Manually delete old .tmp files from hidden folder to free up disk space!
May 10, 2015
Just a house-keeping tip that I thought other people might find helpful:
I finally found the hidden folder that houses the auto-recover files created when Storyline 2 crashes and I was astounded to discover that there were more than 20GB of files in there! That explained why my virtual machine was always using up 3-4 times more space than I thought it should, based on the files and programs I had installed on there. It appears that, although Storyline automatically creates the .tmp files, it does not automatically delete them when newer files are created, so it is a good idea to check that folder on a regular basis and delete old versions that are no longer relevant to keep them from hogging all of your hard drive space.
For anyone who does not know how to find a hidden folder in Windows (I'm using Windows 7), open a folder window and click on the 'Organize' pull-down menu at the top-left of the window and choose, "Folder and search options". In the window that pops up, go to the 'View' tab and click the radio button beside "Show hidden files, folders and drives" under "Hidden files and folders", then click 'OK'.
Now, go back to your folder window and look for the path: /AppData/Roaming/Articulate/Storyline (it may differ for others but I found it under C:/Users/[my user name], then AppData/Roaming/ etc....).
Articulate staff member, Ashley Terwilliger, mentioned this path in another post about finding auto-recovery files (https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/storyline-2-autorecovery-auto-save-where-do-i-find-the-file#reply-212826):
If there are unsaved pending changes, an auto recover file is created for the project under the /AppData/Roaming/Articulate/Storyline path. This auto recover file is named using a format like this:
<name of the file witout .story extension><creation time stamp of the file>.tmp
So if you were working on a file called "my sample story.story" the auto recovery name might look like "my sample story635502380729253410.tmp".
I deleted all of the old .tmp files except for the most recent one for each of my projects and it freed up a lot of room and made my whole system run a lot faster. I have now made a shortcut directly to that folder that I keep on my desktop so I can go to it on a regular basis and clear out whatever isn't needed anymore.
Hope that helps someone!
48 Replies
Not 100% sure but i believe this was fixed in an update and latest versions of Storyline2 should clean up after themselves.
Hi Mel,
Yes, as Phil mentioned this was fixed in Update 4 of Storyline and you can see that documentation here in the release notes. We're also on update 5 now, which included a number of fixes and new features!
Hi Phil and Ashley,
Thank you for pointing that out - it's good to know that it's fixed. I guess when I first accessed the folder, there were lots of .tmp files there that were saved while I was still using earlier versions of Storyline so there was a lot to delete. I'm also still having to do this because I regularly save my files with a new name in order to have a more recent backup in case a file corrupts, so there are still always files that I no longer need in there. Good to know that they won't pile up now, though!
Glad we could help Mel and feel free to let us know if you need anything else.
Ashley,
I am currently using the most recent build of Storyline 360. It appears this old issue of massive temp folders has resurfaced. I see in my hidden App Data folder it is growing over 20 gigs. I deleted them and it has built up again. My virtual machine continues to chew up hard disk space. Perhaps it is time to evaluate the newest version of Storyline 360?
Hi Lee,
Thanks for popping in here to share that you're seeing the same thing. I haven't seen a lot of reports of this in SL360 so far, so I'd like to have you work with our Support Engineers so that we can pull a bit more information from your system. I've started a support case for you and you should get an email from Support@articulate.com soon!
Hi Ashley,
Are there any updates from the Support Engineers about this issue? I've just cleaned up my hard drive and removed 43 GB of old .temp files from it!
Hi Paul!
I've seen a couple cases started about it in Articulate 360 and so far there hasn't been anything specific or consistent in the error logs. We'd love to take a look at what you've got going on though! I'll open up a case for you and our team will be in touch shortly.
I opened a ticket on this, and I was told there were unable to replicate the problem. I've since had to remove temp files much more often.
I found using Preview in the Storyline 360 App seems to create lots of temp files. It seems using VMWare fusion is a part of the problem. As a result, I have been using Articulate Rise much more, and I find the entire experience to be enjoyable because I can fully develop my courses in the Mac OS without storage issues.
There is a feature in VMWare Fusion where you can reclaim disk space, and this has been a huge help for me.
Hi Lee,
Do you have your case number handy? I saw a few different cases for you but they were mostly about Rise.
I use VMWare and haven't run into any difficulty. I'm often opening and publishing a number of files, although not the same file as you may be which could connected.
Ashley,
Case #01039886
Thanks Lee - I'll take a look.
I found myself searching the internet and this forum for a solution to the amount of hard disk memory Storyline 2 uses and determine which (if any) temp files can be deleted - or if I could move SL2 temp file storage from my SSD (very small solid state C: drive used for system files) to my HDD (D: drive) that has 1 TB of space.
When I saw this article, I thought "that's not where I'm seeing all these temp files" - I have a boatload of what looks like temp folders in %User%/App Data/Local/Temp/Articulate/Storyline - where today I see 57 folders, each with 100's of MBs of data from a project I worked on yesterday - after I did a disk cleanup and rebooted my computer.
SL2 is overruning my SSD and I can't seem to redirect where temp files are stored. HELP!
Can I delete these files?
Can I redirect where SL2 stores temp files (away from my SSD C: drive)?
>> Addendum: After I opened SL2 to work on the same project today, the contents of this folder changed significantly: 2GB of data and 54 folders were deleted. Clearly this is a cache folder. So, my questions are reduced to one: Can I redirect where SL2 stores these temp files to my HDD D: drive?
try DuplicateFilesDeleter program
Hi Diane,
We don't recommend storing your working files or the temp folders and files on a non local drive (like your C drive) as that can lead to issues with file latency and ultimately corruption. The temp files are created in the event of a Storyline crash when you've enabled the auto recovery mode but they are safe for you to delete if you are no longer working on that project or if they're clogging things up.
By "non local drive" do you mean an external drive? I agree. I certainly wouldn't want to do that.
However, my development computer has two local drives: one is a solid state drive (SSD) with a maximum capacity of 120 GB that is use for my operating systems (and unfortunately Office, since Microsoft won't allow installation on anything but C:/), and a hard drive drive (HDD) with 500GB of storage capacity that I use as often as possible for installing programs, caching, temp files, and all my production files.
Both the SSD and HDD are local drives. However Storyline 2 is only using the SSD for its temp files. Can I make SL2 point to the HDD instead (since it's a local drive)?
Hi Diana,
An external drive, a networked drive, etc.
I don't believe we have a documented way to change the temp directory, but I know we have steps to change the install directory as detailed here. Could you try that and see how it impacts the temp file storage?
This is still an issue with the latest version of SL2. I just cleaned up 64GB of tmp files that had been accumulating for the last 6 months. It's not fixed.
Hi Jim,
I'm sorry this is still causing you issues while using Storyline - do you see an error message, or just a slow down of the Storyline program?
No slowdown or issues. It just continues to do it until my boot drive is completely full, which is what causes errors and issues.
Hi Jim,
In the instances that we saw, it was triggering an error message as noted here. Since you're still running into the issue, can you share a bit more about where you're saving your standard .story files, if you changed anything about the install location, or other info about how you work?
Also, if you'd like to connect with our Support team, they can take a look at more specifics around your system settings too!
I don't believe we're talking about the same issue. The files that are filling my drive are in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Articulate\Storyline directory. There is a .tmp file for every single Storyline file that I have opened that is the same size as the .story file.
The issue that you're pointing to is apparently different, with files (such as preview files, etc) being placed in the %temp% directory.
My issue is the same as the users above. The one you have linked to is a different issue.
Hi Jim,
Storyline should have automatically deleted those temp files on your drive when you manually saved the project and close Storyline. Our team has looked into similar issues in the past, and would be happy to work with you too as it's typically caused by environmental factors.
If you encounter similar behavior in the future, I'd start by running a quick installation repair of Storyline to ensure that all of its software components are intact. Please refer to the instructions on this article.
Then, reboot your machine and see how it behaves. If the issue still persists, please reach out to our Support Engineers here, and they'll look for those additional factors that could affect the temp files from being deleted. They'll walk you through how to collect some logs and run a series of test.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Jim,
My problem with Storyline surrounding this issue has been that Storyline treats my virtual machine as a virtual drive. I see you are using roaming profiles on your windows machine. Storyline may see this is a virtual drive. When I escalated this issue previously with Storyline support a very helpful technician on the phone with me and said my virtual machine is creating a network drive, and Storyline does not support network drives, hence the software is working as designed. They closed the case and called it expected behavior. So technically Storyline works on a Mac, but not really. The temp file issue seems to be related to network drives, and if that is the issue I really wish Articulate would help us out here. Every Storyline project I work on results in a full hard drive and lots of problems.
My solution is I am using Rise a lot more, and still waiting on a supported Mac version of Storyline...
Hi Lee,
The majority of our Support team uses Storyline on a Mac environment, and to help with the issues of roaming profiles we all use the steps outlined here:
As for a native Mac version, I'm sorry to be the one to share the news, but there isn't a native Mac version of Storyline on our roadmap. The vast majority of our customers use Windows and web-based authoring tools that don’t depend on a particular operating system. And we're focused on developing features that have the widest impact. For example, as you mentioned Articulate 360 subscribers can use Rise to create courses right in their web browsers, and we’re continually updating Rise with new features.
We still have many customers (and staff) who use Storyline on Mac with a virtual environment. Take a look at these demo videos, which will show you how.