file is being used by another process

Dec 07, 2012

I am currently creating a storyline course that is the second lesson in a series. As such, I am reusing a lot of pictures and clip art that I created for lesson 1. The problem is this:

I can open up Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 with no problems. I can switch from Lesson 2 to Lesson 1 with no problems. But when I try to open lesson 2 again, I get the following error:

"The file 'filename' is being used by another process or you do not have the proper security permission to access this resource."

This error message will persist until I restart my computer. Closing and reopening storyline does not fix the problem. I have not downloaded any "rogue" templates. I am the only one who uses this laptop, almost exclusively on my home network.

Please help.

38 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Hi David!

Do you have any of the images or other elements open in other programs (for example, viewing an image in Paint, even in the background, will cause this issue because the software recognizes an instance of the image is in use)? Also, are all of the content items on your hard drive, or are you accessing them from a USB drive, network, etc.?

The error message you're receiving is it for one particular file, or multiple files?

Thanks!

Christine

Sabrina Ayala

I have tried both... she saved the file to a file I could view and I tried to open it straight from there and I tried opening articulate and using the browse option there too and I get the same response.

She was actually unable to open it before and she called CUNA (she purchased articulate from them) and they walked her through an update but not the Articulate Replay update... is that available for me?

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Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Sabrina, 

There were updates for Storyline 1 & 2, Studio '13 and Replay to fix an issue with Adobe Flash Player 16 released in early december.  Here is the link to download the update for Storyline 2 and you can also find the Replay update here. 

After going through the updates, if you're still having the same error message I'd try rebooting your system, and if it still persists after that it may be the file itself. As I mentioned, if not working locally the file could have some element of corruption in it. Is your colleague still able to open it? 

Jessica Martello

Hello!
I am experiencing issues similar to the issues users encountered above on this thread. When I attempted to open my project from a shared drive, the error message "The file 'filename' is being used by another process or you do not have the proper security permission to access this resource." appears. 

I closed all open programs, restarted my computer- still got the same error.

I then copied the project to my desktop. When I opened it from the desktop, the error message became "The project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline." 

I changed the file name on the desktop, tried to re-open...and go the same message.

Please help! Any advice?? I don't know what to do if I lose this entire project...

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jessica, 

Unfortunately once a file has become corrupt, it's difficult to recover it and we always recommend working off a local drive as described here to help  prevent corruption issues. 

However, if you're using Storyline 2 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.
Paul Levins

I had the same issue with having accidentally saved over a file in my Articulate projects folder. Was getting the same error message so I restarted my PC. Went into My computer and found the file. Right clicked on the file, clicked on Properties, clicked on Previous versions and copied the correct version and pasted the file onto my Desktop. Then went into the file from desktop and the previous correct version then opened and was able to access the material that had been saved over.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Julie! 

Be sure to check out Ashley's solution:

However, if you're using Storyline 2 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.
David LeBlanc

@Ashley, If you were here I might hug you and deal with the consequences... I tried everything else and nothing worked, but your tip enabled me to recover a few days (OK, probably closer to a week) of work. Thank you! Now I'll start practicing what I preach to everyone else and back up daily. Thanks again.

David LeBlanc

Did you try Ashley's suggestion above (about digging the backup out of the %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline folder)? It sounds like I was absolutely in the same boat as you but her approach saved me a ton of work. You might not get everything right up until the unfortunate C+A+D, however you'll probably get to within 10 minutes or so of it.

Now I'm in the business of daily backing up :)