Locate window crashing when searching for address when using a custom locator in project

[MDB_GIS]

For the past week or so, I have been getting crashes when using the Locate window in ArcGIS Pro. We are using a custom locator that we built that is currently stored on a network drive. What is strange is that this behavior only happens if the project has been open for a while. If I open the project search for something using the locate window, our locator finds it and will zoom you to it with no issues. If you leave the map open for a few hours and then try and use the locate window, it will crash by the time you have typed the third or fourth character. 

I have put in a ticket with ESRI technical support but I'm getting frustrated because their initial response has been to blame the crashes on the fact that we have the locator on a network drive. This has never been an issue before on ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro so I'm not sure why it would be all of a sudden. This issue is also hitting across multiple versions. I am 3.2.2 but my coworker is on on 3.2.1 and they are having the same problem. This all started within the last week or so. Is anyone else experiencing this? Any ideas on how I can fix it?

[ThomasHoman]

I'm currently running 3.2.1 with a network locator and not having your particular problem. 

As a troubleshooting step, are you in a position to indulge support's concern and thus prove or disprove their hypothesis? Could you copy the locator to a local folder on a few of the problem machines for a week and isolate the network concern? If you still have the problem, it's not the network. No problem suggests that your normal IT support may need to engage for resolution.

While all software vendors everywhere will first point to resources outside their control to wrap up a call quickly, many times there are reasons for their position so it may be some merit - a network resource has multiple points of possibilities that can be causing problem. Did IT do anything that may have changed the network resource (or the network path) in some fashion...

I'm also digging through a similar problem though with a different software so vendor external concerns are not uncommon.

Regards,

Tom

[MDB_GIS]

Is your locator stored on a network drive? Are multiple people accessing the same locator? 

Would I literally just copy and paste the two locator file from network drive to local PC? I'll definitely give it a shot.

[ThomasHoman]

I am running an unshared locator on the network. 

Yes, just copy and paste the files then don't forgot to load the local copy in your project. Maybe also remove the network copy from the project as well.