BEWARE!- Latest Update to Storyline Caused Publishing Issues and Unhappy Client
Jul 23, 2020
We just finished publishing a large course that we have been working on for over a year. It is tied to a MAJOR product launch for a top client. Everything was posted on the LMS and working fine using the course completion trigger. I received the notice that Storyline had an update so I updated the application. A few hours later I received a request to make two minor changes in two different modules for the course. I made the changes, published the file, and uploaded update to LMS. This morning I received notification that users were not able to proceed with the course and it was the two modules that I published yesterday after updating the application. I reverted back to the previous version of Storyline and published the files again, uploaded to LMS, and tested. I still had the same problem. The only way to resolve it was to choose to not publish an update to the course but to publish a full replacement with the previous version of Storyline. This will cause everyone who has been through the course to have to retake these module if they choose to revisit them. I confirmed the issue is with the new version by publishing with the new version and choosing to replace the previous module and the issue occurred again. I am not happy. My client wasn't thrilled either. BEWARE OF LATEST UPDATE!
You should also know that if you happen to have tried out the new features for text styles and left the styles in place in a file and then revert back to a previous version of Storyline you will not be able to open the file(s) where text styles have been applied.
11 Replies
Hi Mark,
I'm really sorry for the trouble this caused you and the frustration it caused your client! It's certainly not what we'd expect, and our team has worked tirelessly over the past few days to fix it.
We released a hotfix for the issue with Text Stylings this AM, and we're prepping a fix for the Course Completion trigger that will go out tomorrow (Friday) AM. We'll let you know here once that's ready too so that you can install the latest update.
Thanks for connecting with us here!
Thank you for responding and confirming the issues. I will take it as a learning moment to always test publishing with a new Storyline release in a safe environment from this point forward.
Honestly, live version updating shouldn't be happening like this without decent testing. Releasing features that break past builds is terrible software practice. I've had so many issues lately with these updates breaking previously working files its becoming a bit of a running joke in the office. I have sent some in as bugs but a complete lack of any fixes has just made me give up.
I agree with everything Mike has written.
Version updates are really a big issue.
Hi all,
I'm truly sorry for the trouble you had. Issues occurring from an update are rare, but they do happen, and our team works hard to fix those as soon as they can. Today's hotfix (3.42.22734.0) resolves the issue with the course completion triggers.
Please do let us know if you have any other trouble either here within the E-Learning Heroes Community or by connecting directly with our Support Team.
Ashley, I'm sorry, but issues after an update are quite common.
Some colleagues don't make updates anymore for a long time just to avoid the recurring issues that updates cause.
This thread is spot-on. I've encouraged our team to stop updates at v3.39.22088.0 since that seems the be the last build that hasn't caused issues (May 5, 2020). It's sad to be missing out on new features/fixes/enhancements.
A small bug here and there might not seem like a big issue, but with an organization of 60k+ people, we have literally thousands of people access training every day. If a bug goes unnoticed even for 12-18 hours, that could be hundreds, if not thousands, of affected users who now have to retake the training, have to be rescheduled, or who interact with our Help Desk to resolve the issue ($$$$$).
With four updates alone this month (all for rather serious fixes except the one new feature), it certainly doesn't feel as though thorough testing is being done to ensure SL360 works as it should.
An example just happened to me 5 minutes ago. A simple object interaction that triggers a layer has stopped working in a file generated 6 months ago using the latest build of storyline. I just tried it on a computer that had a 2019 build of storyline still installed and it worked perfectly. If I delete the interaction and make it again in the latest build it works perfectly. Now multiply this by 3000 odd interaction and its a huge issue.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for contacting us and sharing that you've recently run into an issue.
With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Yes, same thing here!!! I published a final course for review to Review 360 for over 10 people to review. It totally screwed up the course, duplicated videos brought in old data. I can't even publish to the old articulate tempshare! And of course this project is due this FRIDAY!
Hello Annette - The issue reported here was fixed in July of 2020 with the release of a Hotfix to Update 42. Please submit a support case here and I'll ask the team to dig in today asap.