ArcGIS 10.4 crashes when opening a 10.3 MXD

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06-30-2016 05:07 AM
AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

Just installed ArcGIS desktop on 2 machines.  We upgraded from v10.3 to v10.4.

On my machine I am having no problems (so far).  On the other machine we are having problems opening the MXD's we were using in v10.3.  Some MXD's open without problems.  Other MXD's won't open at all.  The only error message we get says "windows is going to shut down ArcMAP"

I did find something in the Event Viewer on that problem machines.  There it lists 2 files; ArcMap.exe and sdemssqlsrvr.dll

One more thing, the MXD's that won't open on machine 2 open without problems on machine 1.

So far that's all the information I have.  I've been online looking for someone else that has had the same problem.  Nothing so far.

I'm guessing there has to be something in those MXD's that is causing the problem but how do I figure out what that is?

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AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

Figured it out.  ESRI has already address this problem.  As it turns out, Microsoft is no longer supporting SQL 2008 so beginning at ArcGIS 10.4 you get all sorts of craziness from a 2008 version of your data.  I'm told Microsoft is not willing to help in making it better so there just is no support.  See this KB article:  Problem: After upgrading to ArcGIS 10.4 for Server, existing services that use data in geodatabases ...

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

did you have/use 3rd party extensions in the other products that failed?  I get suspicious when machines work with some projects and not others.  you could try mxd doctor in your C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.4\Tools folder

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BillFox
MVP Frequent Contributor

are you using SQL Server 2008 R2?

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AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

The projects being opened were using SQL Server Express 2008.  But with the upgrade we are now on SQL Server 2012.

The intent was to open up the MXD and point the data to the new copy on SQL Server 2012.  Can't get to that step because the app crashes.

At this point the data exists in both places;  10.3/SQL Express 2008 and 10.4/SQL Server 2012 so the MXD should be able to open up without broken links.

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JoshuaBixby
MVP Esteemed Contributor

I can't remember the details right off the top, but we had a similar issue with map services a couple versions back.  It was the connection, or attempted connection, to the server that was crashing the apps.  What we ended up doing was taking the machine offline (no network connection) and opening up the MXDs and making changes.  Since the client couldn't connect at all to the server, the MXD opened up just fine with the broken link symbol.

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Other tips are trickling in over here before you get started with potential solutions

arcmap - ArcGIS Desktop 10.4 crashes when opening a 10.3 MXD - Geographic Information Systems Stack ...

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AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

That's my post too.  Same guy, same problem.

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AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

MX Doctor didn't work.  MX Doctor crashed too.

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JayantaPoddar
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Resetting the Application profile might help. See Resetting your ArcGIS application profile



Think Location
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AlexRodriguez
New Contributor III

Nope. Tried that. Made no difference.

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