White Scrren with a grey exclamation mark

Jun 28, 2012

James Brandwood
By James Brandwood

Hi Everybody,

I am curently making about my 5th Storyline module, but it is the first one where all screen capture is being done through Storyline.

Sadly it isn't going well. While making the module and previewing video tutorials I have made I have been getting a grey exclamation mark with a white background - like this:

 It covers the whole training module sceen and not just where the video is to display. When in preview I can just close the preview and open it up again and most of the time it opens ok and plays properly. To be clear, in preview it only occurs when I click to view a video. This wasn't too big a deal, just frustrating so I carried on.

I have since published the module and uploaded it to the LMS. I am now getting the issue on the LMS, initially the same deal as with the preview option. I'd open a video tutorial and the screen shown above would appear. I would close down the training (only option since all navigation is gone) and re-open it. While very unreliable It was opening fine when re-opened but then the exclamation screen popped up and I did the close and open module I had been doing but now everytime I try to open the training module that screen pops up - and not just when I try to view a video tutorial it's all the time now making the training impossible to view.

Adobe would point to this being a problem with bad flash development. As I said this is the first module I am making with all Storyline screen/video capture and I am concerned this fault will keep occuring in future modules. Even if I can figure out how to get the training module to work again through the LMS it isn't reliable enough to pass onto a client.

Is anyone else getting this fault when using storyline to do their screen/video captures?

87 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 8 years ago08/28/15 at 3:31 pm (UTC)

Hi Sherrie, 

Did you see my most recent reply a few days ago? I don't have any additional information at this time, and as you'll see Andrew mentioned it didn't work for him, so if you experience that as well, we'll want to take a look at your .story file to test publishing it as well. You can use the link in my response below to send it along to our Support team. 

Ashley Terwilliger

Hi all,

An update from our team and suggested solution is below:

We're investigating an issue where a course may freeze during preview or in a Flash-enabled browser. You might also see a gray circle with an exclamation point when the course locks up.
 
It’s related to the custom tab order data in the course, which can burden the Flash Player's memory when the course is lengthy or has lots of images and videos.
 
You can fix it by removing some objects from the tab order for each slide. Here's how.
 
By default, all objects are included in the tab order. We recommend removing objects from the tab order if they aren't crucial to the context of the slide (e.g., design elements). And if your learners aren't using accessibility screen readers, we also recommend removing images and videos from the tab order.
 
If your course continues to freeze after reducing the number of objects in the tab order, please let me know. We'll want to have you reach out to our Support team here and mention that you went through the steps here. 
 
 
Joe Nakhleh
over 8 years ago09/28/15 at 7:50 pm (UTC)

Hello everyone,

I am having the same issues as everyone else above: The ! on a blank screen.

We are running IE11.

I have tried it several times with Chrome, and it works well there!

I can't say if the latest upgrade of SL2 is the culprit since I applied it immediately after our trial began.

Looking forward to a resolution to this intermittent problem.

Thanks

Joe Nakhleh
over 8 years ago09/29/15 at 5:31 pm (UTC)

Hi Leslie,

Thank you for the info. I applied Update 7 and republished, and I am still getting the ! on a blank screen.

It is happening only if I press the Next button quickly from one slide to the next.

When I wait 5 seconds between slides, I cannot regenerate the error.

Is there anything else to do besides republishing the project?

I am publishing to LMS, and get the error whether or not I generate HTML5.

Thanks

Joe

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 8 years ago09/29/15 at 6:53 pm (UTC)

Hi Joe,

Sure - but when you upload the course to your LMS or web server and and overwriting the previous version, there may still be a cached copy stored in your browser. The cached copy is there so that it's easier to reload websites or pages when you access them again. If you clear out the cache you will be able to check that you're accessing the newest version or testing in another browser or on another system that hasn't opened the course previously would give you the same behavior.

Please let us know how it's working after checking into that. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 8 years ago10/07/15 at 2:42 pm (UTC)

Hi  Joe,

Ok done publishing and testing - the course is uploaded here. (Link removed at Joe's request)

I just ran it in IE11 and didn't run into any problems. As I mentioned, the second slide is blank and the third slide in scene one seems to contain a screen recording, but even while previewing it within Storyline I didn't see any action on that slide. If I'm looking for a particular slide that is having the issue could you let me know?

brandon wiewel
over 8 years ago10/07/15 at 2:43 pm (UTC)

We had that problem. Articulate said it wasn't on their end and proved it out. But almost everyone that took the course with anything but chrome had the issue. It gets in a grey area where who should be responsible for the problem. We had the issue on company commuters and personal computers. So it seems to be a pretty consistent problem and one where I would of liked articulate to make the program more versatile. We ended up telling everyone who takes the course to use chrome. Didn't have to do that for the courses we make in claro. With that said I still like articulate better.
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Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 8 years ago10/07/15 at 2:52 pm (UTC)

Hi Brandon, 

Update 7 fixed the issue with IE11 and the "Grey circle of death" and we've heard good reports from the majority of users so far. As you'll see in Joe's course I didn't run into the problem either when publishing with that update.  Perhaps you were seeing something different? Did you start a case with our Support team? 

brandon wiewel
over 8 years ago10/07/15 at 6:23 pm (UTC)

Can you send me a link to the update? I have to send the link to my IT group to get it downloaded :(. I don't have update 7 so that sounds promising. I brought this issue up with the support group probably a week before that and there was no mention of a fix, just that it was something on my end.
Confidentiality Notice: This electronic message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender via telephone, facsimile, or reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message, including any attachments.

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