Project fails to save and then no longer opens after forced shut down - can't save as new project

[sb1111]

I'm beyond frustrated here and would really appreciate some help. My organization works on a network, and I have no way to avoid this. Even if I save the project to a local drive or USB, the layers I need are all on the network. Lately, our network connection has become absurdly spotty, and there's nothing I can do except wait for IT to fix it. In the meantime, I have actual work I need to do, and I am stuck. 

The issue is this: I'll be working, and then I'll have the audacity to try to save my work. The dialog box will run for a while, and then I get the "Fail to Save" error. Even when I try to save it as a new project, I STILL get this error. I tried to save it to a USB, but it was as though there is no USB in the computer at all because that location just didn't show up when I tried to save. Also, I don't know if this means anything, but whenever this is happening, I almost invariable see [Backup in Progress] at the top of the screen. It will say this for hours and as far as I know, there is no way to cancel the backup from happening, even though it is clearly not functional.

If I close the project without saving - which is inevitable at some point, because I can't leave it open indefinitely - the project doesn't open again. ArcGIS "can't find it." When I try to open it from Windows Explorer, all the index files and whatever are still there, but there just is no project file...it's just vanished. There is either nothing in the backups folder or there is a random document that isn't a project file that I can't open. Please help me - I've lost several projects in the last few days and I don't have time to keep recreating them over and over again

[Brian_Wilson]

I know this does not fix your network problems, but certainly it sounds like autosave is making this worse for you.

Maybe you should turn it off until your network problems are addressed to see if it helps.

Go into the "Project" screen and go to "Options". Under  "Application" click "General" and expand "Project Recovery". There you can choose how often a backup is created and whether or not to create one.

I know there are policies that admins can apply to control the use of thumb drives.  Does your organization block them? Can you read and write a thumbdrive from Windows or is it only ArcPro?

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-access-to-removable-storage-devices-in-windows-11.70...

[sb1111]

Thanks for the response. I've gotten rid of the backup option now that I'm aware it's an issue, but I haven't been able to test it yet. Right now, I have a map open that is running into the issue and has been showing "[Backup in progress]" and refusing to save for a good four hours or so. I'm afraid to close the map because I'm 99% sure I'll never be able to open it again. As for the thumb drive, I can use it with other programs with no issues. I don't know if my organization has any restrictions on using them with ArcPro because I've never tried it before - it's really not something I want to use often, it was just a desperate bid to try to keep my data from being erased 

[Brian_Wilson]

I don't think there's a way to make it block one app from using a thumbdrive so that's probably not the problem. This is probably another one of those cases with Esri software where they just don't test real world conditions like this. Sounds like you know what comes next, redoing the work. Kill it and move on.

Yesterday I had to use ArcCatalog for something and found a case where it just crashes on save, consistently. I got those "Do you want to send a report?" dialogs every time. So glad I don't use ArcMap/ArcCat anymore.

[sb1111]

Yeah, you were correct - had to kill the program and lose the project 😞 

Fortunately, I figured out the thumb drive issue - turns out I just needed to refresh the folder location (I swore I tried that earlier, but whatever). Anyway, being able to use the thumb drive means that I've been able to save the project there and only use local copies I have saved there for the time being. Not remotely ideal, since we have a ton of data I need on the network, but better than nothing. Thanks for your input 

[KyleleenBMInc]

I am also experiencing this issue - ESRI, its been over a year, still no fix??