File not opening because its being used in another process

Sep 28, 2020

I am in need of help. I am trying to re-open a Storyline 360 file that froze on me earlier and it keeps giving me an error message: " The file (name of file) is being used by another process. A colleague recommended that I check task manager to make sure multiple files were not opened and to reboot if necessary as that usually takes care of the issue. However, I am still getting the error message. Since this is time-sensitive, your help would be most appreciative.

7 Replies
Leslie McKerchie

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing what you are experiencing.

You have a smart colleague as a re-boot does help this issue in most cases.

Are you working on a network drive? If so, I'd recommend copying your project files to your local hard drive (your C: Drive) then continue editing. Working on a network drive can cause erratic behavior due to latency, such as file corruption, an inability to save changes, and loss of resources.

Cliff Warrick

So what's the fix?  I'm having same issue - along with others - since my computer shut down overnight with files open.  I've done a cold restart same error message.  NOT on a network drive.  I'm having serious issues with two programs that run 2. hours each.  Seems I've lost several days worth of work overnight.  Need a fix to this.

Katie Nelson

I am also having this same problem. I have restarted my computer several times. My computer is connected to a network but I save all my Articulate projects directly to my computer because of the network issues. I have actually saved my file to my computer.  Closed (not X out) out of Storyline then tried to reopen the file and I get the same error. I have to copy save to a different place or with a different name. Go in and delete my original file and then save as back to my original file name every time I try to open the file.

Ren Gomez

Hi Katie,

I'm sorry to hear you're still running into this issue! You may want to check if your file name has any special characters, accents, or symbols, which may cause this error to appear.

Cloud syncing could be another possible reason and may be worth reviewing. Here's a discussion where a customer shared this scenario:

If you continue to see this after these checks, feel free to connect with a support engineer, and they can take a closer look at your setup!

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