Corrupt File??!!!!

Mar 18, 2015

Lisa Smyser
By Lisa Smyser

I have a project I've been working on for a while, and hadn't opened it in a few weeks. Today I went in to make some updates, and got the message "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline."

This is clearly a SL2 file that I've been working on for weeks now, and suddenly it wont open. Does anyone have any ideas if it's possible to get the file back? I have a backup, but it's a few versions earlier and I'd obviously prefer to have the most recent.

The file is local, not on a network. I haven't had a problem with any other file on my system! This is totally out of the blue! Here's an even crazier thing - I thought I'd try importing it into a new project. SL2 shows me all the screens from the file to select for import - so the screens are clearly intact! But when I click Import, I get the error that the file cannot be opened!!!!

I guess I can go through and select one screen at a time to see which one doesn't work... UGH! Any other suggestions???

Lisa

3 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
9 years ago03/18/15 at 7:06 pm (UTC)

Hi Lisa, 

I'm sorry to hear about your project file. In addition to working locally you'll want to look into the other elements here. However, there may still be a working version of your project in your temp files. Here's how to check:

1) Open this folder in Windows Explorer:
 
%appdata%\Articulate\Storyline
 
2) Scan the contents of this folder for a file that starts with the name of your project. If you find one, copy it to your desktop. If you find more than one, copy the latest version to your desktop.
 
3) Change the file extension of the copy on your desktop from *.tmp to *.story.
 
4) Double-click the file to open it in Storyline.

 

Additionally, I'd look at importing one slide or section at a time if the temp file is the older version you don't want to use. 

Lisa Smyser
9 years ago03/18/15 at 8:22 pm (UTC)

Thanks Ashley, but unfortunately the file wasn't there. I just found a resolution though. When I tried to import individual screens, I noticed that the message was different. It said that the file was in use or I didn't have access, instead of saying it was corrupt.

So I copied the file to a different name and voila! it opened!! I'm still not sure why it happened, but I'm really glad I didn't have to redo all my recent work.

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