storyline 360 can't save my project (low memory error)

Feb 22, 2018

Hello,

I'm working on some project. I have done 5-4 slides. Sudenly SL360 starts to work very, very, very slow (almost can't do anything in it). I can't even save my project. It's happening to me few times already after working with one file for 3-4 hours. I'm sending screenshots from two errors (I'm getting those when I try to save my project). I have 32 GB of ram, so it's not a problem. I'm working on windows 10 64bit.

My slides contain: 4 photos, 15-20 buttons, 15-20 text files, few shape objects, 10-15 layers with one audio.

edit: SL360 starts working slower gradually.
When I reopen my file, it's all good and program takes only 400MB from memory. I think taht problems start when it's reaching ~3GB of RAM.

78 Replies
Lauren Connelly

Hello Dorothy!

I'm sorry for the trouble! You might consider looking in your temp folder to see if there are backup copies of projects you don't need anymore. You can access these file in this folder in Windows Explorer: %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline

If that doesn't do the trick, please don't hesitate to reach out to us in a support case so that we can work with you directly!

Stephen Seebaran

Just wanted to add this is a persistent problem across multiple PCs I've had over the years. I keep losing progress and adding project time. There's nothing to really try on my end beyond the tips I've surfaced in the forums; it all leads to app closures and lost work. That said, I am beyond livid at this point. It's $1,000/year for this suite just so I can use Storyline 360. What can your developers do to make this app NOT crash so often with the low memory issue? I have a newer laptop with 16GB of RAM, an i7 processor, and other top specs.

Lauren Connelly

Hello Stephen!

I understand how frustrating that must be, and I'm sorry for the trouble this issue has caused. I want our Support Engineers to step in and work with you directly to figure out why crashing is a frequent issue when you're using Storyline 360. I've opened a case on your behalf with our Support Engineers. You'll hear from them shortly.

Becca Levan

Hello Todd!

I took a peek at the support case you were working in with Cleo and saw that you confirmed you're working locally. Perfect!

Cleo's next suggestions:

  • Look in your temp folder to see if there are backup copies of projects you don't need anymore. You can access these files in this folder in Windows Explorer: %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline
  • Do you have any applications that sync/ back up files/folders to cloud storage, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or One Drive? If so, we recommend that you disable them to see if that helps.

I'll make a note in your support case for our team to follow up to see if this helps!

Clara

Hello Erica,

There are a few things you could try:

  • Make sure you are following these tips
  • If your project is large, consider breaking it up into smaller modules. This not only helps with your performance while authoring, but will help with performance if the course is hosted on the web or an LMS

Please feel free to share your .story file and the details of the error with our team here if you're still having difficulty as we certainly want to take a look at any other performance issues.

leila fariddanesh

Hi,

I was constantly getting memory low errors and lose work too. I took a long time to solve this problem and I would like to share it with you. I had this problem with my new laptop 32GB, intel core i7, 64bit and with original Win 10. And YES, it was a windows issue. The problem is that windows don't let you install any .net framwork in your computer and say that you have the last one, but the version of .net framwork did not work well. So when I installed theses updates the issue solved : KB5013942, KB5013624, KB4023057.

I hope neither of you experience this tedious problem.

Andrea Koehntop

Hello Andre, and welcome to the E-Learning Heroes community! ✨

I apologize for the issues you are experiencing with the low memory error in Storyline.

Here are some best practices for reducing your risk of corrupting or losing project files

I want to ask you a couple of questions to begin troubleshooting:

  • Does this happen in every .story file when you try to publish your course, or one particular file?
  • How big is the file you are trying to publish? You can try breaking it up into smaller modules. This not only helps with your performance while authoring, but will help with performance if the course is hosted on the web or an LMS

If this error is happening with one file in particular and the measures above don't seem to help, you can feel free to share your .story file with us publicly here or privately in a case so our support engineers can investigate further. We will delete it from our systems when troubleshooting is complete. 

Robert Hoisan

Hi, this memory error happens to me as well very often lately. I now have a brand new PC with Windows 11 installed, 16RAM...Please investigate compatibility with Windows 11, I never had these issues on my Laptop or older PC with Windows 10. 

This happens across projects, with various random actions like creating a new trigger or inserting an image...I get a big red X on the screen and I can't save.

I am doing all the right things since I work with SL since v1...

Thanks. 

 

edit: just found that this could be related to an issue affecting newer Intel 11th gen processors which is what I have. 
https://articulate.com/support/article/Storyline-Memory-Leaks-When-Using-Machines-With-Intel-Iris-Xe-Graphics

I have nVidia graphics but it seems to be a processor compatibility issue with 11th gen ones. And the fact that SL is a 32-bit app does not help. Please fix this as it makes work for some of us literally impossible (unless we downgrade our machines!). 

Maria Costa-Stienstra

Hi, Robert.

Thank you for reaching out!

I want to connect you with one of our support engineers to investigate if it could be related to the processor since you mentioned having an NVIDIA graphics card instead. I opened a case on your behalf, and you should hear from our team soon via e-mail.  

Robert Hoisan

Thanks, Maria.

So what I did was change the project thumbnail yesterday as described in the link above AND also I had an idea to enable compatibility mode for SL. Right-click on the SL icon, choose properties and enable compatibility for Windows 8. I am not sure if any of these did anything, but some good news I had no errors for the past 24h. We'll see if it lasts...I will let this know in the ticket as well. 

Robert

Allison Nowak

I've been getting a similar problem, even 4 years later. I'm getting a "Project file could not be saved" message with the ApiCode of [E_OUTOFMEMORY/Out of memory].

Not sure why this would be happening since my computer's memory is nowhere near at full capacity.

Sometimes when I reboot, the problem goes away, but them I'm losing the last 20 minutes or so of work.