"Your system seems to be low on memory..."
Sep 07, 2012
On both of the last 2 projects I've worked on, I've hit the message "Your system seems to be low on memory..." Storyline won't save my project until I close enough processes. (I don't have any other programs running besides background system stuff.) Each project was about 70 slides and 30 k in size. I'm working on an XP with 3 gigs of memory. The thing I'm confused about is that when I do control-alt-delete and leave that window open to monitor the CPU usage and memory usage, I never see anything more than 42% used. However, Storyline says there isn't enough memory and won't save. I've been told that even if I added memory to my 32-bit Windows system, the system wouldn't be able to recognize the extra memory. Does anyone know if that's true? Do I need to get a new computer in order to do Storyline projects the size I'm doing? I've noticed that when I save a file and look at its size and then close the file and look at its size again, the second time around, the size is half what it was the first time. So I've taken to saving, closing, and opening again all the time. Still, each time I have to hold my breath, wondering whether it will actually save. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give. Dorothy
29 Replies
Hi Dorothy,
Since Storyline is a 32 bit application, Windows only allows us to address 2GB of memory. So, anytime SL gets close to this limit, we'll display that message. Often times, you can still save after the message appears. Adding more memory could help with other applications that are running, but it won't be recognized by Storyline at this point.
Since you're working on a system w/3gb memory, you have enough memory to run Storyline, but it couldn't hurt to add more memory to help with other system processes.
Thanks, David. I guess I'll have to research whether if I added up to 8 gigs of RAM, my current system would even recognize anything more than 3.5.
After I get that "low on memory" message, I can never save. I just found other recent posts with a similar issue (the "Storyline memory hog issues... " and "System low on memory" post--I don't know how to link to those here). There folks seem to have had problems only with much larger files (300k rather than my 30k) so maybe if I had a more powerful system I could save larger files though I wouldn't think so because of the 2 GB limit???
I've already split up lessons into 6 separate Storyline modules rather than a single file, so I'm not sure what I can do. I'll try Jesse's suggestion of saving to Dropbox rather than locally. Thanks for the info though.
Dorothy
Sometimes closing any open applications that you are not using or closing any background processes not needed can sometimes help.
Thanks Gerry. Yeah, I always close everything I can recognize. Then I end up having to start closing system processes listed in the Task Manager that I don't even recognize, hoping I won't get rid of something crucial. I just don't know with the 2 GB limitation David mentioned whether getting a Windows 7 computer with 8+ gigs of RAM would help or whether the same thing would likely happen.
Dorothy
I have a high-powered HP desktop with 16 gig of RAM with Win7-64 and I sometimes see the message after a long day of working on a project.
Granted I see the message far more rarely now with 1.1 than during the SL beta, when I saw it almost daily. So I'm assuming the Articulate wizards have been able to work some magic here.
May be coincidence but when I see it, I always have my FireFox browser open with a lot of open windows. Closing any unused windows helps a tad sometimes, as well as closing unused apps.
I also sometimes reboot after a few hours of hard work.
Thanks, Gerry. That's good to know. I'll get in the habit of rebooting more often, and maybe I will upgrade to a more powerful system.
BTW, any idea on how big the files are when you see that message?
I experienced this problem last week a few times, each time I was unable to save my work.
My IT dept upgraded the RAM this morning and it has just happened again. The file I am trying to work on it 320 meg at the moment. The task manager says it is using up to twice that when it is running, no other significant processes are running that would consume enough RAM to bring the total up to 2 gig and I have 4 gig of RAM in total - Windows xp 32bit.
Not sure. I tend to do short courses (and advocate with clients for the same), usually in the 10-20 minute range. Most of the source files have been under 100 meg.
I was working on one last week that's currently 21 slides and 147 meg (lots of edited videos) and it worked fine with no memory error messages.
I may have to track this more precisely in the future.
Is there a more definitive solution to the low memory problem. Working on a new PC with 16 GB RAM and am having this problem despite running no other applications and reducing background processes to a minimum.
Any other fixes out there?
Welcome to Heroes, Jerry, and sorry for the trouble. We're working on getting the low memory errors fully addressed in an upcoming update, but for now, because they seem to be system-specific, we'd be happy to take a look at your individual case. Please feel free to submit a case using the link below so our support team can assist you further:
http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php
Thanks!
Welcome to Heroes, Yo.
Sorry to hear you're experiencing trouble. These cases tend to be system-specific, and are out of the ordinary, which is why it's important for us to see and analyze each customer's file. I'd really encourage you to send us your file, if possible, so that we can get your individual issue resolved as soon as possible. Thanks for understanding, and welcome again
I spent several weeks working on save problems purportedly due to insufficient memory. Personally, I think SL is clobbering its own workspace in large applications that otherwise could be addressed within the available memory space. I'm unconvinced that it is a 32-bit vs. 64-bit problem, at least in my case(s). But in the end, the only way I was able to get around the problem was to cut my project into two projects.
Hey Guys... By the way... I also have a very powerful computer and I do get this message...BUT AFTER SOME FRUSTRATIONS OF NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE... I FOUND A WAY....SIMPLY CHOSE SAVE AS TO ANOTHER NAME...IN ANOTHER FOLDER AND IT WILL SAVE YOUR WORK...THEN CLOSE IT AND OPEN IT AGAIN... (RE-BOOT IS HELPFUL BEFORE RE-OPENING) HOPE THIS HELPS UNTIL THEY COME TO A SOLUTION ON THE NEXT UPDATE..
Hi...I am working as as System Administrator my friend ask me the same question that he is not able to save file on storyline, he is also getting same error of "low memory". first I told him all possible way to increase virtual memory of machine but no use.
Thanks Dente vidal i read your suggestion and gave to him it works but some time file doesn't get save.
Ideally what is configuration we require to run storyline smoothly?
Welcome to Heroes, Amey!
Minimum system requirements for authoring and viewing Storyline content are listed here. And I also want to mention to you, that our next update of Storyline will be able to handle memory issues better. In the meantime, many users are experiencing better results when saving / publishing their courses frequently. Storyline currently will compress your project's size after publishing.
Welcome again
i recommend using ntcore to change the exe to allow for 4 gigs of ram on a 64 bit machine. i suggested this a few times on the forum a couple of months ago, and since then i know a lot of others have had success.
not supported by articulate, but it works until they can fix the problem. I used this same item to "fix" quizmaker years ago.
Tom
Seeing this thread goes back to September is really depressing. I'm having the same problem and it has brought my work to a standstill. I've tried saving, saving as another name, publishing, closing and re-opening, and deleting temp files, and I still get error messages when I try to Save. This is simply unusable at this point :(
Hello All,
I have diagnosed a way that will GUARANTEE that you will receive the 'low memory error'.
If you have two Storyline windows open and you try to copy quiz questions from one project to another, you will get the low memory error in the project you are pasting to 100% of the time. This action causes the file to be corrupt. I haven't encountered any save problems, but when publishing, the progress bar will complete, but the window to render a zip file does not appear. Also, when clicking the player button, you get the 'low memory error' despite everything being ok.
The solution I've found - you have to rebuild... I copy/pasted specific content to save time (shapes, text, graphics, etc) but NEVER copy whole slide over. I recommend not wasting time waiting for a definition to save your project. I would just rebuild and this way you know your course will be stable. It's time consuming and inconvenient, but it will help you sleep at night.
From what I've encountered with this error, unless your project is a massive file or you don't meet the minimum requirements, I highly doubt it's your computer. Your project could be missing an XML file (like mine did) that caused everything to become corrupt and lock up.
Moral of the story - don't copy/paste questions from one project to another.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and recommendations Luke.
Your situation sounds a bit different though, so perhaps when you encounter this, you should submit a case so that support can look at your particular issue. It sounds like it may be your environment or content.
As a whole, we are actually seeing issues with logo's as the main culprit and our QA Team has been working on this.
I am trying to create a final exam in Articulate Quizmaker 2013 by importing questions from 9 quizes (approximately 2000 questions). Half way through (998 questions imported into the Final) I get the error... "The project cold not be saved. Your system appears to be low on memory. Please close any other programs and try again". I am working locally (no network) and have a recent and robust lenovo Thinkpad with over 15 gig of free disk space and not other programs running at the same time. If I cut content out I can save it again, but once I add in time my file size reaches 120 MB (ish) it refuses to save again. is there a maximum file size limit to Articuate Quizmaker? Are there any trouble-shooting steps I can take?
Thanks,
Joel
Hi Joel,
I apologize for the trouble. It looks like the issue you're experiencing was recently reported to our Quality Assurance team.
I'm including your post in the ticket, so we can provide an update here when we have more information on the issue.
It might be best to work with smaller files or break them up into smaller projects in the meantime. I cannot offer a time frame for when or if this issue will be addressed.
We'll try to share more information as soon as possible.
Again, I apologize for the trouble.
Best,
Christine
Thank you Christine. If you could please include in our ticket that Jeppesen upgraded our Articulate online license agreement and purchased several versions of Articulate Studio '13 with the understanding that we could build a 2000 question quiz and manage those quizes with Articulate Online. We are not able to reduce the size of the final exam per FAA examination standards. If Articulate can not handle a quiz of this size then we will need to look for an alternative LMS, which is very frustrating considering the amount of man hours invested to date to get to this point. Would it be possible to have someone follow up with me directly? We need a solution up and running by the end of July.
Thanks,
Joel Brouhle
Product Manager - Training Services
Jeppesen
Hi Joel,
While we're still investigating this issue, I did receive some news that may help.
From what I understand, one of our support engineers tested this on their end and they were able to resolve this issue by increasing their virtual memory to 5,120 MB.
Here's information on how to do this:
Change the size of virtual memory
Please give this a try, if you get a chance. If this does, or does not resolve the problem for you, please let us know so we can share the details with our Quality Assurance team.
Best,
Christine
Hello!
I see this post is from over 3 years ago, but I'm having this same issue yesterday--is there an update on the fix?
I ended up copy/pasting the scenes I created into a new story project in order to be able to save, I lost all of the triggers I had set up and will have to re-do that work, my concerns is that my project is not yet finished and as I continue working I fear getting this "low memory" error again and having to do the same thing which sounds like constantly re-doing the same work :(
I'm looking for any help--my computer is 8gigs, Our IT department confirmed I have plenty of memory, what can we do to resolve this issue?
Thanks,
Marie
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