Well, I can't guarantee an update will solve your problem. But at the same time I don't think it makes any sense to deep dive into potential issues of such an old version of the software. In my (personal) opinion, this is a waste of time as the issue might not exist in the newest version anymore because it might have been solved in the last 3,5 years already.
I understand your concerns in terms of updates, but I never had any real problems with updates within the same major version. And based on that, there would never be a good time for an update. There is always some research running, there is always a good excuse somehow. So one day you need to take make the decision to update, even if it is not the perfect day.
If you have a SaaS solution, they will just inform you "On Day XXX there will be an update, expect some downtime." and you have little to no control over it.
And the smaller the jumps between versions, the lower the risk of something going really wrong in my opinion. I am also not always the first to update, but I try to stay fairly up to date. I follow the forum to see if an update causes problems for others and wait if there are real show stoppers. But for LS 3.x the updates are mostly minor things today, so I do not expect big issues caused by the current updates.
As I said, I don't think it makes much sense to try to find the cause of this issue (if it is a real LS issue at all) in a version this old.
Help us to help you!
- Provide your LS version and where it is installed (own server, uni/employer, SaaS hosting, etc.).
- Always provide a LSS file (not LSQ or LSG).
Note: I answer at this forum in my spare time, I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH employee.