I've an issue, and would appreciate some advice please.
I'm trying to sync some content with audio so im using the 'play' button on the timeline quite a bit to get things synchronised correctly..BUT, usually i can put the playhead to the where i want to play the timeline from, however when i press play, the slide plays from the beginning which is quite a pain!
I know this usually works as i do this all the time.
Hi, Sarah -- Can you please provide your .story file or a sample here that illustrates the behavior you are seeing, and we will take a closer look for you?
I hate to tell you this, but you'll be happier if the timeline doesn't start from the middle. Anytime you start in the middle of the timeline, (or even advance or backup in the timeline using the seek bar), you run a very high risk of not having everything on the slide in synchronization. This is especially true if your slide has video, but I think audio is the same. The only way you can be sure that the timing you see is what the final timing will be is to use the preview, and play from the beginning, without advancing. Then I right click on the time line and set timing. Bear in mind that this may be too much if you are happy to have an event happen within a second or two of its intended time, but that is not close enough for what I am doing.
My work around is to play the media in a different program (Audacity for audio, MS Movie Maker for video), and record the exact times I want to trigger events from those play lines.
Thank you - Think you have misunderstood my query, The timeline would play from the beginning each time I press the play button (when developing the slide) i.e i want to play from a certain section so i can sync some animation or transcript ..
inexplicably, it's working fine now - so stand down troops!
Hi, Stefan! Really sorry you're running into a playhead issue as well.
I saw you submitted a support case with your .story file attached – great move! And thanks for confirming your environment and some steps you tried. Our Support team is reviewing the behavior you described as we speak, and you should hear back from someone as soon as possible. I'll follow along as well!
Good morning, Stefan. Thank you for the kind words! I relayed them to Gerald ☺️
For those following this thread (Hi, Walt!), here is what our team advised:
You can eliminate the playback behavior you’re experiencing by using the When clicked option in your video's Play Video settingsYou can set this temporarily or permanently (if you don't want the video to start playing until learners click it in your published output) while working with your timeline synchronization.
Katie posted the response. I could at first not imagine that it would solve the problem because i thought their response was more related to displaying the project rather than editing it. But it really helped for editing on the timeline.
You might have to play around a bit with the options described as I felt that the behavior was not really logic and predictable.
And!!!!: you might have to wait for a few seconds until the video jumps to the correct frame after pausing it: In my project I still had kind of a strange behavior that if I would pause the video it would jump back to some random frame and only after some seconds it would finally jump to the desired frame which I had paused the video and where I wanted to edit the screen. The bigger the video, the longer it lags (even though I have quit a powerful computer :-))
I am having the same issue as Sarah. I am developing projects, but every time I press pause in the timeline, then play, the cursor/playhead goes back to the beginning of the timeline. Every time. I am wondering if this is an issue anyone else has had sine the most recent update? (Aug 18, 2020). This is increasing my development time for a client and I can't seem to rectify the situation. I understand there are workarounds I could use (cues) but this isn't how Storyline should be behaving?
On further inspection, this happens only on layer timelines. it works fine on the base layer. this was working fine in the previous and other versions. something ain't right!
Yes, Rob! Same issue here. Just the layers are sending me back to the beginning of the timeline each time I pause. I submitted a case on Friday but haven't heard back yet. Hopefully soon!
I have the same problem on some layers. Unfortunately I can`t use the video setting tip Katie shared, because I only have audio and no video on the slide. Is there a solution for this as well?
Thanks for reaching out, and I'm sorry you're running into this issue! After our support engineers connected with Rob, it looks like we have a bug reported where:
The playhead jumps back to the beginning of the timeline when previewing a layer with a shorter base layer timeline.
I'm sorry that I can't say when this issue will be fixed, but you're in the right place to stay updated on this bug's progress. As Ryan mentioned, reverting to a previous version is an option for now.
Thanks so much. This is helpful. Definitely frustrating and takes a long time to time out any audios/visuals if you have a longer layer. I wasn't sure how to revert to a previous version so thanks for linking that!
38 Replies
Anyone!? ...heeeelp ..This is increasing my dev time quite a bit :(
Hi, Sarah -- Can you please provide your .story file or a sample here that illustrates the behavior you are seeing, and we will take a closer look for you?
Sarah,
I hate to tell you this, but you'll be happier if the timeline doesn't start from the middle. Anytime you start in the middle of the timeline, (or even advance or backup in the timeline using the seek bar), you run a very high risk of not having everything on the slide in synchronization. This is especially true if your slide has video, but I think audio is the same. The only way you can be sure that the timing you see is what the final timing will be is to use the preview, and play from the beginning, without advancing. Then I right click on the time line and set timing. Bear in mind that this may be too much if you are happy to have an event happen within a second or two of its intended time, but that is not close enough for what I am doing.
My work around is to play the media in a different program (Audacity for audio, MS Movie Maker for video), and record the exact times I want to trigger events from those play lines.
It has cut my dev times from days to hours.
Hi Walt,
Thank you - Think you have misunderstood my query, The timeline would play from the beginning each time I press the play button (when developing the slide) i.e i want to play from a certain section so i can sync some animation or transcript ..
inexplicably, it's working fine now - so stand down troops!
Thanks all!
Working fine now - thanks all
Glad to hear it Sarah, thanks for popping in with an update :)
Delighted to hear you are all set now, Sarah!
I'm facing the same problems. Did anyone find out why this happens and how it can be resolved?
Does the same thing happen if you click on the timeline where you want to start, and press the spacebar?
Hi Walt. Unfortunately using the spacebar doesn't help either.
Hi, Stefan! Really sorry you're running into a playhead issue as well.
I saw you submitted a support case with your .story file attached – great move! And thanks for confirming your environment and some steps you tried. Our Support team is reviewing the behavior you described as we speak, and you should hear back from someone as soon as possible. I'll follow along as well!
Hi Katie. The tip by support did the job - so: Thanks.
Unfortunately I deleted the mail from support for "good": could you please close the case and say thanks to the agent!?
Best regards
Stefan
What was it that support said that solved it?
Good morning, Stefan. Thank you for the kind words! I relayed them to Gerald ☺️
For those following this thread (Hi, Walt!), here is what our team advised:
We'll be standing by if you need anything else!
Hi Walt
Katie posted the response. I could at first not imagine that it would solve the problem because i thought their response was more related to displaying the project rather than editing it. But it really helped for editing on the timeline.
You might have to play around a bit with the options described as I felt that the behavior was not really logic and predictable.
And!!!!: you might have to wait for a few seconds until the video jumps to the correct frame after pausing it: In my project I still had kind of a strange behavior that if I would pause the video it would jump back to some random frame and only after some seconds it would finally jump to the desired frame which I had paused the video and where I wanted to edit the screen. The bigger the video, the longer it lags (even though I have quit a powerful computer :-))
Hope that helps.
Hello,
I am having the same issue as Sarah. I am developing projects, but every time I press pause in the timeline, then play, the cursor/playhead goes back to the beginning of the timeline. Every time. I am wondering if this is an issue anyone else has had sine the most recent update? (Aug 18, 2020). This is increasing my development time for a client and I can't seem to rectify the situation. I understand there are workarounds I could use (cues) but this isn't how Storyline should be behaving?
Hey all,
I just upgraded to v3.43.22859.0
and all of a sudden, it keeps jumping back to the beginning.
this is very frustrating if you are trying to time out animations on a longish slide.
has something changed? is there a preference somewhere that may have gotten reset?
This is really slowing me down.
On further inspection, this happens only on layer timelines. it works fine on the base layer.
this was working fine in the previous and other versions. something ain't right!
Yes, Rob! Same issue here. Just the layers are sending me back to the beginning of the timeline each time I pause. I submitted a case on Friday but haven't heard back yet. Hopefully soon!
On further, further inspection. it appears to be only on certain layers are behaving this way.
very strange!
I have the same problem on some layers. Unfortunately I can`t use the video setting tip Katie shared, because I only have audio and no video on the slide. Is there a solution for this as well?
Experienced the same thing as Rob, Callie and Marlene. Fixed it by reverting to the previous version (3.42.22792.0)
Hi Ryan, Marlene, and Callie,
Thanks for reaching out, and I'm sorry you're running into this issue! After our support engineers connected with Rob, it looks like we have a bug reported where:
The playhead jumps back to the beginning of the timeline when previewing a layer with a shorter base layer timeline.
I'm sorry that I can't say when this issue will be fixed, but you're in the right place to stay updated on this bug's progress. As Ryan mentioned, reverting to a previous version is an option for now.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks so much. This is helpful. Definitely frustrating and takes a long time to time out any audios/visuals if you have a longer layer. I wasn't sure how to revert to a previous version so thanks for linking that!
This is happening to me too! Very annoying and adding days onto my project. I will try to revert back.