I have a course into which I inserted audio for each slide as a .wav. It worked just fine initially and I have been going through slide by slide to sync up my audio with animation etc. Today my audio won't load, on the timeline it just says "Loading Audio", but it never loads. Again, it worked initially and the audio is working fine on all my other courses. If I delete the audio and re-insert it works, but I really don't want to have go back in and re-import audio on 70+ slides. Has anyone experienced this before and is there a fix, or do I really have to be in and re-import everything. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

We had this exact same problem - i think - and it happened multiple times on three different machines. Here is what we found: After sitting open for an extended period of time - like overnight - a storyline file would encounter problems when returning to the file and starting to do something. Apparently the file had become corrupted while sitting there. If the file was saved, the corrupted state would get saved. It appeared to us that the audio files were gone. The slide still said that it existed, and that loading thing you see is the program trying to load something that isn't there anymore. But the info was gone, and the evidence for that was that the file size was suddenly drastically smaller. We had this happen with all recordings in a story along with many of the pictures in the story. Other times it would only be some of the audio files and some of the pictures. Luckily for us, we keep the files on DropBox and we can easily roll back to an older version. I know that seems to be frowned upon, but it has saved our skins several times. I don't think that is causing the problem, as we had the same problem with keeping files on our local drives before we started saving them in Dropbox. We have learned, through hard experience, that with Storyline you MUST, MUST, MUST save often. We also, make sure that storyline is shut down when we quit for the day. I strongly suspect that your audio files are gone. I fear that you are going to have to do exactly what you do not want to do. But I'm not an expert. I'm just relating what we have experienced.

Thanks Elizabeth for sharing here - and we recommend working exclusively in the Parallels or Windows environment when operating on a Mac. You'll also want to ensure you've disabled the Shared profiles and you can read more about the best practices of working in Parallels here.

Hi Kathryn, You'll want to confirm that you're working on local project files, as working off a network or USB drive could cause issues within your file. A lot of users do save to Dropbox as well, which is typically installed as a local drive so it seems to behave normally. If you haven't been working locally you could also try importing the existing file into a new Storyline file following the steps here. As Marco mentioned, Storyline doesn't have an Autosave option, so you'll want to regularly save your files, and then I'd also agree with his suggestion to close the file when you'll be leaving for the night. If you're still having difficulty with the file after confirming it was on a local drive or you're working on a new file on your local drive, please let us know and we'll be happy to take a look at your .story file.

Thanks for the response. I am working locally and unfortunately had to walk away from my desk due to an emergency and left the file open over night. As Marco mentioned I'm sure that the audio files got corrupted. Lesson learned, thankfully the audio will be very easy to re-import. I imagine it could be much worse!

Thanks for the update Kathryn and I'm glad everything is working normally again.

Audio won't load | Articulate

AshleyT-Pollard
Staff
9 years ago
Thanks Allison for that update and glad you were able to get it working for you - without seeing it, it's hard to say what was happening but you may want to take a look at confirming you're working on profile files as described here.
AllisonHalterma
Community Member
9 years ago
Yes, local files and proper naming conventions. :) When I saw the issue I searched the forums and saw this thread. I thought I'd chime in that renaming the audio files worked for me as well.
SaraWilliams-62
Community Member
8 years ago
I am having issues uploading audio, as well. I am working in presenter 360 and am trying to import wav files. Everything is saved locally and the first slide's audio uploaded without issue. Now, the rest say they are importing but when I preview only the audio for the first slide is there.
AlyssaGomez
Staff
8 years ago
Hi there Sara, I'm glad you reached out! I can help. ☺️

Thanks for letting me know that you're working locally--that's usually the first thing I ask. I've got a couple more questions to help me narrow this down:

Did you insert the audio files using the Import Audio button on the Articulate tab?

Have you tried doing a repair on Studio 360?
Kjersti-Paulson
Community Member
8 years ago
I am having this same issue. I loaded the audio via Storyline (using the mic) yesterday and now today none of it will play. It just says loading audio. I had it on my network drive but if I import it to a new storyline document then save to my C drive would that work? Or do I need to remove the files first and re-record them after?

Thank you!!
AlyssaGomez
Staff
8 years ago
Hi Kjersti,

Sorry you ran into this! Saving on your local C: drive should do the trick. If the audio still doesn't load, import the slides into a new Storyline file.

From there, send us your file, and we'll have a closer look at it. We'll do all we can to help you avoid re-recording everything!
JenLevine
Community Member
7 years ago
I too am having the same problem. This has a serious impact on how I look professionally. There has to be a fix. When is that coming?
- Crystal-Horn
  Staff
  7 years ago
  Hi there, Jen. Are you having issues with audio loading while editing your project? Where do you normally save your .story files - C: drive, shared drive, or somewhere else?
  
  I'm happy to work with you to figure out what's happening!
JuleeJaeger-791
Community Member
7 years ago
I'm having this issue too. I'm working on my C: drive only. No shared drives.
AlyssaGomez
Staff
7 years ago
Hi there Julee,

I can try and help you sort this out. First, what version of Storyline are you using?

Are you having trouble importing audio into your project, or will the audio not play when you preview the project?
- DanielPowers-e5
  Community Member
  7 years ago
  I'm having this audio issue too, with SL360. I recorded directly into Storyline, saved to my C drive, now some of the audio files won't load in the project. Later slides have working audio, but the first 10-15 slides just say "Loading Audio"... Trying not to freak out :/
  - Crystal-Horn
    Staff
    7 years ago
    Hey Daniel. No freaking out - we're happy to help!! It sounds like this behavior is happening in Preview. Can you click on the audio and open the audio editor? Does the audio play back there? Do you see "loading audio" in the timeline?
    
    Also, try importing one of those slides into a new Storyline file to see if the audio behaves differently there. If so, bring all of the slides into a new file.
    
    I'm happy to have a look at your .story file if you'd like to attach it here for privately for me.
MichaelStaab
Community Member
6 years ago
So this has been happening for over 3 years has Articulate not yet determined a reasonable solution?
- AshleyT-Pollard
  Staff
  6 years ago
  Hi Michael,
  
  It doesn't look like there has been a common reason or cause of this issue, but we'd be happy to investigate with your further. Can you connect with our Support Team?