ArcGIS Pro 2.2 stuck on startup at Initializing....

[EricEagle]

ArcGIS Pro 2.2 is stuck on startup at the Initializing... splash screen.  I have let it sit there for 20 minutes before killing the process.  It will no longer open at all.

Here's what I've tried.

- Uninstalling ArcGIS Pro.

- Deleting all ArcGIS Pro-related directories under my user profile.

- Reinstalling ArcGIS Pro.

The problem continues.

My workstation is capable.  Intel Xeon, 3.4ghz, 24 cores.  128GB RAM.  Nvidia Quadro K5200.  Windows 10.

ArcGIS Pro is installed to C:\ArcGIS\Pro in order to give me the write access I need to install Python libraries and modify conda settings.  Installing to the default \Program Files\ is not an option for it is not writable by policy. (Incidentally, I found that you can't install the offline help if you've installed Pro to a non-standard location... thanks Esri)

Short of getting a local admin to log me on, and combing through the entire flippin registry to delete every single trace of ArcGIS Pro, does anyone have any suggestions of things I could try?

[Robert_LeClair]

Two questions - what antivirus program are you using and do you use Concurrent Use licensing?

[EricEagle]

Hi Robert, it's not as simple as antivirus (McAfee) but HBSS and all that jazz.  I'm just working with IT to reimage the box because I've got a lot of cruft from former versions and now-obsolete tweaks I've done to get various versions of python and anaconda working properly together.  I did by the way, scrub the registry after uninstalling everything Esri, and continue to experience the problem, so I think re-imaging is the next logical step.

[Robert_LeClair]

Understand - reimaging is a great workflow to rebuild the box.  Hopefully this action corrected AGP.

[KoryKramer]

Hi Eric,

Was there any follow up on this?  Did you end up reimaging the machine or not?

Does Pro still hang on initializing?  Let us know and we'll see what we can do to help.

Cheers

[GISSolutions]

Would like to know what the result was as well as I have a user having same issue.

Thanks!

[EricEagle]

Kory, yes, there was a resolution.  It turns out that I had as my only Portal connection, a SSL cert-authenticated Portal.  Something was happening with Pro that would not send the SSL connection to the foreground.  Once I removed that connection from the registry, ArcGIS Pro started up normally.

My thought is that this should probably be captured as a bug, as it is repeatable and I have seen it on other workstations.  It was a simple fix for me because I was able to switch to my local (username/pass) Portal.  However, this could be a problem for those users in certain communities who only have connectivity to client-cert-validated Portals.

[RyanColeman]

I'm having the same problem, I deleted a REG_DWORD in the registry under ArcGIS Pro/Settings that said Connection but it still initializes forever. It eventually pops up a Security Alert but I can't interact with it. Do you remember exactly how you did this?

[EricEagle]

Ryan, sorry for the lag on this -

The keys are HKCU\SOFTWARE\ESRI

\ArcGIS Online\Portals

\ArcGIS Online For Pro\SignIn

I removed any links to any client cert authenticated portals.  I also removed www.arcgis.com references; though if you depend on arcgis.com, you will obviously not want to do that.

[SteveScott]

Yep, we use single sign on to connect, not passwords. I added our ArcGIS Enterprise portal and I get the initialize freeze bug.