What is expected audio behavior for Storyline module when iPhone ringer switch is set to "ringer off"

Nov 02, 2018

If we have the ringer switch on an iPhone set to "Ringer off" is the expected behavior that our Storyline module audio will be on / audible?

If the answer is Yes, would you confirm that this has been true always for Storyline modules? We have seen this behavior differ for older modules (no audio) vs. newer modules (yes audio).

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

Pinned Reply
John Morgan

Hi everyone,

Good news! We are no longer seeing this bug in the latest version of Storyline 360 (Build 3.72.29699.0) where when an iPhone or iPad is in silent mode, the audio on the first slide is not playing when there are both mp4 and mp3 in the first slide.

To insure you don't continue to see this bug download the latest version of Storyline 360 via the Articulate 360 desktop app. Here's an article on how to do that.

Please let us know if you're still noticing the issue, and we'd love to continue troubleshooting with you in a support case.

5 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jane,

If you have the ringer/mute set to Off using the iPhone/iPad button you shouldn't hear any audio through the speaker. If you were to plug in a set of headphones, you would then hear audio. 

This should be consistent across Storyline courses, but if you have some various links I'm happy to test it out. Also, what iOS and devices are you using? 

Shonna Falco

Hi Jane and Ashley,

I created three courses in Storyline 360 (v3.37.21614.0) and published to SCORM. When testing on an iPhone (8 Plus, iOS 13.3.1), the audio in one of the courses acts differently than the other two:

In two of the courses the audio plays through the iPhone speaker whether the phone is set to "Silent On" or "Ringer". In the third course, the audio does not play through the speaker if the iPhone is set to "Silent On".  And yes the courses all three play audio when headphones/earbuds are plugged in. We have tested on three different iPhones with same outcome. 

So it sounds like one of the courses is acting correctly and the other two are not? 

Shonna Falco

Hi There, 

Just some additional data for this situation...we just tested six other courses we built in the last several weeks using the same Storyline 360 version and testing on the same iOS iPhones...all six of those courses do play through the iPhone speaker when the phone is set to Silent On. 

This does make sense since with the iPhone set to Silent On you can still hear website videos and music through the iPhone speaker. And, here is Apple's position: In silent mode, you are unable to hear ringtones and alerts, but all other sounds like music and videos will still play

So, either 8 of our new courses are not behaving correctly and one is, or 8 are behaving correctly and one isn't. 

Vincent Scoma

Hi Shonna,

Thank you for sharing these details with us! It looks like you have done some thorough testing here. 

A couple of questions for you on this:

  • For the courses that are not behaving correctly, do you recall which Storyline 360 version they are running?
  • Does this behavior persist in a new file?

We did come across similar behavior with iOS devices running iOS 13, which was addressed in Update 34. In case this helps, I also created a test course with the most current build (Update 39) and found that the audio did play while the Ring/Silent switch was on. 

I look forward to hearing more as we get to the bottom of this issue! 

John Morgan

Hi everyone,

Good news! We are no longer seeing this bug in the latest version of Storyline 360 (Build 3.72.29699.0) where when an iPhone or iPad is in silent mode, the audio on the first slide is not playing when there are both mp4 and mp3 in the first slide.

To insure you don't continue to see this bug download the latest version of Storyline 360 via the Articulate 360 desktop app. Here's an article on how to do that.

Please let us know if you're still noticing the issue, and we'd love to continue troubleshooting with you in a support case.