Forum Discussion
Copy/Paste Images from one story to another
Is it just me or has someone else also seen this issue. When I copy an image from a storyline file and paste it in another story file, all I see is the placeholder for the image. The image does not appear. Is this a bug or is there something wrong in my installation of storyline.
- Payal
88 Replies
Same problem here. Even with uncropped pictures. Not every time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
7 years later: I've just experienced this.
Yeh we've all been having this issue for 7 years. We've just accepted that Articulate don't care at this point.
Hi, I have the same issue with the latest version of Articulate Storyline 360. Fascinating.
Hi Stefan,
I'm sorry to hear that you're also facing the missing image issue!
This behavior has been difficult for us to recreate, but we won't give up. Are you finding that this happens from any Storyline project or a certain one?
Also, we are happy to troubleshoot in real-time while you copy and paste media in the latest update. Let us know if you could screen share with us:
Hi, I have the same problem with Storyline 3 (updates haven't changed anything!)
Good morning, Christ!
I'd love to help you troubleshoot!
First, here's a quick video demo of the copy/paste experience in Storyline 3 Update 11.
A few questions to help us find a fix:
- Is this happening with any file type? (I used a JPG file during my test.)
- Could you let me know what your flow looks like?
- What happens after you paste the image into another Storyline file?
Hi,
We are experiencing this issue for 2 years already. We are using Storyline 360, and we update regularly. For some reason, images will sometimes not copy properly (empty image, or no backgrounds) and sometimes they will. Importing works though.
It happens with all kinds of projects.
Hello M T!
I can see how this would frustrating! It sounds like this is occurring in all kinds of projects and with multiple images. Are you copying the images from Storyline 360 projects or copying images from a website? I'd be happy to look more into this!
I appreciate your help in troubleshooting this issue!
Hi Lauren,
Thank you for your response. I'm copying images or whole slides from other Storyline 360 projects. When I copy a whole slide to another Storyline 360 project, the text will copy just fine but images (JPG or PNG) will be empty sometimes. Sometimes it works but we have no clue when it works and when it doesn't work.
Hello M T!
That is very helpful! It sounds like the images, jpg or png, are blank, specifically when copying and pasting images. The current workaround you are using is to insert the images.
If this isn't a consistent behavior, it can be challenging to troubleshoot. If you have a specific project with an image where this occurs, would you mind sharing either the course or a screen recording with us? You can either attach it to this discussion or upload it in a support case.
I wish I had a concrete fix to share!
The only way to prevent this behaviour is to import slides from another project using the import tool. Copy and paste hasn’t worked as far back as SL 2 and we’ve all complained about it since then. They aren’t going to fix it. However I can confirm the import method works 100 percent of the time.
Sent from my iPad
This is happening here as well and it's quite frustrating.
The import workaround is not much of a workaround if I only want to copy a certain image from one slide or project to another. This has to be fixed..seems to basic of a bug to linger for several years.
I'm on the latest version and it won't copy and paste images form one Storyline file to another. I've tried using 2 Storylines open at the same time. I've tried copying the entire slide but a white placeholder comes in. I can import images normally but because it was cropped in the original file it means I have more work to match it. I can't believe this bug has been around for 9 years!
Yes this is really a frustrating bug.
the slide import workaround is a good one but still, you have to import an complete slide.What I have been doing since, which ultimately increased productivity for us, is create a Storyline Project that is a template of all the layouts we have in a certain course or class of courses and then I either import slides from it to our actual course project, OR, I import and entire scene and have a "Template" scene within each Storyline project file. When I publish, I publish the relevant scene without the "Template" scene.
This method proved a real convenience and time-saver when working on large-scale courses and of course it is eliminates most of the copying/pasting from different projects.
You have to go to import in the menu and import the entire slide that contains the assets you want.
They aren’t going to fix it this is abundantly clear at this point :(
Unfortunately that does not always work either.
Ok seriously staff, for once be OK with your customers.
THIS. IS. 9. YEARS. BUG. 9. 9. YEARS. In 4 different versions of your software! Do your job and fix it! In very first place everyone of us, customers, users, want bug free software, not new (and sometimes broken also) functions, just... please, can everything work as it should? Can once you please not ignore things your users are reporting you?
Here's my insight. I hardly think that is the image itself problem. I've started with 4 story files. 1st and 2nd are based on the same story file (I've done 1st first, then copied and made it as separate 2nd project), 3rd is some other project, 4th is fresh project.
I can easily copy anything from project 3rd and 4th to any other project - no problem.
I can copy images from 1st OR 2nd to project 3rd and 4th.
I CANNOT COPY ANY IMAGE BETWEEN 1ST AND 2ND. It always ends with 'blank' placeholder. Something in the original project file went wrong, and made it for 1st and 2nd story file unable to copy images between them.
To test further - I've duplicated the 3rd non-problematic story file.
I can easily copy images between them 3rd and 3'rd story. Let's dig deeper.
I've deleted everything from 3'rd file (the duplicated one), saved it, reopen and... you probably guessed right - everything I try to copy from original 3rd project is now blank in 3'rd project.
So I went even deeper. Once again duplicated 3rd to 3''rd. I've found the screen where there's a picture only once used in the whole project. I've deleted it in 3''rd. Saved, reopened. Now I copy that one instance of image from 3rd project to 3''rd. IT COMES BLANK. Every other image copy alright.
So to check it once and for all, I do fresh Untitled project 1 (UP1) and paste random two images on two different screens. I duplicate it to UP2. I delete slide with picture in UP2. Save, reopen. I can copy Image 1 (undeleted) from UP1 to UP2. I cannot (blank placeholder) copy Image 2 (the one I deleted in UP2) from UP1 to UP2.
Conclusion: When you have particular image X in your story file, and you delete it from whole project and after that you try to copy that image once again into your story file from another story file, it will produce blank placeholder instead of the desired image. Some information of the image must stay inside the story file after deleting and software goes crazy when you try to recopy it inside.
After deleting the second image from UP2, I've extracted .story file using 7zip. In story/media folder there is our deleted picture, the thumbnail and normal one. Deleting it and repacking the story file however doesn't solve the bug. Won't dig deeper as that's not my job.
Exception: Using my 1st and 2nd project from the beginning (not the fresh UP1 and UP2), where 2nd is newer project and has some new assets inside which wasn't present in 1st, I still come across blank placeholder when try to copy fresh image from 2nd to 1st.
To pin this down took me 30 minutes and another 30 to write down that post as clearly as I could do... you had 9 years. Can you please at least eliminate that bug? AND PLEASE, don't try "submit support ticket" me. I know that post is in a little aggresive tone, but seriously I'm tired of "submit ticket" excuse in every other topic, when users which pay not a small amount for your application get flushed down with "submit ticket" when reporting any kind of bug.
Looking forward to your answer.
