Can't remove gating on existing course

Hi all!  FIRST - I apologize up front if my frustration comes out in this posting.

Second, this course was built in Storyline 2 by another (novice) developer and I inherited the project last year from the vendor (who let that other developer go). The course was designed to have all pages gated, meaning the student must allow the audio to play to the end of the slide before the Next button will work.

The way the other developer did this is NOT how I would have, but it what I get to work with. A unique variable was created for each slide and set to FALSE. On each slide, a trigger exists to change the variable to TRUE when the media (audio file) ends. The Next button is programmed to go to the next slide if the variable is set to TRUE. Not the smartest approach, but that's what it is.

Now, should be easy to clear, right?  I removed the Condition on the Next btn. In Preview, no change. It still waits to the end of the audio. Next, I removed the condition to change the variable to TRUE and deleted the variables (with the condition still removed from the Next button trigger. NO CHANGE IN PREVIEW.  So I tried publishing and no change. I saved the file, closed Storyline, opened the file, code looks right, but no change.

I'm wording if Storyline (like Captivate) has its own cache files and the problem is not going away because of the cache. IF there is a cache, how can I delete it?

I have attached the first 5 slides of the course for your reference. IF it works on your Storyline 2 with no problems, then it must be cache, or something with my Storyline 2.

THANKS FOR ANY ASSISTANCE

Cheers,
Russ