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2.45. "Error accessing file. Network connection may have been lost."

Applies to:
@RISK 6.x/7.x
@RISK for Project 4.1

When I try to open @RISK for Project, this message pops up:

Error accessing file. Network connection may have been lost.

This is actually a problem in Project, not in @RISK. If you Google the error message, you will find numerous references to this message in various Microsoft Office programs. In a Project context, it appears your Global.mpt is corrupt.

Solution Method 1:

If you don't have any customizations in Global.mpt that you care about, you can try deleting that file and forcing Project to re-create it:

  1. Close Excel and Project if they're open.
  2. Click Start » Run, type
    %APPDATA%\Microsoft\MS Project
    (including % signs), and click OK. When the folder opens, double-click the MS Project version number (Project 2010 = 14, 2007 = 12, 2003 = 11), and double-click 1033.
  3. Rename Global.mpt as Backup_Glob.mpt. (If you see only the name and not the .mpt extension, rename it as Backup_Glob only.)
  4. Open MS Project and save the default Project1 MPP file to any location. This forces MS Project to create a fresh Global.mpt file.
  5. Close MS Project, and you can delete Project1.mpp.

Solution Method 2:

If the above shorter solution doesn't work for you, or if you have customizations that you don't want to lose, please try this solution that we found in an article at Tech Republic. Essentially you will delete and recreate the Global.mpt, but this procedure will lead you to back it up first.

  1. Open and save a new .mpp, say Backup.mpp.
  2. Open the Organizer. (In Project 2010, click File » Info » Organizer. In earlier Project versions, click Tools » Organizer.)
  3. Copy everything except Modules from the Global.mpt to Backup.mpp. Remember to look for the Task and Resource radio buttons and to switch between them on the tabs that have them. If you get a message that "No Group" cannot be copied, click OK. For any warnings about overwriting, click Yes to All.
  4. Close Organizer and save Backup.mpp.
  5. Open the Organizer again and one by one copy all the modules to Backup.mpp. If any that will not copy are not native to MS Project's Global.mpt file, you may need to open Project Visual Basic and copy the content of those modules to a text file or otherwise back them up. You can ignore a problem in copying any modules that are native to MS Project.
  6. Close Organizer, save Backup.mpp, and close MS Project.
  7. Click Start » Run, type
    %APPDATA%\Microsoft\MS Project
    (including % signs), and click OK. When the folder opens, double-click the MS Project version number (Project 2010 = 14, 2007 = 12, 2003 = 11), and double-click 1033.
  8. Rename Global.mpt as Backup_Glob.mpt. (If you see only the name and not the .mpt extension, rename it as Backup_Glob only.)
  9. Reopen MS Project and save the default Project1 MPP file to any location. This forces MS Project to create a fresh Global.mpt file.
  10. Close Project1.
  11. Re-open Backup.mpp created earlier, and copy everything in the Organizer back to the Global.mpt.
  12. Close Microsoft Project, and you can delete Project1.mpp.

Last edited: 2015-10-05

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