HELP! I've been working on a project on and off for weeks. It was fine yesterday, but this morning when I tried to open it, I got a message window saying "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline.' The latter is certainly not true since this is the only version of Storyline I have.
Sorry I don't think previous version is available in XP. It saved my life recently in windows 7, I worked on holiday for two weeks without saving to dropbox and then the file corrupted
Adrian, when I try to edit text boxes, frequently the cursor will appear to be in the place I want it, but when I start deleting or typing, it will actually be 5-6 characters to the right/down, leaving me to experiment and guess as to where the cursor ACTUALLY is. It's also disconcerting that when I go to edit text boxes, the font becomes smaller, then reverts to full size as soon as I exit the text box. That makes it difficult to determine the proper sizing and content for text boxes. I've also had trouble with text boxes auto-sizing themselves to something different from what I set them when I originally created them. These are more reasons why I am not so sure Storyline is the right tool for my company.
I know that the next update is supposed to make working from a network/flash/usb drive more stable. Update 1 fixed some of those issues, but it will get better. With regards to file corruption, that will get better too in the next update as well. Everything is listened to and looked over as you know.
Thank you for posting your experience with file corruption here.
Adrian, when I try to edit text boxes, frequently the cursor will appear to be in the place I want it, but when I start deleting or typing, it will actually be 5-6 characters to the right/down, leaving me to experiment and guess as to where the cursor ACTUALLY is. It's also disconcerting that when I go to edit text boxes, the font becomes smaller, then reverts to full size as soon as I exit the text box. That makes it difficult to determine the proper sizing and content for text boxes. I've also had trouble with text boxes auto-sizing themselves to something different from what I set them when I originally created them. These are more reasons why I am not so sure Storyline is the right tool for my company.
Karen, are you viewing the slide at 100%? Anything lower or higher(?) can make a big difference to 1) accuracy of cursor placement and 2) seeing the true formatting/layout of the slide. I've experienced a few editing issues myself that really do warp what you're working with.
I'm not saying the above will resolve your issue - I'm merely stating that working at 100% is the most accurate marker for editing anything.
I am receiving the "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline." message a lot. It iscontent created by the SME that I combine to create a complete course. We verified our software versions are the same, right down to the last digit. It doesn't happen with every file, but it is turning up about 20% of the time.
Any other suggestions?
Add this to the can't "Import Storyline project into another" issue and productivity is rapidly decreasing.
Sorry to hear about the frustration. The error message you received is something we've seen in the past when working from a network or USB drive. Could that be a possibility in your instance?
Please make sure that you are working on your local drive (your C: drive). Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, including file corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior.
Additionally, here are some tips for managing your files which can help prevent issues:
1. You should also make sure the directory path to your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters (for example C:\Articulate).
2. Avoid using special characters, accents or symbols in your file names.
Additional information regarding "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces" in Windows operating systems can be found in the following Microsoft article:
I've had this issue a lot as well and so have started backing up my working files.
For me it seems to occur when sharing files over our company's network. I'll place a file in a network folder location and a colleague will download it - but will be unable to work on it due to this error message. We all have the latest update, the file naming conventions are in line with our corporate standard (meant to be more stringent than the 260 character limit, no special characters etc.) and we generally don't do anything too wild with the files themselves. Our network is stable and seems to work well when sharing anything else.
Recently, while trying to open up one of these corrupted monstrosities sent to me by a coworker, I had the bright idea to try to import the slides into a new file. The attached error message resulted. I hope this helps with diagnosing the problem, Articulate folks!
Thanks for sharing the additional information here. In regards to working on the files, are the users downloading them to a local drive and then opening them or are they opening them directly from the network drive? If it's the latter - that could be the root cause of the problem and associated corruption. You'll find more information about that here. Unfortunately, if the file is already corrupted the "import" into a new project may not fix all the associated issues.
If you continue to experience difficulty with a particular project or all your projects, it may also be worth checking to see that there isn't some additional back up/versioning happening to the network drive or a shared folder and to see if you could conduct the repair of Storyline. Also, we're always happy to take a look at a particular file. You can share it here in the forums by using the paper clip icon or connect directly with our support team.
I received this same error when I tried to load a Storyline 1.6 project into Storyline 2.0. I only received the error ...
This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline.
... when I tried to load the file into 2.0. When I load it into Storyline 1.6 it works fine. As it turned out, I had to remove the developer notes that were on the side of the staging area, like this one shown:
Once I removed those from all the slides, I could load the Storyline 1.6 file into 2.0 with no problems.
Thanks David for the update and I'm sorry to hear about your project files, but I'm glad you were able to recover parts of it.
File corruption is unpredictable, and there's no straightforward way to determine what causes it. Common causes are environmental (disk errors, power outages, improper shutdowns), viruses, failed Windows updates, and even file size (i.e., very large files have a higher risk of corrupting).
Consider these preventative measures to protect your project files:
1) Save and publish projects on your local hard drive. Working on a network drive or external USB drive can cause erratic behavior.
2) Save incrementally. If your app has an AutoRecovery feature, take advantage of it. If not, save a new version of your project every hour or so with a new file name each time. If a file becomes corrupt, you'll still have a working version available.
3) Install Dropbox. Snapshots of changes in your local Dropbox folder are kept for 30 days. If a file is damaged or deleted, you can restore a previous snapshot: https://www.dropbox.com/help/11/en.
4) Don't leave the app open and unattended for long periods of time. Some users have reported file corruption after leaving their apps open overnight. It's possible that a malware scan or disk backup could run because the machine is idle, making your app vulnerable to crashing.
For anyone else needing the steps to try to recover a file, 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.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are a gem. Instead of losing 3 weeks worth of work, thanks to your fix, I only loss one day's work. I'll take it! Thank you again!
43 Replies
Sorry I don't think previous version is available in XP. It saved my life recently in windows 7, I worked on holiday for two weeks without saving to dropbox and then the file corrupted
Hi Adrian
Although not common it happens more frequently than a lot of programs, I have at least 6 occasions where my file has corrupted.
I really would not be using dropbox if it wasnt for this
Phil
Adrian, when I try to edit text boxes, frequently the cursor will appear to be in the place I want it, but when I start deleting or typing, it will actually be 5-6 characters to the right/down, leaving me to experiment and guess as to where the cursor ACTUALLY is. It's also disconcerting that when I go to edit text boxes, the font becomes smaller, then reverts to full size as soon as I exit the text box. That makes it difficult to determine the proper sizing and content for text boxes. I've also had trouble with text boxes auto-sizing themselves to something different from what I set them when I originally created them. These are more reasons why I am not so sure Storyline is the right tool for my company.
Hi Phil,
Long time, no see.
I know that the next update is supposed to make working from a network/flash/usb drive more stable. Update 1 fixed some of those issues, but it will get better. With regards to file corruption, that will get better too in the next update as well. Everything is listened to and looked over as you know.
Thank you for posting your experience with file corruption here.
Adrian
Thanks Adrian, the other argument is that I see it a lot because I am using Storyline a lot
Hi Phil,
Thank you.
That seems like a valid argument too.
Adrian
Karen, are you viewing the slide at 100%? Anything lower or higher(?) can make a big difference to 1) accuracy of cursor placement and 2) seeing the true formatting/layout of the slide. I've experienced a few editing issues myself that really do warp what you're working with.
I'm not saying the above will resolve your issue - I'm merely stating that working at 100% is the most accurate marker for editing anything.
I am receiving the "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline." message a lot. It iscontent created by the SME that I combine to create a complete course. We verified our software versions are the same, right down to the last digit. It doesn't happen with every file, but it is turning up about 20% of the time.
Any other suggestions?
Add this to the can't "Import Storyline project into another" issue and productivity is rapidly decreasing.
Hi Brenda,
Sorry to hear about the frustration. The error message you received is something we've seen in the past when working from a network or USB drive. Could that be a possibility in your instance?
Please make sure that you are working on your local drive (your C: drive). Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, including file corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior.
Additionally, here are some tips for managing your files which can help prevent issues:
1. You should also make sure the directory path to your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters (for example C:\Articulate).
2. Avoid using special characters, accents or symbols in your file names.
Additional information regarding "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces" in Windows operating systems can be found in the following Microsoft article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247(VS.85).aspx
hello peter,
we use microsoft sharepoint for file sharing so that could be contributing to the problem. i am trying an ftp site to see if that resolves the issue.
thank you,
brenda
I've had this issue a lot as well and so have started backing up my working files.
For me it seems to occur when sharing files over our company's network. I'll place a file in a network folder location and a colleague will download it - but will be unable to work on it due to this error message. We all have the latest update, the file naming conventions are in line with our corporate standard (meant to be more stringent than the 260 character limit, no special characters etc.) and we generally don't do anything too wild with the files themselves. Our network is stable and seems to work well when sharing anything else.
Recently, while trying to open up one of these corrupted monstrosities sent to me by a coworker, I had the bright idea to try to import the slides into a new file. The attached error message resulted. I hope this helps with diagnosing the problem, Articulate folks!
Hi Glen,
Thanks for sharing the additional information here. In regards to working on the files, are the users downloading them to a local drive and then opening them or are they opening them directly from the network drive? If it's the latter - that could be the root cause of the problem and associated corruption. You'll find more information about that here. Unfortunately, if the file is already corrupted the "import" into a new project may not fix all the associated issues.
If you continue to experience difficulty with a particular project or all your projects, it may also be worth checking to see that there isn't some additional back up/versioning happening to the network drive or a shared folder and to see if you could conduct the repair of Storyline. Also, we're always happy to take a look at a particular file. You can share it here in the forums by using the paper clip icon or connect directly with our support team.
I received this same error when I tried to load a Storyline 1.6 project into Storyline 2.0. I only received the error ...
This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline.
... when I tried to load the file into 2.0. When I load it into Storyline 1.6 it works fine. As it turned out, I had to remove the developer notes that were on the side of the staging area, like this one shown:
Once I removed those from all the slides, I could load the Storyline 1.6 file into 2.0 with no problems.
Thanks Nathan for sharing that update here - I hadn't seen that behavior yet, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for it.
Had the same problem today. No clear reason for the issue. Single project on local drive, no system crash - none of the common scenarious described.
Thanks to the messages here was able to recover a previous version (using windows 7) and only lost about a couple of days :-(
Thanks David for the update and I'm sorry to hear about your project files, but I'm glad you were able to recover parts of it.
File corruption is unpredictable, and there's no straightforward way to determine what causes it. Common causes are environmental (disk errors, power outages, improper shutdowns), viruses, failed Windows updates, and even file size (i.e., very large files have a higher risk of corrupting).
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are a gem. Instead of losing 3 weeks worth of work, thanks to your fix, I only loss one day's work. I'll take it! Thank you again!
Glad this older thread still provided you some assistance Nicole - thanks for the update here!