Storyline 2 freezing when I try to Publish

Oct 09, 2014

Hi,

I have now noticed that when I go to publish, the Publish window greys out and it just hangs. I can press the button to cancel and it asks me if I am sure, pressing Yes, just continues on hanging.

If I kill Storyline in the Task Manager, relaunch the program, and immediately publish it will work. I then make a few changes and it then hangs again.

All files are on a local drive and it was working fine until today.

any suggestions would be grateful.

190 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Will,

Thanks for sending along the video. So this file was originally in SL1, and then opened in SL2 and saw the publish behavior? I'm trying to replicate this still with one of my files, and am not seeing the same behavior. 

I'd like to have you check into a few other things for me. First, it looked like there were a lot of other processes running on your system while you were trying to publish. Are you able to close those out and conduct the test again? Next, it seemed that Storyline 2 took some additional time to load when you were opening it for the second time, so again opening it with it being the only program opened would assist. Lastly, I could see that you were publishing to your C drive, but the file path looked fairly long - are you able to check if it's under the 256 character limit imposed by Microsoft? Can you try publishing it just to your desktop or somewhere very short to see if that helps at all? 

I know you mentioned you have an open support case for another issue, but I don't see where you shared this issue with John. Since it seems that the first publish is crashing Storyline, we'll want to take a look at the error logs associated with that as well once you're able to check into the other items I mentioned. 

Will Findlay

Actually, this particular file was originally SL2 and never a SL1 file (at least that is what I remember - and I can't find a SL1 version of the file). Unfortunately, this issue is also quite hard for me to replicate as well. I have probably produced this particular file 15 to 20 times without this happening. As it shows in the video, once I reopened the file and produced it again, the process went as expected, and this is what I've found with other files as well - the issue occurs, then after shutting down and reopening the file, it goes away. I counted the file path length and it was 135 characters, so I don't think that would be the issue.

You are correct that I didn't share this with John... the support case I mentioned was for a completely different issue (SCORM and our LMS), so I didn't think this issue was relevant to that case.  I just mentioned it because I already uploaded the file for that case and thought you might be able to grab the file from it since you were asking for a someone to submit a file.

To be honest, from the times I've seen it happen it doesn't seem to be file specific. I think it might happen when a file has unsaved changes maybe? It is hard to replicate. Unfortunately, though I'd like to help figure out what is going on here, because this is so sporadic and unpredictable, I don't have the time necessary to hunt this down. I just wanted to supply you with what you had requested.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Thanks Will - I was unclear on the connection to the case but now I understand. You mentioned unsaved changes - so in the sense that you've been working on a file, saving throughout and then say make some final changes and choose to publish and that error occurs, or you've never saved it and then choose to publish? Just want to follow along step by step to see if we can narrow it down further! 

Closing down other programs and doing a full restart (when available) is always a good way to help ensure there isn't anything interfering. 

Trevor White-Miller

Just to jump in for a moment of this line of thinking. I have the same issue but save continuously. I also save just before publishing and still get the freezing. I do have a few other programmes open at the same time, mainly the graphic package as I'm creating new images at the same time. So I hope that balances any views on the cause due to not saving.

Trevor

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Trevor,

Thanks for sharing that here. As you can see, the issue seems to be a bit different for each of the users that have mentioned it here in the thread. I know a few of them have connected with our support team, and I believe you have as well - so we'll continue to monitor this issue as our team looks into the specifics for each case and share any updates here. 

Sjoerd de Vries

I would save the file first before publishing if it really cost you hours each time. Also, there is an autosave function.

However, support may ask you to first check a simple procedure. It helped a lot on my site:

1. Uninstall SL2 via add/rmove programs

2. Download the latest version; https://www.articulate.com/products/storyline-2-update.php  (Currently update 3 is out whith new support for the latest flash player) and save the file

3. Richtclick the downloaded file and select install/run as administrator

4. After opening SL2 you can re-activate very easily.

It helped a lot already. I also got this feedback from others in my company.

BTW. Support can also provide a SL2 removal batch file that also deletes remains in the registry. This also removes the history, serials. I first removed SL2 and then executed the batch file as an administrator. Then I reinstalled SL2-update3. But you may want to start first by doing the steps above.

Patrick Ryan

Sjoerd,

Thanks for the post. Yes, we save the file before publishing. It is more complex than saving the file before publishing or the ubiquitous "is your computer plugged in" support steps. You weren't aware of this, but the file becomes unstable after crashing and won't allow anything new to be saved, so we have to rebuild it to make it stable again. Until it crashes again. Rinse and repeat. Hours of lost time and missed deadlines. 

We have followed your instructions above (and I believe similar instructions were from our LinkedIn Articulate Storyline crashing post) with no progress. Support is working with us on other steps. The removal batch file sounds interesting (anything would help at this point) so we will keep that in the mix with support.

It really is costing us time and money and it needs to be fixe immediately.

Kevin Thompson

I'm experiencing the same freezing upon publishing problem. (Storyline 2, Update 3)  The Publish window grays out and the "Publishing..." progress bar never appears.  I'm only able to quit the process by using the Task Manager.  Upon re-opening Storyline, the project publishes just fine, every time.  If I do some more work and try to publish again, it will often freeze once more.   

Learning it is important to save before publishing!

Kim Gillham

Just to add to this, I started a thread on LinkedIn and there are loads of people with this issue.

I have transferred my files to my HDD, updated every new issue, and I'm still having the software crash when publishing. This is an issue I'm using to advise my clients not to upgrade as it is adding painful time to my workflow.

 

PLEASE fix ASAP.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Kim,

I can't speak to the LinkedIn thread - but we welcome users to connect with us here or our support engineers here if they're running into difficulty and let us know what's happening, the version/update of Storyline being used, and additional information about their system and environment.

Can you tell us more about how and where you're publishing? Are you following along with these guidelines in terms of publish location and file path/name?  Is this only happening with upgraded files (from SL1 to SL2) or brand new files created in SL2? Can you share a problematic file with us?

Patrick Ryan

Ashley, I am on the LinkedIn thread that Kim mentioned. It started there we shared this Articulate thread on the LinkedIn thread. We have encourage everyone to post issues on Articulate forums so they remain visible, and we have encouraged everyone to follow up with Articulate support. 

We will keep this thread alive (and the one when crashing occurs when publishing) until Articulate resolves the issue.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.