Audio won't repeat on Android
Nov 21, 2017
Hi,
We've come across an issue recently where trying to trigger an audio file more than once will cause Android devices to be stuck in an endless loading loop. Since discovering the cause of the issue we've been designing around it, but I was wondering if there were any other solutions to this problem? The only way we can currently have sounds repeating in our courses without Storyline freezing on Android is to:
a) Import a fresh copy of the sound file every time the sound needs to be played (this means that the sound can only be played a finite number of times though - not suitable for button sounds, etc.)
b) Force users to exit and re-enter the slide again (for some reason Android devices will play the sound file again as long as we exit then re-enter the slide - unfortunately this doesn't work for slide layers even if they're set to initial state)
This wouldn't be as big of an issue if the sound simply didn't load, but the fact that it freezes the whole course on Android devices means that we have to bend over backwards not to apply sounds to buttons, repeated triggers, etc. in case it might cause users to get stuck.
Has anyone encountered this before or have any possible solutions?
(Using SL2)
7 Replies
Hi Ben!
Sorry to hear that you've run into difficulty with this.
I'm not familiar with an issue based on your description. Do you have a sample .story file you could share so we could understand the underlying issue that you are working around?
Hi Leslie,
I've attached a .story file and embedded a video of the issue below. I tested and had this issue appear in Chrome for Android on both SCORM cloud and our LMS.
Might be a bit confusing to see what's going on in the video (Sorry! I'm not great at demonstrating these things lol). Basically what I was showing was:
1. Pressing button to play sound (works!)
2. Navigating away from slide, back to slide, then pressing button again (works!)
3. Pressing button to play sound again after the sound has already been played (doesn't work, and causes Storyline to get stuck on the loading circle!)
I recorded the video on my Agora 4G Pro, Android version 5.1, Chrome 62.0.3202.84 - but we've had this issue across all the Android devices we've tested on. I read that Android has a built in security feature to prevent audio being played without user input, and thought that could be causing interference with Storyline - just a theory though!
Hope you can help :)
UPDATE: Further testing shows that audio files will can be called again through triggers as long as the audio file doesn't finish playing. Doesn't really help my situation, but more info will probably help people find the cause of the problem.
I also found out I could put audio files within object states. The audio files won't play again on Android if they finish playing, but they don't seem to freeze the course at least.
Thanks Ben, I appreciate your instruction.
I'm not experiencing an issue on my Android device, but I am having some colleagues test as well to verify.
Here's my link if you'd like to take a look.
Ok, a co-worker was able to replicate the behavior you were reporting Ben, so I appreciate your patience.
Samsung Galaxy S6 on Android 7.0
I'm going to get this reported to the team so that we can have some more people take a look and make sure it's not an issue on our end.
Hey Ben - Can you help me with a bit of testing?
Check this published output on your Android device. Same issue or works as intended?
Hey Leslie, thanks for the assistance! Looks like the problem is solved when we try your test link.
I assume you're using 360 to export? Was there a solution we could apply to our SL2 courses to get the audio to work properly? Our team doesn't have the opportunity to upgrade to 360 just yet.
I understand Ben. It was more for me to be able to confirm and get it reported appropriately with our team. I'm not aware of a workaround to share at this time.
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