Corrupt Files / SL 360 Version Issue: New Issue with a Seemingly Old Problem

Hi Brian,

A couple questions to narrow down what's happening here...

Do you have the same update of Storyline 360 installed on both computers? The latest is Storyline 360, build 3.21.17083.0 so I'd suggest checking if they're using something drastically different.

Also, how are you sending the .story file to the new computer? I'd want to make sure you're saving and opening the project file from a local drive (such as your C: drive or desktop) following along with the other guidelines here to help prevent corruption. 

Lastly, on the computer where the file works, try importing it into a new Storyline project file and attempt to share that copy (following the guidelines above). 

I am having the same problem now and using the most up to date of SL360.  I worked all day on these changes, locally, saved often, and now that I am trying to re-open the file, the error says the file is corrupt or made from a different version of SL.  HELP!

Hi there, Michele.  I saw the same error message when trying to open your file on my end.  I also tried importing the slides into a new project, and I got a similar error message about corruption.

Let's see if we can find a working version of your course saved to your temporary 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. 

We are happy to help you with this process if you get stuck!  While it's hard to nail down the cause of corruption, we offer some tips to help reduce the risk.

Hi and HELP!

Storyline file won't open, says it is corrupted - shows proper size and I save every 10 minutes.

Open this folder in Windows Explorer: %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline  The file was not there.

Next step?

Hi Chris,

File corruption is a tricky thing and it looks like you've already taken a look at your temporary files as Crystal shared above. 

Nicole shares some great tips for preventing file corruption in this article.

The main item, as Ashley shared above, is to be sure that you are working locally. 

Another one of our community members, Wendy, suggests making a copy of the file and renaming if you'd like to try that as a next step.

Are you working in a corporate environment where there may be a backup you can restore to?

Hi and Thank you for trying.

I tried everything in this post and others -- nothing worked. The file shows as the right size, etc, but stubbornly will not open. Also disappointing, I went back to an older version, as I do save and rename for some partial insurance, and after about an hour of working, the program froze and I lost that file as well. 

Thanks for the update Chris. Sorry to hear that you were not able to recover the file.

Are you working locally with your software and the project files, typically this is your C: Drive? I'd be sure to take a look at the document I shared above and see if the possible culprit can be identified so that you do not run into this issue again.

All work at my desktop -- Thanks much for your help with the Gremlins.

Great to hear you're all sorted out, Chris! Thanks for the update. 😊

Hello. I am having the same issue. I have the latest version of Storyline 360 and work locally. This problem appears to happen when I import slides from another Storyline 360 file. In the past two weeks, I have had 4 files corrupt when I import slides. I have been saving several versions as I build the files and have clearly identified that the issue happens once I import Storyline slides into a another Storyline file.

I have tried every fix posted and nothing is working. I have also tried importing slides from the corrupt file into a blank file and get an error message. I can see all the slides, but can't import them.

I need help as these are a lot of work to build and I am losing massive amounts of time rebuilding these files. One of the files in question is attached.

Are the files you are importing from stored locally?

Yes. I have been using Articulate for years and make sure that all my files are store in the local My Articulate Projects folder. I have definitely narrowed it down to the corruption happening when I import "video simulation" Storyline slides into a Storyline file.

Hey Dawn,

I am sorry to hear about your experience with those corrupted files. I also received an error message when trying to open your file. It sounds like you have done quite a bit of troubleshooting already. We are more than happy to help! 

I am going to be submitting a case for our Support Engineers on your behalf. Be on the lookout for an email coming your way shortly! 

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any additional questions! 

Just to let anyone else who is having a similar issue, it appears that having Storyline recording videos on slides that you import into another file are causing corruption issues such as those reported in this thread. Once I removed the video from the original file that was being imported into another file, I stopped getting corruption issues.

Thank for popping in to share an update, Dawn.

Has this issue been resolved? A file corrupted on me this morning and I am trying everything to uncorrupt it as there are so many hours in it and I am afraid thats the issue.

So sorry that happened, Vanessa!

With your permission, we can take a closer look at the affected .story file to track down the culprit and try to restore a working version of the course. You can send it privately to us by using this link, and we'll delete it after troubleshooting! 

Also, if you do run into a corrupt file again, Storyline 360 now helps you recover the project.

Just as an FYI, I have a ticket open with regards to this problem. If I import a story with a recording, it will not Preview and corrupts the 'host' story. If I undo the import, Preview works again. I can import stories without recordings with no issue. 

Thanks for popping in to share, Rory. I see that you are currently working with Gerald on this issue.

Gerald helped us identify that we are working via a network drive, even when our IT department said we weren't! We are instituting a new process for our development, so hopefully we won't have any more problems! Thanks!

Hello again. Even though we are -definitely- working locally now, we are still having huge issues importing slides and whole stories. When the files are standalone, they work fine. Once we import, we have issues, In most cases, if we can open the file again and remove the import, the file works again. But that still leaves us with a big problem with our process, which is to import stories and slides into other stories. Just wanted to keep this going to say, one piece of the puzzle was solved, but we are still having issues.

**Update**
The 21JAN build went a long way to solving our problems.  Thank you. I thought I was going crazy.
January 21, 2020 (Build 3.36.21213.0)

Just as an FYI, we are starting to run in to this again. We are working locally. The 21JAN fix seemed to help for a week or so, now we are having problems again should anyone have any ideas. Thanks.

Greetings, Rory!

I appreciate you keeping us in the know, and I'm so sorry to hear this issue has resurfaced.

I'm going to share your latest detail with our Engineers to get a better understanding of what's happening here. Look out for their email—and since you have Articulate 360 for Teams, you'll get priority support!

Thanks Katie, appreciate that.