Articulate Storyline crashing due to low memory
Apr 12, 2019
I'm learning how to use Articulate currently and I'm learning while composing my first project with it. However the problem I keep encountering is that the program crashes due to not having enough memory. The fix that was given to me was that my file is too large or might be corrupted. So it was suggest that I either break the project up into smaller projects or import what I've already created into a new project to purge the meta data that is causing the file bloat.
Problem is, I've done both of these things and it's still crashing constantly. I'm at a loss on what to do or how to get my project completed without starting over from scratch. I'm wondering if I'm using too many features in my course?
I'm curious if anyone else in the community has run into this issue and how you work around it to avoid it crashing for this reason?
8 Replies
I should add this is the advice the support team for my company gave me after speaking with Articulate to trouble shoot my problem:
"The issue you have runs deep, real deep. Your computer is limited in the amount of memory it can use due to the inherent nature of it being Windows 7 32bit. You are currently at the maximum of 4GB. The only way you could get more is if you were to upgrade to Windows 64 bit. With the current software you require it is not compatible with 64 bit windows. So, we are kind of stuck. We could give you the biggest, fastest computer that is made, but with 32bit Windows you are still limited on the usable memory
I contacted Articulate about the issues you are having. Their response was that ether the files you are working on are to large or have some corruption. They suggest breaking them up in to smaller projects and combining them only when you need to render the final content.
The other suggestion was to create a new project and directly import the projects that have issues in to the new one. This should build all the content but not any of the meta data that is the cause of the bloated files."
So I did both of those things and I'm still crashing. The piece of the project I'm working on now is only 8 slides and it's still crashing constantly.
Hi Stacy,
I couldn't find a case with your name or company, so I can't look into the specifics of what your Support heard from our team.
I did want to clarify though, that Storyline is supported on 64-bit versions of Windows. But Storyline 360 (and earlier versions) is a 32-bit application. More specifically:
With the trouble you've run into, I'm curious to know what specific authoring processes seem to cause performance problems for you. Are you seeing high processor utilization when publishing? ...when editing video? ...when authoring content?
I'd also invite you to share a copy of your .story project file with us so that we can attempt to reproduce any performance problems and get to the bottom of this!
Also, we haven't created a 64-bit version of Storyline yet, and I know it's been a popular request. That's something we're keeping an eye on and will let folks know if it makes our roadmap!
Hi Ashley, Thank you for the assistance. I am having this issue when access the content library (mainly photos) and then when I try to preview how a slide works. Thank you for linking how to get support with my project too. I'm going to work on it some today and when I run into the issue I'll submit a support ticket to get more assistance with this. Thank you!
Thanks for an update, Stacy.
I see that you were able to reach out to the support team and Gerald is assisting you :)
I'm curious if this was resolved, and if so what the solution was. I'm experiencing the same issue. Inserting characters from Content Library 360 will sometimes cause the screen to flicker then the slide view shows a large red "X" as if the screen content is missing. Other times I get a similar error while randomly editing content. Usually, the program locks up at this point with the same error the OP referred to and that's that.
I've found that saving regularly, saving new file names after major updates, and closing Articulate OFTEN can helps. That begs the question of how efficient Articulate is with memory usage, having to constantly close it down.
Hello Noel!
I'm sorry you're hitting this error! It sounds like there might be a corrupted element causing this issue in Storyline 360. Are you noticing this is one course or every course?
What I would recommend is a simple repair of Storyline 360. This usually does the trick and puts everything in order.
Please let us know if you still see issues after performing a repair.
Lauren,
Thanks for the reply. My guess is that whatever the issue was may have been fixed with one of the recent updates. I've not experienced this in several weeks now. Mostly, it seemed to be related to adding images from the SL360 Content Library. The course is nothing elaborate. Mostly just text with character avatars scattered about the presentation. No animations apart from very minor object fade-ins once every 10-20 slides or so.
I'm sorry I have nothing really useful to troubleshoot further. Like I said though, I've not experienced this is a while. Saving often is about the only thing I can offer!
Though off topic, I will say SL360's recovery feature has been a blessing several times when I have crashed. That has been a massive help.
Glad to hear things are working well again, Noel! If you run into any trouble again, please let us know and our team is also available here.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.