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Visio Professional 2003 Crashes when trying to save

Anonymous
2023-10-03T02:13:17+00:00

I purchased a perpetual license of Visio Professional 2003 years ago which has served me well for doing technical / schematic engineering drawings. The standard issue of Visio doesn't have the symbols included in the professional package.

I've used the program without issue for many years and now all of a sudden I can no longer save a file. I create a new diagram, go to save, and it just freezes up.

Restarted, created a new blank diagram with absolutely nothing in it, tried to save and same result, just freezes up.

Tried same thing starting visio in safe mode.

Uninstalled visio and reinstalled from my physical installation CD that I still have lol. Same thing: trying to save a new diagram it just freezes up trying to access the contents of the hard drive.

This is not part of office 365. I bought it as a standalone perpetual license, visio pro 2003 alone, not bundled up with office.

What is going on? The program works fine for creating diagrams, I can draw up whatever I want. Just lose everything when I save. I've lost about 8 hours of work already doing this a few times.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Visio | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-09T12:08:46+00:00

    I am experiencing the same problem, and tried all the usual recommendations, including the recommendations in this thread. The only work-arounds I have been able to figure out:

    1. Not to use the feature "Save As" in Visio Pro 2003, it freezes/crashes Windows 11. Simply close the file and name/rename the file after the file is closed - closing the file and saving the changes works, but the "Save As" feature does not work, it freezes/crashes the program; or
    2. Use the Visio program on a computer that has not been upgraded to Windows 11, and then transfer the file to the computer running Windows 11, and remember not use the "Save As" feature. As per the recommendation in the above noted item 1, close the file and name/rename the file after the file is closed and do not use the 'Save As" feature (which I keep fogetting to do!) it will freeze/crash the program and will not save your work. It would be useful to save often, but do not use the 'Save As", it will crash the program and not will save the changes to the file.

    This is a problem with Windows 11 and not just Visio Pro 2003, and Microsoft should issue a fix to Windows 11 so that old wonderful programs such as Visio Pro 2003 do not crash/freeze Visio or Windows 11.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-26T20:19:26+00:00

    Hi,

    Just want to add that I am experiencing the exact same problem. Also tried to re-install without success. The problem is related to Windows 11. Before upgrading to Windows 11 I had no problems.

    BR/

    Ulrich

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-06T21:31:46+00:00

    Thanks again Ravi,

    I had previously uninstalled / reinstalled. I just tried again doing it to your detailed instructions for clearing out temp files etc. and uninstalled / reinstalled again. The behavior is still when trying to save a visio document, it locks up in the same exact way.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-04T19:28:54+00:00

    Thanks for responding Ravi!

    I just tried the service pack 3 for visio you sent me the link for, but it still behaves the same way after installing.

    I am running Windows 11 Pro. That was installed 1/19/2023, but I did not observe this problem with saving files until now, so I don't see how it could be due to an upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 that happened back in January.

    I didn't know there was an expiration on perpetual license.

    The program still functions other than not being able to save anything which is stupid, and renders the program useless as of course I need to save anything I create. Could it be due to some innacessible folder locations perhaps that Visio is trying to access by default?

    This is how it hangs up when I try to save the simplest of new diagrams created new:

    Seems like such a needless waste of a good program. What could be going on with it's inability to save? Maybe this is a windows problem and not a Visio problem?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2023-10-03T02:58:08+00:00

    Hello Luke,

    Thank you for reaching out to this forum. As a fellow Microsoft user, I'm here and ready to help you out today.

    Thanks for beings a valuable Microsoft user till now.

    Unfortunately the support for Visio Professional 2003 version has been ended on 2014. What version of windows version are you using currently. Please make sure to install all service packs for this version.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/visio-2003

    Service packs can be downloaded from this link. https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=office+2003+service+pack+3

    You can use the free version to view the files online. https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/visio/free-visio-viewer

    Hope this information would be useful to you. Please feel free to get back if you need any additional info.

    Thank you! Ravikumar Help the next person who has this issue by indicating if this reply solved your problem. Click Yes or No below.

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