I've been working on a project with a number of video files. As expected, the file size for the .story file is quite big (600+MB). But what I'm finding odd is that if I delete the slides with the video and "Save As" to a new .story file, the file size doesn't get any smaller. And if I use the "Change Video" option to swap video files like-for-like, the .story file size increases as if I'd added a new video. Anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks. I never had this problem with SL1, just SL2. A recent example: a project with a single 600MB video has a .story of 620MB. When I used Change Video and selected a 300MB video instead, the file size grew to 900+MB, even though the old video no longer appears in any slides. I'm glad this is on the QA list. Thank you!
I just submitted the same issue...I'm using SL2, and created an orientation program made up of 17 different segments. In an effort to improve load time and/or functionality, I decided to create individual SL files for each segment from the "master SL file" that includes all 17 segments. I expected the individual segments' file size to be significantly smaller than the original master, but that did not occur at all.
The "master file" is 427MB, and each of the indivual segments range from 424MB to 425MB.
The good news: I just found a solution. The bad news: it is an EXTREMELY inefficient process.
I started a brand new SL project, and then imported the slides from one of the segments that I created. I then had to set all the player settings to what I needed and then saved that file (as I did before) and SL did indeed decrease the file size (see attached screen shot).
This means that I have to do this for all 17 of my segments...ARGH!!
Our team is aware of this, and it seems it's not removed on the first save/save as - a lingering effect of the "undo" button. If you then open it and save again, it should be removed completely and update your file size. I'll include this thread in the report filed with our QA team so that we can update you here once there is additional information to share.
Is there an update on this situation? Although saving the file again does reduce the file size considerably, it does not reduce it to the size warranted by the number of slides; i.e., there's still a lot of hidden "junk" somewhere in the file.
Although the published file is the size one would expect, having unnecessarily large .story files leads to the unnecessary use of disk space, which in my world is at a premium.
I do not have an update to share at this time as it is in the hands of our QA Team still. As Ashley mentioned above, this thread has been shared so that we can track the users affected as well as update when applicable.
Hazel, try doing a "save as" 4 or 5 times in a row, to different file names. I did this with a project a while back and it got smaller each time, although I don't remember the exact number of times I did this. Just try it to see if it works for you. It's not a horrible work-around for now, but we don't embed any of our videos in the actual course file anymore. :)
Hmm...in that case I would look through your project (not sure how complex it is) to make sure you don't have an object hidden in there somewhere. Had you inserted only one large object? Are you pretty sure which video/object is causing the file to remain so large?
Other items that can cause an inflated file size that you may not be thinking about are unused slide masters, screen recordings that are not in use, additional templates you've added that are not being used, etc. So you may want to take a look at deleting those and resaving the project files.
As Leslie mentioned earlier, this is still with our QA team for review, but I don't have an update to share at this time.
Any update on this? It's June 29, 2016 (just putting the date in for reference), and I am having the same issue. I didn't mind copying and pasting the slides one by one into a new project (which did reduce the file size significantly, from 93MB to 7MB), but I had a specific player with about 50 glossary items that didn't transfer over.
I tried saving my original as a template, but it, too, was gigantic in size. Even after I deleted all but one slide from my original and saved it as a template, the file was only about 10MB smaller.
Right now I am manually re-entering all the glossary items, but it's tedious and time-consuming. Any ideas?
Our team investigated this further and found and documented the following:
A project file might not immediately shrink in size when you delete a video. Storyline keeps deleted assets temporarily after you delete them in case you need to click Undo to restore them. The good news is your project file will eventually shrink, usually after saving it a couple times. But you can also get it to shrink right away by saving and closing the project file, then re-opening it and saving it again.
Please let us know if when you save, close and reopen if you're seeing the inflated size still.
Sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this.
A project file might not immediately shrink in size when you delete a video. Storyline keeps deleted assets temporarily after you delete them in case you need to click Undo to restore them. The good news is your project file will eventually shrink, usually after saving it a couple times. But you can also get it to shrink right away by saving and closing the project file, then re-opening it and saving it again.
I am encountering same issue with SL2. Saving it a couple of times doesn't seem to work. Specifically, how many times do we have to do it? I have done it 5 times and file size don't change.
FYI, as I am working with some high resolution video files, each save takes about 10+ mins. I used both the "replace" function as well as simply deleting the entire video files (this is more troublesome as it requires me to manually doing the realignment for each video file).
"...shrink right away by saving and closing the project file, then re-opening it and saving it again." Can you clarify this? Bec' it didn't work for me.
Hi Dan, can you share more info on how you manually was able to decrease the file size? Did you need to publish the output as a zip file, etc?
Appreciate your advice. Stuck now because the file sizes does not go down even after saving it about 8 times (& counting). Each file is about 4.2 Gb, and its getting to be quite painful... :(
Sorry to hear that you're having difficulty with your file size. Sounds like you nailed the process down, and there is not really anything for me to clarify.
Would you be able to share your .story file with our team here to take a look?
any news regarding this bug? The file size won't shrink even after weeks of use and several saves, meaning deleted videos remain (permanently?) in the background. After the file has been saved and reopened, undo is no longer available, but I don't need deleted videos anyway. What's the point of keeping those videos? Growing size of the files only jams my disc and prolongs processing. Any way to delete "deleted" videos from the background?
31 Replies
Hi David!
I've actually seen a similar issue shared with our QA Team that is under investigation.
I will add this thread for them as well and flag it to be updated when applicable.
Hi David
here is a previous post about this
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/storyline-file-size
Thanks. I never had this problem with SL1, just SL2. A recent example: a project with a single 600MB video has a .story of 620MB. When I used Change Video and selected a 300MB video instead, the file size grew to 900+MB, even though the old video no longer appears in any slides. I'm glad this is on the QA list. Thank you!
I just submitted the same issue...I'm using SL2, and created an orientation program made up of 17 different segments. In an effort to improve load time and/or functionality, I decided to create individual SL files for each segment from the "master SL file" that includes all 17 segments. I expected the individual segments' file size to be significantly smaller than the original master, but that did not occur at all.
The "master file" is 427MB, and each of the indivual segments range from 424MB to 425MB.
The good news: I just found a solution. The bad news: it is an EXTREMELY inefficient process.
I started a brand new SL project, and then imported the slides from one of the segments that I created. I then had to set all the player settings to what I needed and then saved that file (as I did before) and SL did indeed decrease the file size (see attached screen shot).
This means that I have to do this for all 17 of my segments...ARGH!!
Hi Frank,
Our team is aware of this, and it seems it's not removed on the first save/save as - a lingering effect of the "undo" button. If you then open it and save again, it should be removed completely and update your file size. I'll include this thread in the report filed with our QA team so that we can update you here once there is additional information to share.
Hello Ashley,
Is there an update on this situation? Although saving the file again does reduce the file size considerably, it does not reduce it to the size warranted by the number of slides; i.e., there's still a lot of hidden "junk" somewhere in the file.
Although the published file is the size one would expect, having unnecessarily large .story files leads to the unnecessary use of disk space, which in my world is at a premium.
I hope your team can remedy this.
Thank you,
Hazel
Hi Hazel!
I do not have an update to share at this time as it is in the hands of our QA Team still. As Ashley mentioned above, this thread has been shared so that we can track the users affected as well as update when applicable.
Hazel, try doing a "save as" 4 or 5 times in a row, to different file names. I did this with a project a while back and it got smaller each time, although I don't remember the exact number of times I did this. Just try it to see if it works for you. It's not a horrible work-around for now, but we don't embed any of our videos in the actual course file anymore. :)
Thanks for the tip, Mike. I tried this multiple times, but it only made the file smaller the first time.
Hmm...in that case I would look through your project (not sure how complex it is) to make sure you don't have an object hidden in there somewhere. Had you inserted only one large object? Are you pretty sure which video/object is causing the file to remain so large?
Hi Hazel,
Other items that can cause an inflated file size that you may not be thinking about are unused slide masters, screen recordings that are not in use, additional templates you've added that are not being used, etc. So you may want to take a look at deleting those and resaving the project files.
As Leslie mentioned earlier, this is still with our QA team for review, but I don't have an update to share at this time.
Thank you, Ashley. The culprit was unused screen recordings. Mystery solved!
Any update on this? It's June 29, 2016 (just putting the date in for reference), and I am having the same issue. I didn't mind copying and pasting the slides one by one into a new project (which did reduce the file size significantly, from 93MB to 7MB), but I had a specific player with about 50 glossary items that didn't transfer over.
I tried saving my original as a template, but it, too, was gigantic in size. Even after I deleted all but one slide from my original and saved it as a template, the file was only about 10MB smaller.
Right now I am manually re-entering all the glossary items, but it's tedious and time-consuming. Any ideas?
Hi Petra,
Our team investigated this further and found and documented the following:
Please let us know if when you save, close and reopen if you're seeing the inflated size still.
Hi Heroes
I am still suffering from this same problem. Does anyone yet have a resolution?
Hi Gary,
Sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this.
A project file might not immediately shrink in size when you delete a video. Storyline keeps deleted assets temporarily after you delete them in case you need to click Undo to restore them. The good news is your project file will eventually shrink, usually after saving it a couple times. But you can also get it to shrink right away by saving and closing the project file, then re-opening it and saving it again.
Hi Leslie
Thanks so much for your valued response. Just needed an update as this seemed to be an old issue.
Thanks again.
No problem Gary. Just let us know if you need further assistance. Hope you have a great weekend!
I have experienced this issue too, especially with storyline creating what seems to be redundant videos withing the project.
If you rename your *.story file to a *.zip file, you can go into the zip file's media subfolder and delete the redundancies.
Just make sure that you create a copy of the file before doing this in case you corrupt any of the information.
Hi Leslie,
I am encountering same issue with SL2. Saving it a couple of times doesn't seem to work. Specifically, how many times do we have to do it? I have done it 5 times and file size don't change.
FYI, as I am working with some high resolution video files, each save takes about 10+ mins. I used both the "replace" function as well as simply deleting the entire video files (this is more troublesome as it requires me to manually doing the realignment for each video file).
"...shrink right away by saving and closing the project file, then re-opening it and saving it again." Can you clarify this? Bec' it didn't work for me.
Many thanks.
Hi Dan, can you share more info on how you manually was able to decrease the file size? Did you need to publish the output as a zip file, etc?
Appreciate your advice. Stuck now because the file sizes does not go down even after saving it about 8 times (& counting). Each file is about 4.2 Gb, and its getting to be quite painful... :(
Hey Benedict,
Sorry to hear that you're having difficulty with your file size. Sounds like you nailed the process down, and there is not really anything for me to clarify.
Would you be able to share your .story file with our team here to take a look?
Hi Leslie,
any news regarding this bug? The file size won't shrink even after weeks of use and several saves, meaning deleted videos remain (permanently?) in the background. After the file has been saved and reopened, undo is no longer available, but I don't need deleted videos anyway. What's the point of keeping those videos? Growing size of the files only jams my disc and prolongs processing. Any way to delete "deleted" videos from the background?
Doing a save as to a different name should reduce the file size.
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