Storyline 360 crashes randomly on export while encoding audio files

Nov 07, 2023

I ran into an issue again today in which Storyline 360 crashes on export publishing while encoding audio files.

Here are specific circumstances:

  • I am exporting from my hard drive (C drive) - not from a network server or OneDrive location.
  • I am publishing to SCORM 1.2. (Although it happens with AICC as well.)
  • I reboot and close all other programs so nothing is competing for processor time.
  • I've saved it as a new file, imported the pages into a new file, all to no avail.

Every time, the export fails at *different* spot, always when "Encoding XX.m4a..." where "XX" is one of the audio narration files on one of the pages.  It's not the SAME narration file every time; it's always a different file.

Eventually, after about two dozen export attempts (sometimes crashing within seconds, other times taking two minutes or more to crash), eventually it succeeds.  This process usually takes over an hour of exporting/crashing/exporting/crashing...etc.  But, it eventually exports successfully.  In the mean time, nothing changes other than just repeatedly exporting and failing in different spots.

I am writing today to simply report my experience and offer a glimmer of hope for others who haver reported similar experiences, that - with patience - it will eventually export successfully without having to do anything.  I am happy to share my .story file (attached) in hopes that Articulate can isolate this seemingly-random issue so that I can export successfully on the first or second try, rather than dozens of tries.  But, I've just come to expect that when exporting some Storyline files with audio narration, it might take hours of repeated exports to accomplish.

I'm open to working with technical support to help with this!

1 Reply
Jose Tansengco

Hello Michael, 

Happy to look into this for you!

I tried publishing your course on my end and it completed without any issues on the first attempt. I also tried publishing it a few more times just to be sure and I can confirm that these resulted in successful publishes as well. 

There's a chance that the behavior you're encountering is isolated to your installation. As a troubleshooting step, please follow these steps to do a repair of your Storyline 360 installation. You'll also want to make sure that you are working out of a directory that does not get synced to an online location. If the issue persists, open a case with our support team here so we can take a closer look at what's happening.