Trigger says "unassigned"

This happens for a number of reasons - sometimes when you copy and paste a trigger, when you change a condition on the trigger, when you accidentally click the trigger, rename the layer it is assigned to, and sometimes it is just gremlins.

You will have to click on the red "unassigned" and then select the layer that is supposed to  hide or show when the user clicks the button.

Hello,

I noticed this happened to multiple triggers after I had published; will this keep occurring? Yes, I did copy/paste triggers because I find that to be the most efficient way to use the software.

Hi Kim!

As Nancy explained, this will happen when you copy/paste, but should not have been due to publishing. I imagine it happened prior to that. You will need to assign them as Nancy indicated above as well.

Please note that replying to the forums via e-mail attaches your signature. You are welcome to pop in and edit if needed.

Ok, it's good I suppose that it's not from the publishing process. Thanks.

Something to note: SL does not actually keep track of your objects using the names you give them. Like most software, it keeps track of internal, unique names. So when you copy a trigger to another slide, it changes it to unassigned, because the original object is not available.

Caveat, sometimes, if you copy (especially, I think if you copy a layer from one slide to another) when the new location has an object with the same visible (to you) name, the trigger looks normal in the trigger pane. When it doesn't function, and you open the wizard to edit it, you will find those lines are actually blank.

Thanks for the information. The triggers were working in preview, though. After I published, I saw the triggers weren't working. When I went back in the .story file then I saw some of my triggers changed to unassigned (and also one was missing entirely). I test everything in preview before I publish and it was all working. I'm just trying to learn more about what causes this to avoid it occurring in the future.

Hi Kim,

If things are randomly changing in the files you will also want to make sure you're working on local project files and adhering to the guidelines as detailed here. If things continue to behave oddly you could also look at importing your file into a new version as described here. 

I'm having a similar problem. Sometimes (it doesn't happen every time) some of the triggers on one of my slides come unassigned. 
The slide is imported from a template I created. In the template, there are a number of unassigned triggers (so that the developer knows they need to assign them). Would Articulate reset the triggers to their imported state?

Hi Patrick,

They wouldn't be reset unless you were doing something like reapplying the template that you're using from a slide master layout. Another question is you'll want to confirm you're working on local project files as the link above mentioned and you could also follow the steps to import it into a new project to see if that resolves the oddities. Another thought is if you're deleting slides or elements associated with those triggers they would then default to "unassigned" 

I am having a similar problem. File attached.  My triggers say unassigned but when I click to to update it shows the correct drop location.  Why doesn't it show the right drop location? i update it and still says unassigned? sigh  thanks for any help

Hi Darcy,

Thanks for sharing your file here with us! If you open up each of those triggers you'll see there are no objects selected which is why it's showing the unassigned. The drag and drop interaction is built-in to Storyline, so there's no need to add any extra triggers! I recorded a quick Peek 360 video to walk you through what I meant - but I'd look at deleting all those triggers and then letting Storyline work it's magic.