# Force project to open in row mode?

**URL:** <https://forum.openrefine.org/t/force-project-to-open-in-row-mode/2683>\
**Category:** Support and Helpdesk\
**Created:** [December 29, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/force-project-to-open-in-row-mode/2683 "2025-12-29T19:57:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ekrimmel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/ekrimmel/32/150_2.png) [@ekrimmel](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/ekrimmel)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/force-project-to-open-in-row-mode/2683/1 "2025-12-29T19:57:51Z")

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I have a decent size but not huge project that I’ve been working on for a while, and just recently it stopped loading. I suspect the issue is related to Refine wanting to load in record mode, because the last thing I did was move a column with very few values to the left-most position, in front of an index column. The project has around 40k rows but isn’t super wide. It opens but no data table ever appears, and eventually the browser (Firefox, Chrome, and Safari all tried) tells me the tab is slowing down my computer / had to be reloaded because of a problem. This is the view at which it stalls out:

 ![Screenshot 2025-12-29 at 11.46.59 AM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/openrefine/original/2X/d/d1a447218d544a32108ecf554c73bbede7129b32.png)

I’m working on a Mac running OS 15.5 and OpenRefine 3.9.5. I’ve tried increasing the max memory to 22GB (my computer has 24 GB total). When I run Refine from Terminal and open the project in question, this is the log:

 ![Screenshot 2025-12-29 at 11.48.16 AM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/openrefine/original/2X/6/66aa981d4e959de6832a4517829b1c696d2c54a4.png)

And this is the log from the JavaScript console in my browser:

 ![Screenshot 2025-12-29 at 11.51.01 AM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/openrefine/original/2X/6/64e518862cc642268f49fd3521b5efa27af1438c.png)

Thank you for any thoughts about how to troubleshoot! I would be happy to start a new project and lose the history, but very sad to lose the data in its current form. Unfortunately I don’t have a backup anywhere near the current state of the data. I zipped the whole project folder and made it available [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14K0aUSTmdbmbURoXiA4V4bhl_VhV8AsX/view)…

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**Author:** ![ekrimmel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/ekrimmel/32/150_2.png) [@ekrimmel](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/ekrimmel)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/force-project-to-open-in-row-mode/2683/2 "2026-01-13T16:36:47Z")

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For anyone who may encounter a similar problem, my issue (above) resolved when I both downgraded to OpenRefine 3.7.9 _and_ upgraded my operating system to Mac Tahoe 26.2.

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**Author:** ![Rory](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/rory/32/1517_2.png) [@Rory](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/Rory)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/force-project-to-open-in-row-mode/2683/3 "2026-01-13T19:57:38Z")

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Thanks for the follow up! I requested access to the file you shared so I can try to reproduce the issue.