Forum Discussion
IMPORTANT! - a fix if you have a PLAY button appearing at start of courses
OK, Articulate rolled out an update to Storyline and it seems that now when publishing a course, instead of auto-playing (as before) it now puts a nasty big PLAY button on the first screen.
Hopefully Articulate will roll out a fix (very!) soon.
In the meantime, I have discovered that AUDIO on the opening slide will cause this. Removing the audio, removed the PLAY button and things went back to normal.
Therefore to get round the issue, try what I did - create a tiny opening slide of a flat colour (same as your project background) and set it to be your opening slide.
Worked well for me, and thankfully I can now stop hearing screaming from my clients.
113 Replies
Hi Julie,
Thanks for reaching out for clarification. It sounds like your question is specific to Rise 360.
Take a look at Adam's reply here with regards to how this is handled. It sounds like you are experiencing the expected behavior.
I read Adam's reply before sending my note.... He is describing behavior on a phone. I am experiencing this behavior on my laptop.
Hey, Julie. I'd like to take a closer look at this. Can you help me with a couple details?
- Does the first slide of the Storyline block contain audio or video that should play automatically?
- What web browser are you using to view the course?
thanks for this Andrew. i have this issue after they rolled out a recent update - when i import in files from articulate engage, there is a big play button whereas previously the interaction was displayed and autoplayed - very frustrating
Sorry about that, Breda! You shouldn't see a play button over your Engage slide. We've got this logged as a software bug, and we'll keep you posted on our progress.
Thanks for your help Alyssa! I have been in touch with technical support over the last few weeks in relation to this issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Hi, Breda. Appreciate this detail!
This conversation, as well as your support case with my teammate, Anna, is linked to this bug's report so we can update you on all fronts.
The second there's more information to share, you'll be the first to know. Thanks for bearing with us!
This is good to know. I am experiencing the same thing where I have the gray slide with a big play button on the slide where I have imported my Engage interaction.
Hi there, Julie!
I'm sorry you're seeing this issue, too, and appreciate you letting us know. I added your voice to our report so we can keep you posted on our progress with this bug.
While our team continues to investigate this issue, learners can click the play button to launch the Engage interaction.
While we are waiting for this fix, is there anyway to improve the appearance of the grey screen and play button? The arrow in the play button is off centre and really doesnt look good in the course
Hi Breda,
The button design/color is currently set to the greyed out mode so that it's easily distinguishable for learners to click on to start the course. If having the ability to change the coloring and design is something that would improve your experience (and that of your learners) can you share a bit more detail by submitting a feature request here?
Thank you!
I just want to be sure I understand. The only way to have my audio play on my second slide when using the "add a slide that runs for .25 seconds" fix is by having the user do something on that specific page.
I'm basing this on Ashley's comment in the thread "you'll need to have some user initiation on the first slide to allow the audio to play. This is browser and domain-specific as if the user has previously allowed audio to play on that site (i.e. pressed play, unmuted it, etc.) Chrome is keeping track of that and using it to determine how it should behave in the future."
We have several courses that were published that had this issue. We used the "add a slide" fix and it worked. Now we are updating and while we don't see the play button, the audio is no longer automatically starting. We are also experiencing the Play button showing on any engage interactions we have imported into Storyline.
Are these two things related? Has anyone figured a fix for this? Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Hello, Michelle. Great questions, and I'm happy to explore both scenarios with you!
- Autoplay behavior for media that isn't on the first slide: Audio and video content on other slides should play as expected. However, if your slides are set to advance automatically without any interaction, that media might not work since learners haven't allowed their browsers to play it. Click here for how to make sure that audio plays correctly throughout your course!
- The play button appearing on Engage interactions that get imported into Storyline: We've logged this as a separate bug, and I'm sorry you experienced it. I'll add your voice to its report so we can keep you in the loop on any new development! In the meantime, clicking the play button will launch the Engage interaction.
Let me know if that helps, or if you see something different!
The fix most commonly mentioned worked originally. However with the release of Chrome 71 ( https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/11/web-audio-autoplay) in December 2018 the audio piece would not auto-play.
The .25 second slide did not have any interaction and was intended to move automatically to the next slide (both being identical) so the big ugly play button didn’t show. The first “real” slide had audio on it and it used to play automatically but with the update (Chrome 71) it no longer does. It needs some form of user interaction on the page in order to “understand” that the person wants to interact with the media.
What I’ve heard at this point from other developers is that you either need to 1. Add some form of interaction on that first slide (like a play button) or 2. Ensure the slide directly after the .25 slide doesn’t have audio. The act of either pressing a button or choosing Next to start the course “tells” the browser that the user does want to interact with the audio that will be played on the next slide
The Chrome update does make sense. I mean, if I accidentally went to a website and video or audio just started to play without any action on my part, I wouldn’t be happy. I want to control when that audio or video starts.
Anyway, I hope this helps some of you.
I've just applied this fix to one of my courses for testing.
It does work, but for some reason the audio on the original slide (was the first slide, now the 2nd slide) won't play at all unless I click the mouse somewhere on the screen. Has anyone else had this???
You can get round the play button by ensuring the first screen has no media and requires the user to click to move to the next screen, jumping on timeline start end, cue point will not work.
