Lost all my work because Save didn't Save.

Jul 13, 2012

I'm really irritated with Articulate Storyline because the Save command didn't save the project I'm on.

There is a glitch in Articulate Storyline that, if you save as the same file name as an older version of your work, it will NOT override your old file.

I published what I was working on, but the source file I created is still a day prior. The published file shows today's date, but the source file is yesterday's.

I'm pretty damn sure that I clicked save like a million times to make sure I'd not lose my current work. But SL for some reason doesn't like to override same named files. I highly recommend you change the file name so you can avoid this problem in the future.

Simply adding a letter at the end of your file should correct this issue. Like, storyline a, storyline b, etc. That way you don't have to recreate everything you just did.

Irritating.

29 Replies
Vispi Baria

I have also noticed some odd things (bugs) with save. Not the same as mentioned above, I have manage to save over a file, but I have lost work because save just refused to save, issue with saving over the network etc. I'm even more paranoid then Phil and save a few times during working on a single slide sometimes! I'm now on [filename]54 for a project, so a fair bit of disk space being taken up!

Still having trouble with undo, so very much hoping Save and Undo are fixed in a release soon!

Steve Flowers

I recommend a solution like Dropbox or Sugarsync. I save to one filename and every iteration / version is automatically retained at Dropbox. All I need to do is save to my dropbox structure. It's really handy. I upgraded to the annual subscription for $99. Recently got upgraded from 50Gb of cloud hosting to 102Gb. Use it for everything. As a bonus it's excellent for collaborative work since it syncs across all shared folders automatically (I save my file and my partners automatically get the sync in seconds).

Restoring from an earlier version is easily done from the dropbox website. 

Steve

Angela Malicki

I have lost my work 3 or 4 times in Storyline and it just happened again today.  And I am very attentive to saving after each modification because this has happened so often.  Sometimes SL will say that it cannot save the file and it does it anyway, but today I lost most of my work....again.  This is really a costly glitch for me and my team.

Fabrice Darrigrand

I feel like my case is even worst ! I work on my files and when I try to save them it works for a while but at some point I get an error message saying that "the project file could not be saved. Your system appears to be low on memory. Please close any other program and try again."

Of course I do that, close one, 2, 3, all programs but still get the same error message.

Someone pointed out that I may have too many modifications "stored in my undo memory" or something of that kind. 

Anybody has the same issues ? Found a way to deal with them ?

jade lee

I am just as upset, the amount of bugs I've experienced with SL is insane. From low memory to locked to being used by another source. I can't imagine working in this again.now I'm at my wit's end, loSt a full days worth of work, it saved the right version. It says the last time i edited was 16.35, however the work is gone. Deadline is tomorrow. Is there any way I could find the changessential made today

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jade, 

I'm sorry that you ran into this issue again. I know how frustrating it can be to lose work and the daunting task of trying to recreate it.

I see that you had a support case with Eloisa about 2 weeks ago, and she shared some steps for where you could look in the Temp folders, to ensure you were using local project files and repair Storyline if it keeps crashing. I know that a reminder to work locally and try to repair Storyline doesn't bring any solace or fix to the lost project files, but it should prevent that happening again.

If you need any other help, please let me know here, respond to your case with Eloisa or start a new case. Our team is happy to take a look again and see if there is anything else we can help with. 

James Mazur

Hi Ashley,

Same problem here, except I have to pick up and finish  a project someone else started but never finished. I suspect she probably was working from an external hard drive, so I get the message it was not "saved properly" but I can give it a new name or location. Either of these options is not workable. I looked in my temp folder and there is no copy of the project there. I am wondering: is the corruption for each page or the overall SL file structure? Or is the corruption in the media assets?

At this point the only solution is to rebuild the entire course. I ask because I need to copy and paste into a new module but don't want to copy and paste the corruption. Also, can I delete all the SL files in the tmp folder if I am no longer working on them?

Thanks in advance!

 

Talent Development

@James and ashley...

This happened to me just yesterday.  I spent the entire day redesigning an existing project and I immediately saved after each modification to a slide, as well as the final project save.  I worked locally on the project, not across a network.  The project was due to present to the VP the next day.  Needless to say that I had to stay up all night to rebuild the project from scratch.  Fortunately, I saw the issue sooner, rather than later.

I've used SL since 2012, but I've never encountered this issue before.  It is quite an inconvenience when you put your trust in a product and it puts your job and reputation at risk.  I hope this issue is resolved in the near future because based on the dates of the blog posts in this thread, it's been ongoing for at least 5 years.

 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Talent, 

I'm so sorry that this happened to you. Did you see an error message when coming back to the project, or Storyline crashed and all was lost? Or you closed Storyline normally and opened it back up to find your changes weren't there? 

These type of issues are notoriously difficult to pinpoint a cause, and as you said you've been using Storyline for a long time and this is the first you experienced it. If you can think of anything else that may have been different about that day, it may be just the clue we need. 

Another idea is to look for a copy of your project in the temp folders. I like to keep these steps handy for just this scenario where all seems lost - as often there is a version stored somewhere. 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. 

Again, I'm truly sorry and I hope you're able to catch up on that much need rest! Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Emily,

I'm so sorry you lost your work. I can understand how disappointing and frustrating it is to rework your projects after running into a save error.

It's nearly impossible to figure out the source of corruption, but we have some tips that help protect your files from the risk.  Saving to your local C: drive and closing Storyline daily are two of the easiest ways to protect your files.

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

Emily Beans

Thanks for your reply.  I've made sure that I followed all the tips from that link that you shared with me.  Based on how the auto-saving feature in Storyline claims to function, there is clearly an issue. Had it been saving my work every 10 minutes as it claims it does, I wouldn't have lost that much work.  Very disappointed to say the least. 

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Emily,

Thanks for letting us know that you are following all of the recommended guidelines shared.

The auto recovery feature will return you to an earlier version of your course if your Storyline program crashes, but it won't consistently save and have that copy accessible to you if you closed Storyline by accident or without manually saving.

Would you be able to share a bit more about your set-up?

  • Where are you saving your file?
  • Is this location backed up to a network?
  • Are you seeing any error messages or just opening a file that does not have all the data/changes you were expecting to see?
Renetta Bonner

Same here! I am so frustrated with Articulate. It showed errors all day in publishing. Then I tried to save my file and it froze. I looked in my files and it appeared as if it saved. Went to end task to reset and delete because it was frozen. Opened the file and now it says corrupt! And guess what?? The file in that temp area is not the latest file that I THOUGHT I saved!!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Renatta,

I can understand how frustrating it is when you expect Storyline to work a certain way and then are disappointed. I'd love to help figure out what went wrong, and ensure you're working in a way that'll help you keep accessing your files as you'd hope! 

I know this discussion is a bit older, but I'd like to start with some basics and confirming some pieces you may have already checked:

  • What version/update of Storyline are you using?  You can check by going to the "Help" Tab -> "About Articulate Storyline".
  • Are your Storyline files saved according to the best practices outlined here? 
  • What errors were you seeing while publishing? Were you also publishing locally and following those guidelines about file name/path? 
  • When you looked in the Temp folders and saw a file, how old was that one compared with your last save? 

Those details hopefully will shed some light on where things went wrong, and we'll troubleshoot from there!

Lauren Connelly

Hi Julia!

I'm so sorry you lost the file! There might still be a working version in your temp files.

Here are the steps:

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. 

Please keep us updated!