Problem with iPhone

Nov 09, 2015

Hello,

I created Storyline and Engage animations for one of our courses. Our client wants the animations to run on smartphones and tablets. We tested the animations on iPad, smartphones (Samsung, iPhone, Nexus, etc. with the following browsers: Google Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer). From our side, everything seems to work fine.

Our client told us that the animations do not work well on their iPhones (4S, 5 and 6). They cannot hear the audio. Is there anything else we can do? Have you ever had this problem with an iPhone before? We used the html5 output.

We no longer know what to do!
Thanks for your help!

Stéphanie

22 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Stephanie,

What iOS are they running? Do you know what update of Storyline the courses were published with? The latest update of each fixed some issues with iOS9, so you'll want to make sure that you published with that latest update or used the Updater as described here. 

If you're able to share a link to the content we're also happy to give it a try or if you share a copy of the .story file we can test publishing it and uploading to see how it behaves on our iOS devices. Is it only the iPhone that is causing them difficulty and the Android devices are working fine? 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for sharing the file - so for you the animations work, but not the audio? And your client said that the animations and the audio doesn't work? Could you let me know a slide to look at that has both these elements? I'm not seeing any animations on the slide and want to ensure I'm checking the correct elements. 

Stéphanie Savoie

Hi Ashley,

There are no Engage integrate into the storyline. We create animations Engage and Storyline where the audio would not play on the iphone. Finally, we found the problem. The sound was not loud enough. We increased the volume of our audio in animations and everything works on the iphone now. This is the first time it happens us since we use Storyline.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Stéphanie

susan adams

Ashley,

We also have an problem (audio) with Storyline playing on the iphone/safari (ios 9), but it is intermittent.  We are using the latest build Storyline 2 - Version . 7:1509.1408. You can test from http://advancedrenaleducation.com/elearning/all  What happens is that the first time the file is launched, on occasion, the audio is garbled.  Subsequent times there is no problem!  This does not happen each time tested and may happen with different files!  But, when the problem happens, its always the first time the file is launched.  We have submitted this as a bug to Articulate.  Can you offer any suggestion or advice about this?  It is not happenning on any other device or browser.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Susan,

Thanks for reaching out here. I tested the first course at that link on my iPhone 6S with iOS 9.2 and it played the audio normally. You mentioned submitting a bug, but I don't see a case associated with your name as listed here, so perhaps you submitted it under a different name or did you use the "report" feature within Storyline's UI - if so that doesn't get connected to you as an individual but does go to our QA team for additional review. 

Do you experience this across all iPhones with iOS 9 or just a specific one? Are you able to hear other audio normally on the same device? Any other steps or ways in which we can replicate it ?

susan adams

Ashley,

Thank you for the fast response.  Its intermittent and unreliable which course the audio problem will show up!

So, is it possible for you to test with some other courses on that site to see if you see the problem?  On my iPhone 6S with iOS 9.2 the issue was audible with two courses but none of the others.. and then when I cleared my cache and started again, the problem showed up with the first course I choose...but then with none of the others. We are wondering if its some preloading issue.  It has shown up, over time, with multiple courses.

The issue was reported by a colleague.  The issue is experienced across iPhones with IOS 9 only...because those are the only ones we have to test with!  

There is normal audio on the same devices, yes, and normal audio for these courses most of the time.  Replicating...clear your safari history, cache, cookies and try. Please let me know what you find!  We have been dealing with this issue for weeks now.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Susan,

No problem. I just went through your steps (added in testing it in Private browsing mode too) and had 4 other colleagues who also have iPhones with iOS 9.2 go through the same and none of us had audio issues. Is there one course that you could point too where it's happened a number of times? Does it matter what position you select? When you say "garbled" is that sounding like static, like chipmunks, like something else...? 

susan adams

Hi Ashley,

Thanks again.  

I Just retested again and found the problem each time I tested.  This is how I tested and results:

iPhone 6+ IOS 9.2 (13C75) and Safari

1) Settings...Safari....clear History and Website Data..Clear History and Data

2) Safari...http://advancedrenaleducation.com/elearning/all

3) Choose ANY course and Click, 'Start NonCE Course' and click play when prompted

Result:  the audio is garbled and distorted (noticeable)

This happens with every single course the first time only.  Then, it doesnt seem to happen again with the course that had distorted audio or any other course.

However, redo the above steps...choose another course...and the audio is distorted the first launch again...but not any other time or with other courses!  It doesnt matter what course you choose...it happens with the first launch of any course.

Please let me know if this exact method yields these exact results for you?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Susan,

Thanks for sharing the steps here and I know you mentioned reporting this previously, but again I don't see a case associated with your name as listed here? I'd like to get you working with one of our support engineers to more thoroughly test this and try to reproduce it. Can you reach out here and share those exact steps as above? 

Matt Bassuk

I'm also experiencing this exact issue with safari on iphones. Out of curiosity what kbps are you publishing audio at? I was noticing that when publishing at 160kbps the audio will not be garbled and distorted but it will load slower (making the voices sound much lower than they really do). This speed also caused the audio not to play on my final slide for some reason, so I lowered the kbps to 32 after reading up on it.  When I published at 32 or 56 kbps the audio gets that garbled distorted sound when you launch after clearing website data. I haven't tried the other kbps rates  yet.

The weird thing is that it only does it on the first launch after clearing website data. But it's fairly consistent in doing it on the newer iphones.

Any ideas?

 

Christie Pollick

Hi, Matt -- So sorry to hear of your difficulties! I did a search in our Support ticketing system and found a case for Susan on this matter. 

Our Support Engineer, Victor, replied with the following on 1/15/16:

"There isn't a straight forward way of determining what's causing the Audio to fail during the initial content load on your device. What we confirmed however, is that this issue is erratic (the audio feedback worked without issues during our testing) and only occurs on Mobile Safari. Mobile Safari has inherent limitations that impact how multimedia operates and the overall performance of HTML5 content. I suggest reviewing this article to learn more about mobile Safari's limitations and recommendations for improving content performance."

If you continue to have issues, you are welcome to share your file here and we will gladly do some testing for you, or you are welcome to use this form if you would like to reach out to our Support Engineers directly. :)

Christie Pollick

Hi, Stéphanie -- Thanks for reaching out again, and sorry to hear of your troubles! If you haven't reviewed the information shared in my last post with respects to the inherent limitations of Mobile Safari, hopefully that will shed a little bit more light. And if you'd like to share your file, I would be happy to test it on my iPhone 6 to see if I encounter the same behavior, as well. Could you also please share which iOS you are using?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Gustaf,

Referring back to Christie's earlier answer and the information from our Support team, it seems that the behavior is inconsistent and therefore not something we could pinpoint. Are you able to experience it each and every time you access the course on those devices? What iOS are you using? Could you share a copy of the course information with our team here? 

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