Audio doesn't play (sometimes)

Hi Wendy,

There are two elements to check first:

 1. Disable the shared profile in Parallels, so all the default Windows folders reside in the Windows environment, not the native Mac environment. For more information on this topic, see this Parallels article.

After disabling the shared profile, uninstall and reinstall your Articulate software. (This step is only necessary if shared profiles were previously enabled.)

2. Save and publish Articulate projects in the Windows environment, not the Mac. For example:C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\

Don't work from a network drive or an external USB drive. Doing so can result in file corruption or loss of resources.

Audio, video, and image resources must be located in the Windows environment, not the Mac. Copy and paste files you need for Articulate projects to the Windows environment prior to inserting them into your content.

Also, where are you testing your published courses? You'll want to test within the intended environment as testing locally could cause elements of your course to not behave properly. 

Thanks Ashley for taking the time to reply.

I had done my Parallels setup before I started any Articulate projects - so No 1 was taken care of, and I have all the source files I need for the project in WIndows environment.

I have been using Dropbox and more recently Review My eLearning app for testing and client reviews.

On your advice, I did recheck all the above - thankyou.

This audio problem has only just started happening, and I can't work out what has changed. 

I'll keep trying...many thanks again

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for checking in to all those. I know you mentioned it occurred inconsistently, but if you'd like us to take a look we're happy to. You can share the Storyline file here with us in the forums or if you'd prefer to share privately I can send you directions on how to send to me or you can always connect with our Support engineers. 

Just in case someone else trips over this issue and has the same problem that I had, Adobe Audition was the culprit for me. The audio acted like it was playing, I could see the wave form in the editor, but it would not play until I exited Audtion - immediate fix without restarting Storyline too. I'm sure it's some resource conflict or Audition reserving something that Storyline needs.

I'm on a Windows 7 system.

Thanks Pete for sharing that here and letting us know how you were able to resolve it. 

Hi Ashley, I know this is a very old post, however, I am having a similar problem with my audio files(wav) playing sometimes when the project is published for LMS ( Moodle).  While previewing on my local machine the files play quite fine.  HELP.  what am I not doing?.  The zip file is just about 25meg but it loads slowly on the LMS.  Whats an optimum file size recommended for better playback?

Hi all - Apologies I know this is an old post so I jumped on the back of it... Just wondering if anyone has a solution...

I've published my course and I'm testing the file locally as a web published version... But I'm noticing that the audio (which is triggered by a button) does not always play first time round. I've had 4 members of the team test this and they all have different issues... for example one file doesn't work first time for one team member but others have no issues... Does any one know what the cause is? In the preview it all works as it should. **baffled**

Thanks

Mr Brown

Hi Crystal - OK

Point 1 = Storyline 3 - Version: Update 3: 3.3.15007.0
Point 2 = We're only using Chrome at the moment
point 3 = No, the whole thing plays fine (the flash player is updated)
point 4 = It's already installed on a testing server.

That's it... I've done many tests and for the most part it does work... it's the inconsistency that's driving me nuts... :) My only thought is that it's loading the audio, so the user is clicking too early (and actually pausing it)... but then there are other times it doesn't actually work at all until I click back, then next, then click the audio button.

Thank you so much for replying...

Mr Brown

Hi - thank you for this... I'll certainly look into it... 

Your comment "With the latest updates, you'll see the play button" I didn't really understand,  since the player I'm using is a custom player with custom buttons (with audio on them)... I'll give it a go though, thanks for your reply!

D

Hi Kate,

The latest updates of Storyline 360 included the play button to resolve the issues presented by Chrome's changes to autoplay behavior. The reason we added a play button is so that Chrome recognizes a "user interaction" and understands that they'd want the media to autoplay as designed. Unfortunately, there isn't a way around the changes implemented by Chrome, and if you publish without using that latest update the audio may not play at all for learners. 

A few folks have looked at adding media later in the course, and ensuring that the user would interact with the slide content (clicking, entering text, etc.) before reaching the media - but that's not a guaranteed method due to some intricacies of the Chrome autoplay policies. 

As individuals interact with more and more of your content on a particular site, Chrome will start to play media automatically so you may see less of that play button.