3Ds Max 2020 closes when opening the file browser

[mskinner32]

Max immediately crashes/closes when opening the file browser. No files can be opened and no new files can be created. How can I fix this problem?

[Anonymous]

It happens every now and then that files go corrupt. Often it's just the best option to go back to an earlier save (why I always save incremental) rather than troubleshooting it, but it depends on the scene complexity. I usually have several thousand unique objects in my scenes so if I have recent enough save I just go back. Auto backup is also good to have in these situations. I recommend thoptv setting the auto back files to something like 10 instead of the default 3. I use an interval of 30 min, as complex scenes can take some time to save and it quickly gets annoying to get interrupted every five minutes. This problem is mostly seen on Dell Inspiron 15 7000 laptop compared to others.

[PropChad]

From the sound of it, it's crashing on him just opening the explorer window when you click open.

You can try dragging the file in from a separate open explorer. Or double click the file name. That should load Max and the file. If that crashes Max, with any file, you've got some install or plugin issues.

Edit: this won't solve your save issue though as that Window will pop up the first time you save. Make sure all of your system updates are installed. GPU drivers, etc. I don't know if it'll work, but try changing Display Driver, Customize > Preferences > Viewport > Choose Driver. Try them all, including the Legacy ones.

Hopefully someone from Autodesk can chime in. There should be some logs saved out somewhere that would help solve the issue.

[Jixal]

I was getting this too on my laptop. 

Running as Administrator fixed the problem.

But that does have it's restrictions such as can't load in .mzp files or use a  path/ directory explorer program like Direct Folders. So it's not ideal but at least it works :S.

[mskinner32]

I tried every solution posted above and several others I found on different sites, but I still can't get Max to open the file browser without crashing. I installed, max 2018, 2019, and 2020 and they all do the exact same thing. The last version I had that worked on my computer was max 2017, but my license expired for that version and I can open it anymore. This is really frustrating. Does anyone from autodesk have a solution for this?

Operating System: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
System Model: Alienware 18
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4910MQ CPU @ 2.90GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M X 2

[mskinner32]

OK, after spending all night trying to fix this, I finally got Max to open the file browser without crashing. The solution I found here:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/3ds-Ma...

I renamed the files as stated in the thread, although my files were in a different location than listed.

C:\Program Files (x86)\AlienRespawn\Components\Shell\

After a restart all versions of Max worked fine. YAY.

If not using the Dell Backup and Recovery application: Manually Rename the Dell Backup and Recovery DLL AssociationsTo resolve any crashes when navigating to and selecting files in 3ds Max, rename the Dell Backup and Recovery DLLs by performing the following steps:

1. In Windows, go to Windows Explorer.
2. Browse to the location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell Backup and Recovery\Components\Shell
3. Manually edit the filename of each of the noted DLLs so that they can not be loaded. (For example, adding a *.bak to the filename, such as "DBROverlayIconBackuped.dll.BAK" will prevent the file from loading.)

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