ArcGIS Pro all commands grayed out, cursor spinning, cannot exit; recurring issue

[wayfaringrob]

Ever since I started using Pro, which at this point, has been on a number of machines, multiple versions, and a few different orgs, I get this issue where every command is grayed out, including the exit button, and the cursor is spinning. It usually goes away after a few moments, but occasionally (right now!) it goes on for much longer, usually when doing something routine like validating a join or querying something that normally only takes seconds. It doesn't really indicate progress on those kinds of things, either, so it's actually hard to tell what's causing it or what it's thinking about. I cannot Ctrl+W/Alt-F4, either. I just have to wait or force quit and lose changes if they haven't autosaved. Which is a monumental improvement from the much more frequent and catastrophic "ArcMap.exe has encountered an error and needs to close" warnings, but I can't find a rhyme or reason. It's still frequent enough, though, that I feel something should or could be done - performance-wise, ArcGIS Pro continues to be by far the least reliable program that I use on a daily basis. And I use Office 2013!

I'm curious if anyone has ever been able to find a persistent cause and solution to this? To me, it just seems random, so I don't think tech support would be much help. Curious to hear from others though. How do you work around this?

[wayfaringrob]

Never have, no.

[Robert_LeClair]

Thank you the response.  In studying this issue, let's try a few more things.

1.  Clear the Local Cache in the Options->Display tab, click the Clear cache now button and perhaps check the "Clear cache each time the application closes" box.  Maybe try a different rendering engine radio button on the same tab - it defaults to DirectX 12.  Try DirectX 11 or Open GL.
2.  Use a different basemap in the layout (strange I know, but it worked for another customer).
3.  Do you have XTools installed?  If so, remove/delete this Add-In.
4.  Update the graphic card drivers.

Let me know if any of these suggestions improves ArcGIS Pro performance.

[HallvardSkrede]

Yes, we have switched from "Citrix" to "Azure", but the issue remains... 😕

[MichelleCMiciunas]

ugh, been experiencing this same thing in many of my Projects over the last few days, it's maddening! Something as simple as checking a box to turn off/on a layer in the Contents causes the spinning wheel of death for 5+ minutes. 😖

[Robert_LeClair]

Sorry to hear you're experiencing the spinning wheel of death.  I've been reviewing the internal support cases related to this issue and it did a similar case.  A user saw this issue when updating ArcGIS Pro from an earlier release, say 3.2.1 directly to 3.3.1 they saw this latency issue. 

Steps the analyst took:
"- We have tested the query on our end as well. When upgrading from version 3.2 to 3.3.1, there are two methods you can follow. If you choose to upgrade through the application, you can go to the "About" section under the project window. From there, you will see the latest version available with the patch. Clicking on the "Download Now" option will first download the main version, and then you can follow the same step to upgrade it to the latest patch.

- On the other hand, if you prefer to upgrade the application through My Esri, you will need to download the main version first (in this case, version 3.3) and then install the patch.

- Informed the user that It is important to note that installing the patch directly without downloading the main version first may cause performance issues in the application."

So long story short, I'd recommend a clean uninstall of ArcGIS Pro and a clean install of the base ArcGIS Pro, say 3.3.0 or 3.4.0.  Then update the software patches and retest your workflow.  I know it's a not ideal scenario but from the case I'm reading, it does fix the spinning wheel of death.

[MichelleCMiciunas]

Thank you for the swift reply! I was recently on 3.2.2 and then per support tix suggestion, upgraded to 3.4.0. So. I'll install the latest patch and see if that resolves it. 

My next course of action was to open a support tix.