Storyline: Invalid or Corrupt File
May 19, 2023
New issue today/yesterday with our team. With Storyline 360 files that have been working great for days or weeks, someone is working away in the file and/or tries to open the file and it all goes bad and we get the following error message: "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline.".
The file was NOT created in an earlier version of Storyline. We have only ever used SL 360. Our own tech people are working on their end to see if the problem is in our system but wondering if any of you fine people have any ideas or have experienced the same issue and know the fix? Right now, I have lost at least one file unless I can find a way to get it back, which sets me back days and days of work, plus whatever it takes to get this back up and running and my downtime until this gets fixed b/c I sure won't be using SL again until I know it is working properly.
All other file types (pdf, doc, ppt, etc) working great. We all keep our .story files on different drives and different network locations so I tend to think the problem is not with our network - how could multiple network locations go bad all at once for just one file type?
I have put in a ticket with the SL folks. I also made sure my Articulate was fully updated, as well as Windows. I'm at a loss. :(
I'm attaching the original file and curious to know if anyone else can open it or if the error persists.
Thanks for the help!
15 Replies
Hi Sara,
I'm really sorry to hear about your project file. I took a look at it and I can confirm that it has become corrupted. You'll also notice that the size of the file is now only 0KB, indicating that it has lost most of its content.
One of the main causes of file corruption is working directly on a network drive, because of the introduction of network latency. This article lists common causes of file corruption, as well as how to avoid it.
If you or your colleague were working on the project fairly recently, there may be a way to recover an earlier version of the course in the computer's temporary folder. Here's how to check:
1) Open this folder in Windows Explorer: %appdata%\Articulate\Storyline
2) Scan the contents of this folder for a file that starts with the name of your project. If you find one, copy it to your desktop. If you find more than one, copy the latest version to your desktop.
3) Change the file extension of the copy on your desktop from *.tmp to *.story.
4) Double-click the file to open it in Storyline.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Joe,
Thanks for the great information! I was able to recover a temp file out of my recycle folder that was very close to being up to date so that saved some major frustration. I will be saving all files on the local drive as my primary location, with a network drive as a backup. I've let my entire team know and we'll be changing our practice from here on. Thanks again!
Sara
You are most welcome. I'm glad to hear that you were able to recover a working copy of your project file!
Ha! Me too, Joe!
Thanks for this important information! The main causes of file corruption is working directly on a network drive. I only had to read this article and the problem was solved. ♥
Hi Gyöngyi,
I'm happy to hear that the information shared by Joe was helpful to you as well! Please feel free to reach out to us if you run into other issues; we'd be happy to help!
In reference to your article (https://community.articulate.com/articles/follow-these-tips-to-reduce-your-risk-of-corrupting-or-losing-project-files), would another preferred way to back up the files is to use the Project Share feature with Storyline 360? I'm not as familiar with it, but just trying to find another efficient way to share files and even back them up.
Hi Keith!
Happy to jump in here!
Can you clarify what you were referring to by Project Share? Were you looking for a way to share and manage Team Slides?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
After trying to look in my C: drive to no avail, I went to my OneDrive and opened a previous version of my file; and thank goodness I was able to download it and save most of my work. Currently doing the happy dance right now. I hope this helps someone too!
I have found the auto-backup is not working with the latest Storyline versions.
It's the end of my day and I've just lost my entire day's SL build work because the file has just corrupted.
No auto-backup despite my settings.
I've found the .tmp file and renamed to .story and it's corrupt.
I don't work on a network drive as this is your common reason for corruption.
Can you please fix the auto-save?
I tried import from file and these errors appear. Can this corruption be fixed in any way?
with WinRAR I could repair the .story (=.zip file)
you have to test, whether everything is still working
Jurgen you are a diamond! It seems to be working!
THANK YOU SO MUCH you have saved me HOURS and HOURS of work!
Hey all. I am having the exact same issue except I only work off of my local drive. I have created 20 modules and 19 work and open fine. Randomly this one has become corrupted. It is still showing a size (not zero like above). I have audio recorded directly in so it is essential that I get this file to work. I tried to do what the article said and searched for earlier versions and my computer says there are none. PLEASE HELP
sorry - your data are gone (tested with 7z - .story == .zip)
and the last hope - winrar could only recover some media files
(4 images, 1 video and 1 cropped audio)