Play and Stop buttons greyed out in Timeline

Michael, Thank you for the information! I have also discovered that moving around within the story file often seems to temporarily correct the issue.

This isn't a "show stopper" issue for me, just rather annoying.  My purpose for posting was mainly to identify that it does indeed also happen in SL2 (you mentioned you were using SL1 when it occurred for you).  Also, to point out that I notice it more frequently when I have 2 instances of SL open (2 separate SL files)... Hoping to provide a mechanism for SL team to be able to recreate the issue (and ultimately fix it!).  :-)

Thanks, I just ran into this issue.  For what it's worth, I would like to add that the issue began when I shifted to working in a new scene.  I resolved it by finding working slides in a different scene. 

My story: I am working in a 7 scene project in AS2, and adding my narration audio files as a final step.  In scene 1 and scene 2, I was able to play the timeline and position objects, no problem.  Scenes 3 and 4 went OK, but then I reached Scene 5.  Scene 5 was already heavily populated with audio files, because of a scenario that was recorded earlier in development.  Only a few slides required my new narration files, but the play button was greyed out and I lost the ability to note my cue times for how I was going to position objects on the timeline.  I went back to scenes 3 and 4: also greyed out (uh-oh).  I went back to scene 2, and the play button was operating as expected.  Returned to scene 5?  All good all the sudden.  Whew! 

Thanks for the workaround, folks.  You are saving my team valuable time.

E-Learning Heroes, I was experiencing this issue today and found that if I click the zoom in and out buttons right next to the play/pause in the Timeline, the play/pause buttons come back to life.  This may or may not work for everyone, but I thought I 'd mention it.  Regards, Justin

That's great, but what about the numerous Storyline 3 users (including myself) who also reported this issue?

7 years, and this bug hasn't been resolved yet. 

Just a note that this still happens in February of 2022. I have a video-heavy course as Lyn mentions above, but I'm on a pc. Every once in awhile the play button is grayed out on the timeline. Sometimes going to another slide helps, sometimes not. Today nothing helps...

Hello Elissa, and welcome to Heroes!

I am not sure what you are referring to here. Are you referring to the prev and next button on the slides? or the play/pause button on the seekbar?

You could also attach your file using the paperclip ico if you would like us to take a look.

Hi Emily,

I'm referring to the Play and Stop buttons used in the timeline during development.

I play directly from the timeline in order to insert cue points for syncing audio and objects but sometimes I can't use this function as the buttons are greyed out.

Thanks!

Hi Elissa, 

In that image you've shared they don't look greyed out - could you tell us under what conditions this function isn't working for you? Does it happen in all your Storyline files or only particular ones or on a certain slide? You could always begin by looking into the repair of Storyline.  You could also look at importing a file into a new file if you're only seeing this behavior within a particular file. 

Hello Elissa!

If the suggestions Ashley shared do not work, you could always attach your file here for us to look at.