MSP project won't open after baselining - error: "We're sorry..."

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

A project won't open after baselining. It goes from writing to XML to not responding. Microsoft Project (MSP) eventually crashes with a "We're sorry. There seems to be a problem with this file" error. 

Cause

This can happen if the project being exported is too large for MSP to open. Adding a baseline doubles the size of the project, which is why this may be noticeable especially after baselining. 

Resolution

1. Review MSP Integration performance best practices to see if there are any options that can be used to help reduce the size of the project (durations, # of tasks, assignments, baselines, etc)
2. Additionally, as of the April 3, 2018 MSP Update, a configuration is available to help with this issue:

• • As this requires a registry setting change, it's recommended to take a backup of the registry prior to making the change
  • See the following Microsoft article for more details on this improvement and steps to update the registry: April 3, 2018, update for Project 2016 (KB4018320)
  • This change would need to be made on any workstation that would be opening the larger projects

Additional Information

See also: MSP opening projects issues - master KB