Unable to open project file. Loads eternaly

[ItsAnt]

Hello Arc users

I'm dealing with a very strange and frustrating issue where I simply cannot open my project file, I was able to access/open the file a few days ago and all of a sudden when I try to open it now it loads eternally. If it helps narrow the issue, when looking for similar issues I noticed that no matter how long I let the file run/load it does not display a 'Failed to Open Project' type of error, this is after allowing it to load for over an hour.

Another thing is that before re-installing ArcGIS Pro to see if that would resolve the issue, I made a rough copy of the project file onto my USB, and after reinstalling the program I still was getting the eternal loading screen from the main file but interestingly I was able to open the copy of the file that was transferred to the USB drive, but I cannot work with this file since it is missing all the datasets and shapefiles that are used in the project, and for some reason it will not allow me to bring in/locate some excel files.

[AdrianWelsh]

If you are using ArcGIS Pro 3.0 and you have an excel file in the project, then you need to install the Access Database Driver Engine.

In this help article, it mentions where to download this driver:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/excel/prepare-to-work-with-excel-in-arcgis-pro.ht...

I would start with that and see if that resolves your issue (I had my projects hanging forever and this resolved my issues). Also, make sure you have the .NET 6 Desktop Runtime x64 as mentioned here:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/announcements/get-ready-for-arcgis-pro-3-0/

[ItsAnt]

Hi Adrian, thanks for the quick reply.

I have installed .NET 6 Desktop Runtime x64, as for the Microsoft Access Database Driver Engine I have installed the X64 version which I've provided screenshots below. I just ran the system requirements for ArcGIS Pro and it checked off for the requirements so I'm really at a loss here

[AdrianWelsh]

Yeah, I would be at a loss too. Another thing that happened to me was that my computer did a major update and my aprx project files would hang after that too. I had to go back in and reinstall those same drivers and things are working again. I am not sure if that would work for you but maybe worth a shot.