We've stumbled upon an issue with Safari 11's default setting that prevents videos from auto playing in HTML5 output (MacOS High Sierra). Any videos inserted from a file, that are set to autoplay do not play when initially loaded—but they do play on slide revisit.
Can anyone test a course with video in Safari 11 to confirm?
This is a huge bug that we're running into at the 11th hour on a huge deliverable. For the community admins, I've already reported it as a bug (Case 01162172)—just trying to confirm we're not the only ones impacted.
Do you have a link to your courses that I could take a look at? I'd really like to understand where that previous image/error was coming from since it's not anything I've seen before.
The play button will be driven by the Chrome/Safari autoplay rules outlined in this article (and the other linked one for audio). The autoplay rules can be a bit confusing, but the play button was designed to have a user-initiated action prior to any media playing. That's the big, easiest piece for browsers like Chrome to recognize that the user truly wants participation with the linked content.
You mentioned seeing the loading dots as well, is that before the image you shared or the actual play button? where are your courses hosted that you're seeing this?
If you'll be adding items to the slide to get around this, you'd still need to republish those items so using the updated version of Articulate would accomplish the same thing.
If I'm misunderstanding your set up, please share a link to that course or even a copy of your .story file. I'm happy to publish it and upload in one of my test environments.
Here is a link that shows what we are trying to do. We want add a user interaction to our slate (which we have on each of our topics anyway). The attached shows two ways we've tried. On mobile, we thought doing this would make the PLAY BUTTON go away. But it still comes up. Any solutions?
Hi there, Paul. On mobile devices, you'll always see the launch screen (play button) for your content. What you're seeing isn't tied to the autoplay rules for desktop versions of Safari, but should have always been the experience for folks viewing your courses on their mobile devices. Even if you have an initial slide where the learners engage with the content before any slides with audio or video, learners will still see the play button on mobile devices.
So here's what I see when I publish your content and launch it on my iPhone:
Here is a discussion on how you can work with the published output to modify that behavior. We only support the published output without modifications, but you can always talk about those steps with other community members for more help!
Hi Paul. I feel a little sheepish - because when I checked your same output on my desktop version of Chrome, I saw the launch screen there, too.
After some head scratching, I realized that your first slide had a layer with a video in it. Our solution for autoplay checks if the first slide has video on it at all, regardless of the layer. That's why you're seeing the play button in the desktop environment as well.
When I remove the layer and republish your content, it automatically displays as expected. You can see here.
Sorry for any confusion! To recap, projects that have video on the first slide will see the launch screen to comply with browser autoplay policies. All projects will see the launch screen when played on mobile devices.
Thanks for the clarification! We publish separate files for each topic (each with a static slate) and use our own 3 level bookmarking menuing system (because storyline's menu is weak). So if a course has 8 topics, our users will have to select the play button 8 times. In the future will storyline be able to have the computer and mobile version work the same...so we won't see the play button if the first screen doesn't have video/audio? And will our legacy courses with autoplay be impacted...or does the play button come up server side, meaning will we have to republish our entire library.
BTW the last question is for mobile. We have a ton of courses out there in SL 2 and SL3 and they all have slates but on mobile the play button is supposed to come up... For those older course, will the play button come up or will we have to republish? Hopefully you can answer my questions from the last and this post.
If you're accessing on a mobile device you'll always see that play button to start the course out.
If you're accessing on a desktop browser, and you've published with the latest updates you'll see that play button to ensure that any media on the first slide can play. If your legacy courses didn't have media on the first slide, and a user action prior to the media playing - those will play fine.
If you do have media on the first slide, or no user interactions, you'll want to republish those courses to ensure that they'll play for your users.
Hi everyone, just to follow-up on my post on April 13, 2018 where I said we ran into a similar issue where videos are sometimes not auto-playing on iPad iOS 10.3.3 with specific Storyline 3 and Storyline 360 updates.
I tested my sample build of four pages each with an auto-playing video on the Storyline 3 update 3.5.16548.0 from August 16, 2018 and the Storyline 3 update 3.6.18134.0 from March 5, 2019 and the issue I experienced appears to be FIXED in my testing. I select the Play button that appears on the initial video, and from that point, including on bookmark or if I restart to reset tracking, the videos automatically play in my sample build.
I reported this via this particular forum post so you can see all the details including this recent update there:
I think I am experiencing the same issue, I did install an update on 360 2 days ago but still have problems with some videos playing and some not, I have also been told a work around was to make sure the slide was wider than the video which seemed to work but no anymore?
36 Replies
Hi Paul,
Do you have a link to your courses that I could take a look at? I'd really like to understand where that previous image/error was coming from since it's not anything I've seen before.
The play button will be driven by the Chrome/Safari autoplay rules outlined in this article (and the other linked one for audio). The autoplay rules can be a bit confusing, but the play button was designed to have a user-initiated action prior to any media playing. That's the big, easiest piece for browsers like Chrome to recognize that the user truly wants participation with the linked content.
You mentioned seeing the loading dots as well, is that before the image you shared or the actual play button? where are your courses hosted that you're seeing this?
If you'll be adding items to the slide to get around this, you'd still need to republish those items so using the updated version of Articulate would accomplish the same thing.
If I'm misunderstanding your set up, please share a link to that course or even a copy of your .story file. I'm happy to publish it and upload in one of my test environments.
Here is a link that shows what we are trying to do. We want add a user interaction to our slate (which we have on each of our topics anyway). The attached shows two ways we've tried. On mobile, we thought doing this would make the PLAY BUTTON go away. But it still comes up. Any solutions?
Hi there, Paul. On mobile devices, you'll always see the launch screen (play button) for your content. What you're seeing isn't tied to the autoplay rules for desktop versions of Safari, but should have always been the experience for folks viewing your courses on their mobile devices. Even if you have an initial slide where the learners engage with the content before any slides with audio or video, learners will still see the play button on mobile devices.
So here's what I see when I publish your content and launch it on my iPhone:
Here is a discussion on how you can work with the published output to modify that behavior. We only support the published output without modifications, but you can always talk about those steps with other community members for more help!
Hi Paul. I feel a little sheepish - because when I checked your same output on my desktop version of Chrome, I saw the launch screen there, too.
After some head scratching, I realized that your first slide had a layer with a video in it. Our solution for autoplay checks if the first slide has video on it at all, regardless of the layer. That's why you're seeing the play button in the desktop environment as well.
When I remove the layer and republish your content, it automatically displays as expected. You can see here.
Sorry for any confusion! To recap, projects that have video on the first slide will see the launch screen to comply with browser autoplay policies. All projects will see the launch screen when played on mobile devices.
Thanks for the clarification! We publish separate files for each topic (each with a static slate) and use our own 3 level bookmarking menuing system (because storyline's menu is weak). So if a course has 8 topics, our users will have to select the play button 8 times. In the future will storyline be able to have the computer and mobile version work the same...so we won't see the play button if the first screen doesn't have video/audio? And will our legacy courses with autoplay be impacted...or does the play button come up server side, meaning will we have to republish our entire library.
BTW the last question is for mobile. We have a ton of courses out there in SL 2 and SL3 and they all have slates but on mobile the play button is supposed to come up... For those older course, will the play button come up or will we have to republish? Hopefully you can answer my questions from the last and this post.
Hi Paul,
If you're accessing on a mobile device you'll always see that play button to start the course out.
If you're accessing on a desktop browser, and you've published with the latest updates you'll see that play button to ensure that any media on the first slide can play. If your legacy courses didn't have media on the first slide, and a user action prior to the media playing - those will play fine.
If you do have media on the first slide, or no user interactions, you'll want to republish those courses to ensure that they'll play for your users.
Hi everyone, just to follow-up on my post on April 13, 2018 where I said we ran into a similar issue where videos are sometimes not auto-playing on iPad iOS 10.3.3 with specific Storyline 3 and Storyline 360 updates.
I tested my sample build of four pages each with an auto-playing video on the Storyline 3 update 3.5.16548.0 from August 16, 2018 and the Storyline 3 update 3.6.18134.0 from March 5, 2019 and the issue I experienced appears to be FIXED in my testing. I select the Play button that appears on the initial video, and from that point, including on bookmark or if I restart to reset tracking, the videos automatically play in my sample build.
I reported this via this particular forum post so you can see all the details including this recent update there:
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/storyline-3-crashes-on-ipad-safari-and-chrome?page=6
Thanks, Krista for that update and I'm happy to hear things are fixed using the latest update.
Hi Ashley,
I think I am experiencing the same issue, I did install an update on 360 2 days ago but still have problems with some videos playing and some not, I have also been told a work around was to make sure the slide was wider than the video which seemed to work but no anymore?
Thanks
Colin
Hi Colin, happy to investigate this with you! Can you help me with a few key details?
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