Anyway to recover corrupted files?

Sep 14, 2012

I was on my way to a meeting, saved and shutdown. When I opened back up at my meeting, the file said, "either corrupt or created in an earlier version of storyline. Any ideas on how I can open. My last back up was 3 days ago, and I'm losing a ton of work if I can't open this somehow.

Robert

53 Replies
Ramon Smitherman

Hi Crystal,  I encountered the same issue as lzette and others.  While I Save regularly this is not enough.  My PC crash (as a result of Replay) corrupted the new save yet open story file.

I tried locating your reference "Windows Explorer: %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline" but could not find it.  I am using Windows 7.  Can you help me find where you are referencing?

Cleona Wallace

I have a similar thing with a corrupted file, but the temporary folder just has five very random files that I haven't worked on for some time, and sadly not the file I've been working with for the past few weeks. My autosave does already say every 10 minutes though.  Is there any other way to recover a lost file? I have already published to 360 so I can see it online, but can't open the actual file it was published from.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Cleona,

Within Storyline, we have an autorecovery, not an autosave. The distinction is that the auto recovery will take effect if Storyline crashed and you had previously saved your .story file. 

If you don't see it using the steps below, you may want to ask your IT Team to see if they can help you access an earlier version too:

1. Open this folder in Windows Explorer:  

%Appdata%\Articulate\Storyline 

2. Scan the contents of this folder for a file that starts with the name of your project. If you find one, copy it to your desktop. If you find more than one, copy the latest version to your desktop. 

3. Change the file extension of the copy on your desktop from *.tmp to *.story. 

4. Double-click the file to open it in Storyline. 

 

Also, keep in mind these preventative measures around file corruption.

Katie Riggio

Welcome, Nicole! Sorry to hear the %Appdata%\Articulate\Storyline folder does not appear. This is the only folder I know of, and I'm happy to lend a hand!

To start, here's a quick Peek on how to find temp files in Windows. I find visual guides helpful, so I hope this will assist you, too ☺️ If you're still running into trouble, conducting a full search of your computer for files is another option, but you may need to enlist the help of your IT team for the process.

I hope this helps, and let us know if you have any questions along the way!

Jessica Stasiowski

Good Morning- I had this same issue happen, and unfortunately IT was not able to retrieve a working file, so I'll be rebuilding :( Is anyone aware of what may be causing this issue in the first place? It appeared to happen when I hit "save" and I'm not sure what else I may have done wrong.  I would love to avoid it in the future if possible. Thanks. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi all,

In our continued efforts to help prevent and recover from file corruption, we've added a new recovery feature to Storyline 360, build 3.29.19305.0. If a project becomes corrupt, Storyline lets you know if there's a working version in your temp files and makes it easy for you to recover. Details here.

Let us know how this feature is working for you and if you have any other questions on the latest update! You can reach out in E-Learning Heroes or connect with our Support Team

Alden Michels

Following instructions from a different post, I opened my .story file in notepad and added the requested code.   Following that, I got a notice that my file was corrupted.  I went into AppData and have no backup saved.  I have deleted the code, but it still says that it is corrupt.  please assist.