Forum Discussion
AI Assistant, Insert Audio Menu
Hey RossBurnet & jackrobbert,
Sorry to hear that Storyline crashes when quickly switching between Voiceover previews.
That shouldn't be happening, and I haven't noticed any recent reports of this behavior. Storyline can automatically pause one Voiceover preview before starting the next. I tested a similar setup in the current version of Storyline, but didn't experience any freezes or crashing.
- I recorded a quick Peek to share the playback on my end!
Are you seeing this issue across all voices and voice models (v2 & v3), or is it specific to certain ones? Crashes and erratic behavior can occur when authoring directly from a network drive. If you're already working locally, please try a repair of your Storyline installation.
If the behavior persists, we're happy to take a closer look at your affected project files. Feel free to upload a copy of your .story file here in the discussion or through a support case.
Ran into this exact thing — sounds like an audio playback conflict where the player doesn't release/stop the current clip before the next one is triggered, so overlapping play calls lock it up. Classic race condition rather than anything you're doing wrong.
A few things that have helped me while waiting on a real fix:
- Let each preview finish, or pause it first. Annoying, I know, but if you click the stop/pause on the current option before playing the next one, it seems to avoid the overlap that triggers the freeze. The freeze specifically seems to hit when a new play call lands on top of one that's still active.
- Give it a half-second between clicks. The lockup seems tied to rapid-fire switching while audio is mid-generation or mid-playback. Slowing down slightly is a workaround, not a fix, but it keeps you from having to restart.
- Save often. Until this is patched, a quick save before you start auditioning options means a freeze costs you seconds instead of your last chunk of work.
For getting it actually fixed, a couple of details will help support/dev reproduce it:
- Version + build number (Help → About), and OS (Win 10/11).
- Does it freeze on TTS options, sound effects, or both? That narrows down whether it's the TTS engine or the general audio previewer.
- A quick screen recording of the freeze happening is gold for bug reports — it shows the timing (playing option B before A finishes) far better than words.
Agreeing with the request though: the previewer should just stop the current clip and start the new one when you click, the way any media player handles it. Interrupting playback shouldn't be able to crash the whole program. Adding my voice so this gets prioritised.
Agreeing with jackrobbert, if you do a screen recording make sure you record audio.