Does Storyline 1 create automatic backups?

Sep 13, 2015

Does Storyline 1 create automatic backups?

Windows crashed. Lost some work. I thought S1 made auto backups regularly but I cannot seem to find any now. 

Thanks!
Joseph

11 Replies
Joseph Roberson

Thanks, Wendy.

"unless perhaps if you are backing up your entire system regularly."

That's what has me puzzled: I save very, very often due to the flaky, weird behavior of SL1 lately. I save every couple of minutes at the most. Yet I lost around an hour's work yesterday!

Do you ever get to the point with such a file where you simply need to start over with a new, blank project file and build the whole thing over?

If I could figure out what the flakiness is caused by....

Is the cause with Windows 7, with my setup running W7 under Parallels (on MacBook Pro), or is it because this project file has been through many, many edits, and many "save as" iterations? Do you ever get to the point with such a file where you simply need to start over with a new, blank project file and build the whole thing over? Is that a real possibility here?

Speaking of SL2, could I switch this project file over? How much trouble would there be in switching SL1 for SL2 in the middle? To me, this sounds risky. I'm too close to completion on this project to reinvent it, to start over in Captivate or SL2, to start over with a blank file.

Thanks for your help!

Joseph

Wendy Farmer

Hi Joseph,

The mysterious world of software - sometimes there isn't an answer to 'why does this happen' .

I mainly work in  SL2 on a Mac with Parallels but use SL1 as well and haven't found the flakiness you refer to. Having said that using many 'save as' compared to just saving the file I have found can sometimes cause issues. I prefer to do the initial save to my local drive and then do it again to my backup drive ( I go in a rename this backup 1).  Then after I work on the file ( in addition to the auto save feature) I might safe every half hour or after doing a complex slide. Then at the end of my work day I would save that entire file again to my backup drive renaming it backup 2 and so on.

1. Have you tried creating a new project file and importing your current file? Make sure if your project size is not the default that you set it up before you import your existing file in. This might just clean out any 'issues'.

2. Are you working locally with all the assets in your project file so not from a USB or external drive?

3. There is no reason why you couldn't try converting the file to SL2 - SL will create a backup of the SL1 file on conversion.  Be aware once in SL2 you have to have saved the file at least once before the 'auto recovery' option will be available.  Auto recovery will only kick in if SL crashes (ie you get a screen message 'SL has encountered as issue and has to close'.). You have the option in SL2 to auto save every xx minutes which you can setup under File > Storyline options .

4. SL1 - SL2 : There may be some tweaking you'll need to do on slides. In my experience there can be font changes especially on layers and sometimes a slight shifting of objects. 

I hope you get the project finished and keep your sanity :-) good luck.

 

Joseph Roberson

Hi Wendy,

So nice to talk with someone who has a similar setup! 

Yes, all assets are local–in My Documents folder (now ;-)

Using SyncToy to synch/echo My Documents folder with a backup folder in OneDrive.

Tweaking settings within Parallels 10 to try and fix the problem. It would be great if you would share your Parallels settings...

  1. Isolate Windows from Mac?
  2. Time Machine enabled?
  3. CPU's–how many? I'm at 6.
  4. Memory–I'm up top 8192 MB
  5. Configure for Design?
  6. Total size = 45 GB
  7. Disable Resume for Parallels Desktop?

You may notice these are in reverse order of tabs within Parallels Desktop Control Center.

Running OSX 10.10.5 on MacBook Pro 2013 9.1/Parallels 10/Windows 7/Storyline 1.

Looking forward to your response.

Joseph

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Joseph,

I'm glad you've found a companion in Wendy who has a similar set up and is able to assist you. I'd agree with all her thoughts and recommendations - and in regards to the local documents, if they were originally on a network or shared drive and included in the .story file, that could have contributed to overall odd behavior in your file that wouldn't necessarily be resolved by just moving it to the local drive. You'd want to look at importing it into a new file to try to resolve any of those issues.  You could also always look at repairing Storyline. 

Let us know if you need anything else. 

Joseph Roberson

Ashley (and anyone else interested),

I would greatly appreciate any help you can render. This project draft needs to be delivered to the client ASAP....

While I am able to preview each scene separately, I am not able to preview the entire project. All I see is a blank black screen with only the last "Test" scene accounted for in the lower left corner...so instead of indicating 40 slides it indicates 10 slides.

Please take a look at this .story file: "CPiE M1-S1.story" shared on OneDrive:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B47C920732F45E87!22758&authkey=!AOtLDjvvJpvDAiM&ithint=file%2cstory

Thanks!
Joseph Roberson

P.S., Attached is a faiilure report generated by ScormCloud. Does it offer any clues we can use to repair this file?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Joseph, 

Thanks for sharing the file here - but I wasn't able to download it from there. Can you attach it using the "add attacment" button at the bottom of the reply? Also that SCORM Cloud report didn't open up for me...so perhaps there is an issue with attachments here for you. If you'd like to share it privately you could also send it along to our team here. 

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