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Open and Save As Not Responding

Onegemini 0 Reputation points
2025-10-24T02:29:17.6366667+00:00

When trying to open or save an item. The normal windows for open or save as pop up, but they immediately say not responding. It can take sometimes up to a minute for it finally to load the files for you to choose to open or to allow you to save a file.

I have looked online for fixes and none seem to adress this. Most searches assume it is File Explorer not responding. But File Explorer works fine and opens immediately. It is specifically an app that is trying to open or save as and the window that pops up to do so freezes. So far I have seen this on both Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and another APP when I try to upload an image and select from my drive, that open window freezes. When I try to attach items to emails that window freezes. It will EVENTUALLY respond and allow you to load items, but the delay and not responding is ANNOYING and never used to happen!!!!!

So tell me Microsoft how do we fix this? Are you aware of the issue? Because this seemed to have happened sometime this year after one of your updates and I have read that you have been having issues with updates!!!!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures
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  1. Haytham-C 3,715 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-10-30T03:42:39.2333333+00:00

    Dear @Onegemini, Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Based on your description, when the Open/Save (file picker) window stalls across multiple apps (Edge, Chrome, email attachments, other apps) and take sometimes up to a minute for it finally to load the files. Before giving you the best solution, could you please confirm these questions below to help me diagnose the issue more effectively: 

    • What exact Windows 11 OS build are you on?
    • Does the freeze occur in all apps that use the Open/Save dialog (Edge, Chrome, Outlook, Word/Excel, 3rd‑party apps), or only some?
    • Are you signing in with a Work/School (Entra ID) account or personal account (@outlook.com/@hotmail.com) on this PC?
    • Are you on a VPN or Microsoft Entra Private Access when freezes occur? Does disconnecting improve it?
    • Is it happening on other devices or accounts?

    In the meantime, to help isolate the root cause, here are some steps I recommend you try while waiting for further investigating:

    Step 1: Since many Open/Save freezes trace to OneDrive Files On‑Demand or other sync clients’ overlay handlers, I recommend you try Go to OneDrive > Right‑click OneDrive cloud icon > Settings > Sync and backup > Temporarily turn off Files On‑Demand (called “Download all files”) > Quit OneDrive > reopen your app > try Open/Save > If performance improves, re‑enable On‑Demand and instead exclude OneDrive from Quick Access (unpinned) and keep your default Open path to a local folder.

    Step 2: Moreover, please try to create a New Windows profile test. This will help determine whether the issue is tied to your current user profile or affects the system more broadly.

    Sometimes profile corruption after an update can cause audio issues. Please create a new local user account and test there. (Settings > Accounts > Other users > Add account)

    Please follow the Microsoft instruction here: Manage User Accounts in Windows

    I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.

    Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

    Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

    I'm looking forward for your reply.

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