was updated in Pro 3.2 and then being opened in Pro 3.3.4. This is fully supported and I would not expect this due to version incompatibility.

Perhaps, there is a broken data source. Possible that second user doesn't have all the access that first user had and hence it stalls. Suggest looking at the layer list and using tools like Diagnostic Monitor to identify the issue. You can also log an Esri Technical Support ticket where an analyst can review the aprx file.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Project Issues when Moving Between Minor Versions

ZacharyUhlmann1 — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:29:38 GMT

Thanks @AyanPalit . It's the other way around. The first user (me) created it in 3.0.2, then upgraded to 3.3.4. Second user is on 3.2.0. Hers works fine - i.e. she can Activate the layout without Pro stalling indefinitely (effectively crashing). It's me on 3.3.4 that ran into the issue. I did open a ticket with ESRI and found a solution. Not really a learning experience as it was basically - delete layers, try activating layout, until it stops crashing. Brute Force troubleshooting. Turns out it was an Image Layer from Living Atlas from USGS called USGS_Historical_Topo_Maps (USGS Historical Topo Maps ; removing "_" for searching purposes in case others in same boat). Once that was removed from the map belying the layout, the problem was solved.

That's as far as I dug now that it works. But it is a difference in versions, unsure what happened from 3.2 to 3.3.4 as the Image Layer presumably still functions.

Thanks for responding.