Animation pausing when switching tabs

May 28, 2017

Caroline Smith
By Caroline Smith

Hello, I recently switched from Storyline 2 to Storyline 3, and may have found a bug.  If someone switches browser tabs while a video is playing, the animation pauses while the audio continues.  When they return to the video, the audio and animation is out of sync.  

I checked our old videos published in Storyline 2, and they continue playing normally (both animation and audio) when a tab is switched, so they don't get out of sync.  

Is there any kind of setting we can change so that either (a) both audio and animation pause when the tab is no longer active or (b) both audio and animation continue playing?  Has anyone else experienced this problem?

27 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 7 years ago05/30/17 at 5:52 pm (UTC)

Hi Carol,

Thanks for reaching out here in ELH. It is an issue we've seen with Storyline 360 (which would match Storyline 3) and it's been specific to the HTML5 output. Is that where you're seeing it as well? 

We've got this reported as a possible software bug. From here, I’ll meet with my team to take a closer look so we can determine next steps. Sometimes my team catches errors in my logic and we don’t have a bug after all. Of course, if that’s the case, I’ll let you know! 

Depending on priority and risk, some bugs can be fixed quickly, while others take longer to resolve. Here's more information on how we identify and tackle bugs.

I’ll let you know as soon as we have an update on this issue. Thanks so much again for letting us know about this, and I’m sorry if it’s slowing you down.

Alyssa Gomez
almost 7 years ago07/13/17 at 3:46 pm (UTC)

Hi Christian, thanks for checking in. We're working through this bug, but I don't have a timeline at this point. We're careful about testing new updates to make sure we don't put other features at risk, and I don't want to commit to a date before we have a fix finalized. You're in the right place, and we’ll share as much as we can, as soon as we can!

Christian Cuneo
almost 7 years ago07/13/17 at 7:26 pm (UTC)

Ok well for now, too anyone who is needing a workaround for this.

We used a JS trigger on the slide master

window.addEventListener('blur', function(){
var player = GetPlayer();
player.SetVar("AudioPlay", "False");
}
, false);

window.addEventListener('focus', function(){
var player = GetPlayer();
player.SetVar("AudioPlay", "True");
}
, false);

Then include a trigger "on variable change" to pause the timeline when "AudioPlay" = False and resume the timeline when "AudioPlay" = True

Ali Goulet
over 6 years ago10/05/17 at 6:46 pm (UTC)

Hey Christian,

I have some great news! 

We just released another update for Articulate 360, and included a few important fixes and new features that you'll see in the release notes here.  

This update fixes the issue you reported where audio continued to play in the HTLM5 output when switching to another browser tab.

Just launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for each application. Details here.

Please let us know if you have any questions, either here or by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly!

Hey there Carol,

We're still working on rolling out a fix for Storyline 3 as well, and we'll keep you posted as soon as it's available! 

Leslie McKerchie
6 years ago03/08/18 at 12:53 am (UTC)

Great news!  We just released Update 3 for Storyline 3. This includes quite a few important fixes and some new features as well. Check out all the details in the release notes here.  

The item you'll be interested in is:

Audio continued to play in HTML5 output when switching to another browser tab, causing animations to become unsynchronized.

Be sure to download and install the latest version of Storyline 3.

Let us know if you have any questions, either here or by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly.

Katie Riggio
4 years ago02/25/20 at 9:32 pm (UTC)

 Hi there, Stefano!

I haven't seen recent reports of this, so I'm glad you brought it to our attention.

If you can share your file with us for testing, that would be super! If there's private material, you can upload it privately for our Support team by using this link. We'll give it a test in several browsers and delete it after!

Katie Riggio
4 years ago02/27/20 at 4:00 pm (UTC)

Oh no, Satyabrata. I'm sorry you're also facing this!

Your experience sounds like a close match to an open issue in Storyline 360, where the seekbar pauses and the audio continues to play when opening a new browser tab. 

If this description matches what you're seeing, we found that setting the Menu's Navigation Restriction to Free helps avoid this bug.

If that's not quite right, are you comfortable with sharing your .story file? That way, we can explore your settings to offer the right advice!

Satyabrata Das
4 years ago02/28/20 at 5:24 am (UTC)

Thanks Katie for letting me know that it is an open issue in Storyline. 

Actually the Menu's Navigation Restriction is already set to Free. Still I am facing the same issue.

Also I can't share the .stroy file as we are under NDA with our customer.

Kindly let me know if there is an alternate way or I need to wait until Storyline fixes this bug. Thanks!

Ren Gomez
4 years ago03/02/20 at 5:17 pm (UTC)

Hi Satyabrata,

Thanks so much for sharing your sample file! I reviewed the published course and was able to experience the same issue even when the navigation is set to Free. 

It looks like there's not a workaround at the moment, and I'm sorry you're running into this! We'll be sure to jump back in here when there's any progress to share on this bug.

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