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Yes been getting this a lot as well with 2025 super annoying but can't be bothered to reinstall and setup 2024, one trick I have been using is restarting Windows Explorer from task manager which usually unfreezes max.

3dsMax 2025 can occasionally freeze when using Octane render.
While the causes have been narrowed down to some threads and windows messages issue, the problem is not resolved yet.

The plugin version 15.09 has several options to help to identify and recover from the freeze.
A small window 'OM Guardian' should be left open and visible, so that the special button 'UnFreeze' can be clicked at any time.

To activate those features, set the 5 new options in the Octane preferences as follow: This will open the OM Guardian automatically when Octane is set as the renderer, or when loading a scene with Octane as the renderer. The UnFreeze button is not a real usual button, but a click and release can be detected, and the un-freeze process can be called.
Note the button label changing to '> UnFreeze' when the mouse is on the button, and changing to '>>> UnFreeze <<<' when the left mouse button is pressed.
You need to press a bit longer than a normal button for the unfreeze to work ( > 0.25 sec) If the freeze happens when the Octane Viewport is open, the viewport has a freeze detection mechanism, (when you move the mouse cursor in the viewport) and will show 'FROZEN (shift+click to reset)' in the title bar. Pressing the Shift key while pushing the left mouse button in the viewport should un-freeze 3dsMax.

If the freeze happens when the Octane viewport is not open, the OM Guardian 'UnFreeze' button should also un-freeze 3dsMax.

The freeze seems to happen when an external application or event deactivate and re-activate 3dsMax in a certain way.
For test purposes, and see the freeze and un-freeze system in action, a special dialog box has been added to re-create the conditions of the freeze.
It is accessible on the bottom of the OM Guardian window (when resized bigger) via the 'Test Freeze' button. A small 'Test dialog' dialog with a 'Close' button will appear.
Pressing Close should make 3dsMax freeze.

Please let us know if you don't experience any freeze at all with 3dsMax 2025, or if the freeze happens more than occasionally..
We are still investigating the issue, and hope to have a better solution later.

Note that the OMGuardian window can be open from the preference dialog, the Octane viewport toolbar context menu or main context menu: Thanks

OMGuardian has been updated in version 2025.1 Beta2 - 16.02:
-Added 2 buttons Close VP and Open VP in addition to the Unfreeze button.
In the case where the Unfreeze button fails to unfreeze max, you can use those buttons to open / close the Octane Viewport
This seems to work more efficiently. For example, when the Octane viewport is not open, try 'Open VP', then 'Close VP' once or twice. -Added option 'Close and Open Viewport' for the unfreeze action preformed by Shift + Click in the viewport.
This seems to unfreeze correctly in most freezing cases. -Renamed 'Test Freeze' to 'Try to Freeze !", and 'Test dialog' to "Please close to Freeze" Reminder: when pressing this Test Freeze button, the Please close to freeze dialog is displayed. At this point, it behaves just a normal modal dialog, that capture the application focus. 3dsMax is not frozen at this time. But when we press the close button, 3dsMax is supposed to be responsive again, and resume operations as usual, but instead it can be 'frozen'.
This Test freeze button and dialog purpose is to replicate the freeze conditions, and to verify that the 'unfreeze' options are working.

We are still investigating the cause of this freeze.
In the meantime, the use of the OM Guardian workaround is recommended.

The recommended settings are:
Preferences/Troubleshooting/Frozen Viewport Auto-Closure : On Shift + Click
Preferences/Troubleshooting/Frozen Viewport un-freeze : Close and Open Viewport.
And try to keep the OM Guardian visible at all times.

When Shift + Click is used to unfreeze and perform a Close and Open, the new viewport may become frozen again..
In this case, try another Shift + Click, that should fix the freeze, as long as the viewport is open.