No Audio During Preview

Aug 04, 2014

Any ideas as to why the audio won't play when previewing content? Its making it really difficult to time the animation of objects. I've never experienced this before. The audio on my system is fine -- tried restarting the software and PC...no luck. Any ideas? Thanks!

42 Replies
Emily Kellagher

Hi Ryan,

Does the audio play when you play the slide from the timeline? At the bottom of the timeline you will see the play button, I would test that and adjust the slide object timing from there. You can edit the audio by double clicking on it in Storyline. You can increase the volume etc, play it, trim it.

You could also delete the file and reinsert it. But you may have already tried this.

Here are some links

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter-09/using-the-audio-editor

http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/editing-sound.aspx

Hope you solve your issue soon

Emily

Justin Grenier

Good Afternoon Ryan, and Go Blue!

  • Is the problem project-specific? If you create a new, empty course and insert 5 seconds of narration, does that preview successfully? If the behavior is restricted to one or more specific .story project files, we'd invite you to share one of those .story project files with us for a closer look.
  • If the problem is reproducible in a new file, let's try the steps within this Knowledge Base Article to see if it helps.

...only 26 days until Michigan football...

Ryan W

Hey Justin,

Thanks for the info. The problem is reproducible in other files so I followed the steps outlined in the Knowledge Base article. Unfortunately, the problem is still there. If I publish the course, the sound plays just fine -- it just doesn't play when I'm trying to listen to it inside the software. If you have any other ideas, let me know. I really appreciate the help...

BTW, I've got the shirt -- you should see the looks I get when I walk through a store down here in the Dayton area. There aren't many perks being from Michigan and living down here, but this is a good one

Go Blue!

Ryan

Justin Grenier

Ha, I love it! Ahem, back to work.

Just between you, me, and the rest of the community, our Preview tool uses IE and IE's Flash Version to perform the preview function. So, I'm curious to know what happens if you publish locally and then attempt to view the published output locally in your version of IE. Does it also fail there?

If the published output also fails to play sound locally in IE, I'd tend to focus on whether other Flash pages produce OK audio playback in IE and, if not, whether ripping out and reloading Flash might help to resolve the problem.

Please let us know if you hit a dead end on this. Thanks!

Ryan W

I followed the steps given exactly as written and it was a no go. So, I decided to reformat the entire HDD and reset everything back to factory settings. Once everything was back up and running, I downloaded Storyline and tried again. Its the same story...just on a clean HDD.

I created a brand new project with nothing except the audio file -- again, its the same thing. I press the space bar to preview the content and dead silence. BTW - the audio is not hidden, my speakers are turned up and I'm able to jam to Bob Seger without any problems.

Do you happen to have any other ideas? I'm in a bind here with a looming deadline on Thursday. If I can't get this working asap, I'm afraid I'll have to go a different development route -- and I really don't want to do that.

Again, really appreciate your help...

Ryan W

Justin - realized in my last post that I failed to mention...when I publish out any content, the audio plays just fine -- it only breaks in the preview mode. Also, I tried the steps again on my newly formatted HDD -- still no go. Not sure if my base PC specs will help, but just in case --

Dell XPS 8700

Intel Core i5-4440 @ 3.10 GHz

12 GB RAM

Windows 8.1 64-bit

If there is any other info you need, let me know. Thanks again!

Justin Grenier

Good Morning, Ryan.

If you open Microsoft Internet Explorer (no other browser will do) and navigate to this Flash audio tester, does it produce OK audio playback in Microsoft Internet Explorer?

In addition, I'd like to see your DxDiag log:

  1. Press Win (Windows Key) + R
  2. Type in dxdiag in the text area of the popup
  3. Press enter, and if prompted about verifying WHQL, select Yes.
  4. Wait for the green bar to finish loading.
  5. Click on “Save All Information” and save the file to your Desktop.
  6. Attach the log file to your next thread reply, or send it to us privately here.

Thanks!

Justin Grenier

Thanks, Ryan.

Your DxDiag log reveals a few things:

  1. Your Video Driver appears to be outdated. Here is the latest driver from Dell.
  2. I can't tell if your Audio Driver is outdated or not, but here is the latest driver from Dell.
  3. I can't tell if your Earphone Driver is outdated or not, but here is the latest version from Razer.

If the problem persists after updating those drivers, Emily also brings up an interesting question in her response above. Does the audio play when you play the slide from the play button at the bottom of the timeline?

Justin Grenier

Thanks for that, Ryan. This is a tricky issue indeed!

I think we need to get you into a Support Case so that we can work more intensively with you on this. When you submit your Case, please be sure to include the following information:

  • The URL of this Forum Thread
  • Does the audio play back properly within the Audio Editor?
  • I originally understood that the problem occurs during Preview, and your screencast demonstrates that the problem also occurs when you play the slide from the play button at the bottom of the timeline. Can you please confirm that the problem also occurs during Preview?
  • Are you running Storyline Update 6? Did the problem also occur in Storyline Update 5?
  • Please attach the following 2 files to your Support Case:
  1. %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs\Application.evtx
  2. %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs\System.evtx

Thanks for your patience, Ryan!

Cory Warshawsky

i'm experiencing the same issue. No audio when in preview mode (this is try of audio only clips, and video), but as soon as the file is published, audio is fine.

The flash audio test played fine. It's across the board on all projects. It would be great if we could get the results of the support case were posted here.

Justin Grenier

Hello again, Cory.

The day after Ryan submitted his Support Case, he told us:

I did a hard reset and got rid of everything on my system. That seems to have fixed it.

I'm not sure if Ryan is still subscribed to this thread, but I suspect he followed these instructions.

Again Cory, if you've tried everything above and would like us to take a closer look at your instance of the problem, I would encourage you to send us everything you know about the problem.  Thanks!

Cory Warshawsky

I've submitted a support case Justin. Thank you for your assistance with the matter.

Support Case Details:

When using preview mode (either through the drop down menu in the ribbon, or by clicking the play icon in the timeline) - the audio in my .story file cannot be heard.

Once the file is published, the audio is then available.

I have attached a copy of a project with video (but this file works on my laptop; only an issue on my desktop computer)

-Completed all tasked listed here: Unexpected or Erratic Behavior in Articulate Storyline


-I've uninstalled, and reinstalled Storyline 2, including using the "slCleanup.bat" registry cleaner

-Reset the computer

-Completed a Flash test and confirmed I can hear audio by visiting the following address. (http://musicofnature.org/songsofinsects/flashtest/index.html)

-Confirmed it is not a project issues, as I've transferred projects to my laptop and the preview mode works successfully.

 

 

 

 

Cory Warshawsky

Justin,

The team reviewed my systems DxDiag.txt and noticed my audio driver was out of date. After updating the driver, things returned to normal and I once again had audio during preview mde. I'm not sure why it stopped working suddenly, but am happy to have things back to normal.

Thank you for your assistance with the matter.

Mark McEvoy

Has there been any additional work on this? My audio stopped about 4 months ago. I work in a very secure environment, so please don't suggest that I re-install SL or Windows because that is just not going to happen. I find it odd that my co-worker, whose computer has the same build as me has not yet experienced this issue. Any suggestions?

By the way, I use Captivate too. No problem in playing the audio there. No problem in hearing the Songs of the Insects in IE. It's simply coming out of SL and I'm really (really) tired of all the buggy things that come out of this application.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Mark! Looks like in both instances in this thread the issue was specific to the customers environment. 

The very first culprit in missing audio scenarios is typically not working locally on your software or project files.

When creating, editing, and publishing Articulate Storyline courses, be sure you're working on your local hard drive (typically your C: drive). Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, such as file corruption, an inability to save changes, and loss of resources. See this article for more information.

Mark McEvoy

Why is it that audio works properly with my Captivate files, with IE, with YouTube...but not with Storyline in preview mode? I'm frustrated that the only suggestion you can give me is to state that I work locally (which I already know to do with SL).

I have worked in IT circles for over 20 years.  In a corporate environment, saving work files to a network drive is strenuously suggested. The mantra at my company (a Fortune 100) is to always save your work to the network. That said, my SL files start life and live on C:. Also, the problem is global, affecting older SL files that once played their audio. I will check with my Help Desk support. Thank you.

Mark McEvoy

Just a quick update. I contacted my help desk, but they are unable to assist me. Per their knowledgebase, all support comes from the vendor. They did give me 2 options (which came from a HD manager, not just line staff): to scrub the machine and re-image, or to seek out another vendor with a similar product (no joke, that's what he said). They will not simply update my audio driver, citing that audio is working for all other applications.

For my part, I tried a bit of trouble-shooting. I created on my local drive a new, 1-slide SL file. I then added audio by recording through the product. Unfortunately, the preview failed to play the audio. I then removed the audio clip and inserted audio from an external file. That failed to preview too.

One thing to note: audio does play back correctly in the published file. It only fails during the preview (and the timeline).

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.