Articulate 360 VERY VERY SLOW
Mar 05, 2018
I seem to have an issue with storyline 360.
Working on a storyfile which is approximately 14 MB.
It contains 34 slides, with rather High res images, but no video or other heavy stuff. Yet moving simple text object from A to B can take around 5-10 seconds.
I have a high-end Dell laptop which is also used for After Effects and Premiere. So the capacity of the laptop could not be the problem. Working local so no issues with the network. Storyline is completely updated.
How much of the performance could be affected by the Highres images? I've used these images for a while with no problem at all.
Is there a way to purge the memory like in some Adobe software?
Does anybody know how to speed up Articulate.
Kind regards,
Harold
92 Replies
Thanks for confirming that detail, Andreas!
Because your setup sounds great and you're on the latest update, this is an excellent opportunity for our Support team to lend a hand. They're troubleshooting wizards, and will scan your diagnostic logs to track down what's causing these issues!
I opened a case on your behalf, so keep an eye out for an email from the team soon. I'll also follow along to share any relevant insight here!
Any chance that you are using the soft edges effect around the images? Sometimes that can really slow things down on a slide. Known issue that Articulate was working on at one time.
I had a slide in an old course prototype with 16 images on it with soft edges. Slide was very slow. Click on an image and it took 3-7 seconds before the image even got focus.
Remove all the soft edges from the images--instant speedup.
Thank you Gerry for your help, but i don´t use any picture effects in storyline 360, doing all the graphics in Photoshop, only sometimes shadows on some png-files.
But i saved the complete file under a new name, opened this new file and the performance is a little bit better.
I can work on my courses for a while (have to save very often - which alone is very slow) but after a while storyline gets slower and slower.
So i have to quit storyline 360, start it again, open the course and can work for another 30 minutes.
And sometimes i have to reboot to get back to work again.
For me it looks like a memory-issue in storyline.
And Storyline 360 crashes very often (sometimes when i try to save the file, very often on clicking the preview-button, sometimes by exporting the course).
I am working with quite huge courses (medical education) with many pictures, audios, animations and some videos. But i am doing this now for more than 4 years with occasional problems. But now the problems are worse than ever....
Yeah, huge courses, along with very complex slides, can sometimes be an issue. Yes, it seems to be severe memory "challenges."
I've found that often when working on a course, and the Windows Task Manager says Storyline is taking over 1000 MB in memory on my system, that weird things start happening, and the app often really slows down. Should I see memory cross that threshold, I always save, quit and re-start SL or, more often, save, quit, and reboot the PC.
Doing a lot of cutting and pasting and duplicating of slides or objects also seems to elevate memory issues sometimes.
I have a somewhat powerful Windows 10 PC (i9 processor with 64 GIG of RAM with two SSDs and one traditional HD) so I run two anti-malware programs (a holdover from the "old days" when antivirus programs were not as complete in coverage and companies didn't share virus information). Running two of those programs at once is usually a no-no. But I always close one down (Webroot) when doing an SL project and get a speed bump for that.
I used to sometimes do fairly complex slides with everything on the base layers but lately, I've been doing things like that more in layers and that helps a tad, though I always worry about exact timings of things with that.
Maybe SL is long overdue to have a 64-bit version, though I've also seen both pros and cons for that and it may not always be the "miracle cure" that people think it is. I don't know--I'm not a software engineer. ;)
The other thing that I've seen is having a lot of pictures with many states can sometimes slow things down. I have an old course, where on one layer, I have six of the SL characters, each with two or three states each. The layer is brutally slow to edit. Click on a character and it takes 5-10 seconds before it even gets focus. Remove the states from the characters and another instant speedup.
Same here. It runs very slow and then I have to wait 20 minutes for it to save. I have deadlines. This is not acceptable.
Hi Andreas! So sorry for all the trouble you're seeing. Were you able to follow the steps in the article Amlan sent you?
Storyline 360: How to Fix Unexpected or Erratic Behavior
Rachel, that article 👆should help you, too! If you're still seeing sluggish behavior after following those steps, reach out to our Support team here.
Hi Alyssa, i followed your instructions (which i di a few times before) an everything is a little bit faster.
But after a short test Storyline 360 crashed in preview-mode and i had to kill the task.
I had no time to make a longtime test but i will tell you my impressions...
Thanks for your help....
Hi Andreas,
Thanks for that update, and I'm sorry a repair didn't help! I'd like to have our Support Team take a look at your system logs to see if we can spot what's going on. I'll start a case for you so you'll see an email notification shortly.
Just wanted to jump in. I'm building a pretty big course and all of a sudden hit the slowdown others have described in this thread. I did everything discussed (uninstall/install 360, cleared temp files etc.) but it was still really slow. I even imported the slide I was working on to a new project, but same problems.
And then I removed the contrast I had placed on a photo. Instant change. I'm now running at a normal speed. I'll be adjusting the contrast of my photos in Photoshop for the time being. Hopefully this can help others until an update comes through.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for jumping in and sharing this helpful tip!
We've also suggested temporarily hiding images using the "eye" icon in the timeline while working on the current slide. This should help to speed things up as well.
I have suddenly started having the same issues, just started the past two weeks. Not sure if there has been a resolution, but wondering if someone could help me out. This is a new issue with the exact same file, so can't imagine it's because of the size. Our IT department has checked my laptop and network status and everything on that end is okay.
Hi Karen!
Are you have trouble with all of your Storyline files or just one in particular?
If it's all Storyline files, I would recommend a quick repair of Storyline.
If it's just one, then there could be something that has caused corruption. I'm happy to take a look at your file. You can share it here by using the Add Attachment button. Or you can share it with me privately using this link.
Hi Lauren,
I was able to fix the issue by uninstalling and re-installing the program. Thanks for following up.
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Karen Louden, FLMI, AALU, ACS
Learning Consultant, WFG
500-5000 Yonge St. Toronto, ON, M2N 7J8
P: 416-883-5546 | karen.louden@ivari.ca
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Glad to hear it, Karen. Thanks for the update.
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Storyline 360 Extremely slow here.
I first thought it was my work laptop but on this much faster computer at home, it is slow too.
Almost unworkable, 10 minutes to save a small project. It also locks up the computer at times.
I will submit a ticket now, with attached files.
Alain
Sorry to hear you're facing this, Alain!
That sounds frustrating, and I'm so glad you reached out to our Engineers. I see you’re already working closely with Robert to see if we could isolate the cause of the lag.
You're in skilled hands, and I'll follow the case as it progresses!
After some testing, I found out the issue is in the theme file. I rebuilt the project with a new theme file and it seems to have fixed the issue. I sent the defective theme and the new one, which look identical, to tech support to see if he can find out what went wrong.
One of the bigger issues is that you cannot import a slide or slides from a project that used that theme, even if you removed it. It seems to embed whatever is wrong with the theme in the project and you have to rebuild the project from scratch (cut & paste).
I will keep this thread posted with the solution when we have it.
Alain
this is great news!!!! making progress🤘🏻
Rob Carranza
Unfortunately, Storyline isn't a very optimized program. So you won't get the same performance as you would out of Adobe or Microsoft software. Storyline is very clunky, slow, and laggy. It doesn't take much to start seeing the issues either. I just created a new file, added 7 text boxes to the screen, highlighted them all and tried to move them. Major lag, a long delay before it actually moves. It's pretty frustating but I doubt it will be fixed anytime soon.
I have a new high end laptop too and I still see the lag. And I do a lot of photoshop and video editing where I have ZERO lag in software. It is what is it. Storyline software just isn't on the level yet.
Hi Kevin and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
I appreciate you reaching out and sharing what you are running into with your software.
I've opened a support case on your behalf so that you can work directly with one of our support engineers to identify why you are experiencing a lag in the software.
You should be hearing from someone soon.
Same experience here. I wonder when the 64-bit version will appear, if ever. That would allow the software to take advantage of the RAM and multi-core on my computers.
I switched back to Studio as I do need to get work done.
Alain
Hi there,
I'm experiencing the same issue and I don't know what to do. My file hasn't always been lagging, but this morning, it's been lagging a lot. I tried all of the suggested remedies which included restarting my computer a lot of times, uninstalling, re-installing, etc. I am using the most current version of Storyline 360.
Hi Jaclyn,
Sorry to hear you're coming across the same issue with Storyline lagging!
Since you've tried repairing your software multiple times, I've opened a case on your behalf with our support engineers, where you'll hear from someone on the team soon to help sort this out!
Thank you!
Jaclyn McNabb-Langenwalter
eLearning Training & Development Specialist 2
Integrated Eligibility Project
C/O Self-Sufficiency Training Unit
3402 Cherry Ave. NE
Keizer, OR 97303
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Jaclyn.R.McNabb-Langenwalter@State.OR.US
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Hi Jaclyn,
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