Storyline 360 courses - audio not playing or very delayed in published output

Jan 05, 2018

Hi, I already submitted a case for this and support and although they have been able to duplicate the issue, they haven't been able to track down a solution yet so I'm hoping someone else is having this problem too:

On random slides the audio is either delayed or not playing at all after published and uploaded to LMS. It works perfectly fine in preview or if I view the published output locally. It just doesn't work when I test in my LMS (Saba). I've also tested in SCORM Cloud and it doesn't work there either.

I've tried everything from uninstalling SL360 and reinstalling, starting a new project and importing the old, re-coverting from Storyline 2 to 360. I even tried recreating the affected slides from scratch but the audio is still messed up on those certain slides. It only happens with SL360. If I keep the project in SL2 and republish it, it works fine.

I am a Mac user and operate SL using Parallels and Windows 7. I have my shared profile disabled, I operate locally on the windows side and followed all the suggested instructions when using SL with a Mac. 

So basically, I'm stumped. Anyone out there experiencing anything similar? This issue has affected 2 separate courses that need to be updated asap so I'm sort of desperate here.

Oh, one more thing. If I add a seekbar to that slide and scrub either back or forth, it starts working immediately. And yes, I even tried adding a trigger to those slides to play audio when timeline starts. I also added the audio to a layer and triggered to play that layer when timeline starts and that doesn't work either. As you can see, I've been spending hours on this annoying issue.

73 Replies
James Hernandez

Hi Everyone,

I am also following for a resolution. One of my learners has experienced this issue running on iPad where the audio stops abruptly.  I was able to recreate it on my own iPad. I went to my PC using google chrome, and I also experienced this issue . We host our course on the Moodle LMS. 

- James

James Hernandez

Hi Katie,

This happens during published output, preview in Storyline, and in review 360.  The audio stops abruptly and does not restart. 

One thought I have is that the original creators of the learning package put too much audio on one slide, nearly 700 seconds. I am not sure if that is one reason for the audio to experience issues. 

- James

Lauren Connelly

Hi James!

Thank you for those additional details! I have additional questions that will help us get to the bottom of this audio issue.

  • Is it only this one slide where the audio stops abruptly and does not restart? Or do you have other slides with audio behaving the same way?
  • What type of audio file is imported in the course? Here's a list of the supported file formats.
  • Does the audio play outside of Storyline? If so, have you tried exporting and re-importing the audio?

We'd be happy to take a look at the affected file if you're interested in sharing it with our team! Here's a secure upload link.

James Hernandez

Hi Lauren,

Thank you for checking in. There are two slides were it can potentially stop in the beginning of the presentation, after that it seems to not have issues. 

The source audio files are .wav files. 

These play outside of storyline. I will look at exporting and importing the audio. 

Since this presentation was created before my time and its age, I wonder if that has something to do with it? Looking at the source files, there were some presenter files in the folder. Not sure if that is known to cause issues? 

Regardless, if the solution is too intensive, I may be better off cutting into smaller sections for now until I can build a full new version. 

I would have to check to see if I have permission to share the presentation. 

One question we did have from above is if the audio length is of a concern. The original creator made this troublesome slide around 700 seconds in length, which is much longer than anything we really do now for one slide. Does this have the potential to cause issues in the presentation loading?

Leslie McKerchie

Thanks for the additional information, James. Regarding the behavior only being at the beginning of your course as well as the concern around the slide length, I wanted to share this information about preloading:

How Course Content Is Preloaded

Since you mention that this is only affecting the audio, I do not think this is the issue.

Our team can work with you privately here and even sign an NDA if needed.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Linda,

This conversation is a bit dated and it looks like some of the issues have been resolved and some were specific to the environment. 

I'd like to start new with what you are experiencing with your upgraded projects.

With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.

Alberto Ballesteros

Hi,

I'm also having problems with audio. Even after the audio has been included in the Storyline file and tested in both preview and Review mode, it just disappears when I publish the file as a SCORM file and upload it to the LMS. What's the best solution to this?

Thank you in advance

Ren Gomez

Hi Alberto,

Welcome to E-Learning Heroes! 🌟

It sounds like the issue only occurs when you publish the course as a SCORM file and test it in your LMS. Let's try ruling that out first. Can you try a different environment, such as SCORM Cloud, to see if you get similar results?

If you do, share your file with our support team, and they can dig into this further! If everything works well in SCORM Cloud, you may want to reach out to your LMS to help troubleshoot.

Boston Cooper

Audio bugs when publishing

Storyline Version: V3.52.25247.0

Published as: LMS, WEB and REVIEW 360

 

THE BUG:

Some slides show some audio delay, non audio or audio only played when clicking on the project.

The issue is shown on slides when

"Jump to next slide when time ends"

or 

"Fade Transition" between slides

Marci Gomez-Lee

Hi Everyone,

Has a solution been found for this? I'm having a similar issue. The first slide of the course has a significant delay, the audio doesn't synch with the characters. The audio starts playing when the seekbar reaches about the half-point. I was made aware of this issue because one of my stakeholders had the delay in Review 360. I was able to replicate it on my laptop on Edge, but not on my desktop. I had 3 other individuals test the link and two had delays using Edge. I try Chrome and same issue. I opened a case and was advised to do the following:

If possible, you can also view the Review link using your mobile device. You can email the link to your device for easy testing.

    • The course played with no issues on a mobile device.

Another thing you can try is to restart your computer to refresh your computer.

    • Restarted the laptop and issue still persist.

You can also try a different network if possible.

    • Unable to since I am using my work’s network, which is the network that will be use by employees taking the course.

If there is an app running on the background, that could be using a lot of resources, may also impact the behavior of the animation/synchronization.

    • Checked and there isn’t any.

If the course is intended for LMS or web server, you can publish the project and test it on the target environment.

    • The issue was still present when played on the LMS.

I want to point out that the file is located locally, not on a shared drive. Any suggested solutions are greatly appreciated, thanks! 

Steven Benassi

Hi Drake!

Sorry to hear you've also run into issues with delayed audio playback at the start of your Storyline course! I'd be happy to help troubleshoot and had some follow-up questions to start.

  • Does the audio delay occur during the preview and published output of your Storyline course?
  • Are you working from your local hard drive? We don't recommend working with files on a network drive as it can cause erratic behavior.

  • Can the behavior be replicated across different browsers as well as through a private/incognito browser window?

It would be helpful to take a closer look at your project file and test the behavior on our end. Would you be comfortable sharing a copy here in this discussion or privately through a support case? We'll delete it from our system once we're finished!

Kevin Murphy

Finally found the right thread :) 

I am having this issue on a SL360 course. I have an open case.

Upon publishing the course and testing in SCORM Cloud, when closing the course and then resuming the course, the audio is delayed about 1.5 seconds. The timeline begins but the audio (.mp3) does not start. Have tried reinserting audio and adding a "pause timeline at timeline start" trigger. I tried republishing it in SL3 and the delay occurred again.

I have provided a segment of the course that experienced the delayed audio during testing in Scormcloud. The engineer was not able to replicate the delay so I recorded the screen and sent it along and am awaiting response.

Kevin

Steven Benassi

Hi Kevin!

Sorry to hear you've run into issues with delayed audio after resuming a Storyline course!

Smart move on opening a support case! I see that you've connected with my teammate Johnrey. You're in great hands working one-on-one with him. It looks like Johnrey replied to your e-mail with an upload link you can use to share your file.

We can continue this conversation over in your support case to keep all information in one spot.