Storyline crashing when inserting characters?

Aug 30, 2019

Hello - I've had Storyline crash 4 times this afternoon when inserting characters. Anyone else experiencing the same thing? 

49 Replies
Leslie McKerchie

Thanks for letting us know, Teresa. 

FlipFly shared an example that I was able to recreate the issue with previously, but it's now working as expected. 

Would you be able to share an example of the sample text and/or character that you're running into an issue with? I'd be happy to take another look.

Teresa Vanderpost

Hi Leslie,

Since this issue is so random, it is so hard to re-create unless I was constantly recording with PEEK lol!  It was the same type of situation as before.  I was using the character Jonah from the options in this instance, and on various slides, so I would copy the slide and then right click replace character (pose), and after you do it a dozen times storyline doesn't open the character window and it just stops moving, everything...you never get a pop up error message just after a time you have to go to task manager and end task, only way to close it.  But it had not happened in so long was hoping it was fixed .....cheers.

Lauren Connelly

Hi Teresa!

Thank you for sharing these details! I've just tested this on my end using Jonah from the Characters in the Content Library. I've changed the post over 15 times, and I'm not running into similar issues. 

I created a new project to test this, so that might be the fix! I'd recommend importing the file into a new project as a fix.

Kristi Lozano

Has this issue/bug been resolved. I am trying to insert characters and Storyline freezes. I tried in a different file and the same behavior occurred.  I would love to use the characters! I too have to go to Task Manager to exit the program. After I download and select the expression and pose, the program freezes after I click insert.

Thanks for any update.

Lanette Gibson

I see this is an old thread, but I recently installed the Team version of Articulate and have run into the same problem. I added a character to another storyline slide with no problem. Then I created a new file and after trying to add a character (which shows him on the timeline, Articulate froze up and I had to end task. Has there been a resolution found for this? Otherwise, characters are out for me. I don't have the time to troubleshoot.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Lanette, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊

Thanks for reaching out and sharing that you're running into a similar issue.

Do you know what version of Storyline you're using? As Maria mentioned above, this issue was previously resolved.

  • You can check by going to Help > About Articulate Storyline

We are currently on Build 3.56.26219.0 of Storyline 360. You can read all of the details here.

If you can share the steps to replicate, I'd be happy to troubleshoot and test on your behalf.

Sheila Y

Storyline crashed on me today after inserting characters. Here are the things I've tried:

  • Starting a new file and inserting characters.
  • Starting a new file and importing the slides from the file with the problem.
  • Updating Storyline to the most recent version.
  • Uninstalling and reinstalling Storyline (most current version).

I'm still having the problem. In some cases, it seems to add the character to the timeline, but not to the slide. Then it locks up and I have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and close the app via the Task Manager.

Storyline characters on slide and timeline

The other thing I've noticed is that the Expression choices aren't displaying correctly (these are a little creepy!!):

Character Expression Panel

These character files were all downloaded today. Is there some way they could be corrupt and causing these problems? I searched the site to see where the files are stored (thinking maybe I could delete and download again), but I didn't find anything recent.

Yann Simon

Hi Sheila,

I still encounters too, problems of laggy performance with characters.

To way around this problem I convert these characters to static pictures by: right-click -> export as a picture

I think it's due to "drawn" characters which are vector based , because i don't experience these problems with "photography style "characters.

Mike Mills

I have been dealing with this same issue for years. Today in particular it continues to be problematic. It's happened 3 times in the last hour. 

I have tried all of the solutions recommended in this thread. Nothing seems to work and the issue is random. Luckily I always save my work constantly as to not lose what I am working on but it is very frustrating that the software continues to do this after so many years. 

I see that there are other experiencing this also. I see the last response in this thread may have been 7 months ago and I wonder if the folks in this thread continue to experience this?

Thanks!

Mike

 

Teresa Vanderpost

Hi Mike, to be honest, I have given up on storyline characters as the crashing is so random, can't seem to be recreated when staff offer to help me fix.  So for the most part I am using photos of real people that I have taken and using them.  Or I have also made a Figma account and used the Blush addon (and I am not artistic), but I can grab one of their characters and download and use them.  I was getting too tired of losing work....sorry it has been years trying to hear if this is fixed....but I do get it that it might be a challenging one as there doesn't seem to be a consistent issue that caused the crash.

Mike Mills

Hi Teresa, I understand how you feel. It is very random. I asked a new coworker of mine yesterday who's been a Storyline user for a long time if she encounters this and she said she doesn't.

It had not happened to me in a few months but then yesterday out of the blue it happened several times inside of an hour. 

I love your workarounds for it. It's all you can do considering the randomness of the issue in Storyline. Thanks for the response Teresa. I appreciate it. It's actually good to know that it's not just me that still encounters this issue but I do wish it would be fixed. 

Thanks,

Mike

Brian Walls

Greetings, I just updated Storyline 360, and I cannot add a character any longer without it locking up my machine. I have rebooted and tried several times with no luck. Initially, I tried to add the character onto a Master Slide, but on subsequent attempts, I just tried to put it on the first Untitled white slide that appears at start-up—same result. To be clear, I'm talking about the illustrated characters in the app, not a text character. Any help would be great. Many thanks!

Jose Tansengco

Hello Brian,

Sorry to hear that you ran into this snag.

The behavior you're experiencing appears to be isolated to your installation of Storyline 360. I did a quick test on my end and I had no trouble adding a character to a Slide Master layout. 

As a troubleshooting step, try doing a repair of your Storyline 360 installation to see if this helps address the behavior. If the issue persists, open a case with our support team here for further assistance.

Jose Tansengco

Hi Larry,

Were you able to repair your Storyline 360 installation like what I mentioned in my previous response to see if doing so fixes the crashing/freezing behavior? If repairing didn't work for you, please open a case with our support team here so we can take a closer look at what's causing the application to freeze for you.