Opening Audio Editor crashes PPT and Articulate

Jul 29, 2014

Chris Sloyer
By Chris Sloyer

Good afternoon,

When I initially upgraded to Presenter 13 (last year) I encountered several issues with the Audio Editor and the Narration function. Over time these issues were resolved.

Note: I'm on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine, with Office 2013, 32 bit.

However, after installing the latest Articulate Presenter patch, they have re-emerged! The most significant issue is that whenever I attempt to open the Audio Editor (about half the time I get a message that the system is unpacking the audio files), both PowerPoint and Articulate freeze and I need to use ctrl alt delete to exit.

I'm getting to the point in my work process where I'd like to export the audio files (not to mention I'd like to be able to edit individual files without having to re-record them). Has anyone else encountered these problems?

thanks,

Chris

10 Replies
Leslie McKerchie
over 9 years ago07/30/14 at 7:33 am (UTC)

Hi Chris!

Sorry to hear that you are having a tough time with this.

When creating, editing, and publishing Articulate Presenter '13 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.

Remember that support tickets are included with your product and you can reach out when you are ready

Russell Fong
almost 9 years ago07/20/15 at 8:18 pm (UTC)

Definitely working locally, and as for "just presented itself," I would say that while this is -technically- the case, I have not yet used the Audio Editor for '13, only for our previous version of Articulate.  Effectively, the first time I tried to run the Presenter '13 Audio Editor, I encountered this problem.

I'm trying the repair now.

Russell Fong
over 8 years ago01/22/16 at 10:01 pm (UTC)

Apologies for not letting you know sooner, but the reinstall worked.

However, 6 months later, and the problem resurfaced with no rhyme or reason.  This time, I attempted to re-install, and it did not work.  What is the issue here?  Does anyone over there have any idea what I could be doing to be causing this conflict and crash?

I'm not content to simply re-install every 6 months (and it didn't even work this time, so I'm going to have to submit another support ticket anyway) - are there any preventative measures I can take so that I can make sure Articulate doesn't do this again?

Leslie McKerchie
8 years ago01/25/16 at 2:24 pm (UTC)

Hi Frank!

File corruption is unpredictable, and there's no straightforward way to determine what causes it. Common causes are environmental (disk errors, power outages, improper shutdowns), viruses, failed Windows updates, and even file size (i.e., very large files have a higher risk of corrupting).
 
Consider these preventative measures to protect your project files:
 
1) Save and publish projects on your local hard drive. Working on a network drive or external USB drive can cause erratic behavior due to latency.
 
2) Save incrementally. If your app has an AutoRecovery feature, take advantage of it. If not, save a new version of your project every hour or so with a new file name each time. If a file becomes corrupt, you'll still have a working version available.
 
3) Install Dropbox. Snapshots of changes in your local Dropbox folder are kept for 30 days. If a file is damaged or deleted, you can restore a previous snapshot: https://www.dropbox.com/help/11/en.
 
4) Don't leave the app open and unattended for long periods of time. Some users have reported file corruption after leaving their apps open overnight. It's possible that a malware scan or disk backup could run because the machine is idle, making your app vulnerable to crashing.

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