Creo 11 flow analysis: "Open Projects" inactive problem

Hi everyone, 

I’ve been using Creo Flow Analysis for quite some time and run into a frustrating issue in Creo11 where the ‘Open Projects’ button becomes inactive. 

here is the work flow:

1. ran a thermal-fluid simulation and reviewed the results
2. saved project
3. close and restart creo
4. when trying to load the analysis again, the open projects button is disabled

All associated project files are present in the working folder

There are non-ASCII, no spaces, no special charaters in the working folder path. 

Has anyone ele encountered this in creo 11? 

Any tips or solutions would be greatly appreciated.