Always Encrypted returning Timeout error

I am trying to encrypt a number of tables (1 column in multiple tables) in two different databases. On Database A I manage to encrypt these, while on database B it fails with an error: '**Unable to reconnect to database: Execution Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.**'. Have tried this on another staging server and got the same result so issue seems to be database related and not server related. Tried updating statistics and restating the entire machines however problem persists. Also no activity is going on the staging server so should not be related to locks. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.