Hi, I thought I'd post this here in case someone else encounters this issue. I have been working on an Articulate 360 .story file for the last two weeks on and off, left if for the weekend and went back to open it this morning to find that it had disappeared. All of the other files and folder were there. I that perhaps I'd accidently moved the folder, or deleted the file while I was doing some drive housekeeping late last week, but that couldn't be the case - as everything other than the ".story" files were there. I had a few versions saved with suffixes but they were also gone. I downloaded a free recovery tool as was able to recover a version so have only lost about 2 hours work. But, I'm left shaken. How is it possible that the files in a folder and only the ".story" files could disappear? I work on and store my projects on a Western Digital 8TB pro external drive which shuttles to work and back with me. Anyone experience similar or have a way I might avoid this in the future?

Lionel Dieperink I work on and store my projects on a Western Digital 8TB pro external drive Hi Lionel Articulate recommend the following best practice for Working with Project Files Always save and publish Storyline projects on your local hard drive (typically your C: drive). Working on a network drive or an external USB drive can cause erratic behavior due to latency. For example, it could cause file corruption or prevent you from saving changes. Here is the link to the full article

Hi Lionel, Sorry to reply to an old post. But I have been having similar issues. .Story files disappear. I chalked it up to overwriting of files them when I compiled, but that's only a theory. I realized I had lost several .story files once I started looking around for them. I have since started saving them locally, on a shared drive, and on a cloud drive hoping not to have a repeat. However, today things got real weird. I had slides go missing on a deck. The results slide disappeared. And, it disappeared from all three spots. I had sent the zip file to my SME who had seen the results slide as he commented on the picture that was on the pass layer. I tried using the zip file that I had sent to my SME and when I unzipped and opened up the .html file the results slide was also gone. It is WEIRD, I do not understand what is going on and it makes me deeply uncomfortable trusting the .story files.

Hi; same issue. Working on local file. All good. Finished projec tand used as template for seocnd poroject. Agian both files good. I then opened stroyline to start a third project and imported form powerpoint. Now that is the only project that appeares in my articualte projects folder in my C-drive. and becasue it has dissapeared and cannot work on one drive, i also have no backup. 2 weeks worth of work gone. How does soemthing just dissapear?

Thanks Wendy.While I see that point, the drive I use is a USB 3.1 device. The files were there. Multiple files with version numbering. Then this morning they're gone - they were recoverable, so had been marked by the file system for deletion but not overwritten. I see the logic in saying save locally but it doesn't completely make sense.Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate your taking the time to answer.Looks like I'll need to setup a constant file backup of some sort.

Cheers Matthew, I've relied on the redundancy I get from using the RAID settings on my external drive enclosure but will need to look at external backup and work locally. It's just such a simple way to work as I do from time to time work at the office and sometime work on large video files that get published to vimeo then embedded into courses . Oh well. The stress of this morning should be a lesson to me though. I work on Windows 10 so will have a go at setting up an automated backup to OneDrive. Thanks for the reply.

My Articulate 360 Storyline file simply disappeared

KellyAuner
Staff
3 years ago
Hi yoona, and welcome to the E-Learning Heroes community!

I'm sorry to hear that your .Story files disappeared. I understand that can be incredibly frustrating!

Are you working from your local drive? Working from a network drive can cause erratic behavior.

Have you checked for your project in your temp files as Leslie suggested above?

Is it a specific file that you're missing or multiple files?

I'll look out for your response!
SHANNONMURRAY
Community Member
2 years ago
I have the files saved to local drive AND Box - and they are both missing. WHAT is going on ?? Months of work...
- JoseTansengco
  Staff
  2 years ago
  Hello Shannon,
  
  I'm really sorry to hear about your project files. As mentioned in my previous response, Storyline 360 doesn't have the capability to search for any existing project files and delete them. The only time Storyline 360 will delete files is when it is publishing to an existing folder.
  
  For example, in the screenshot below, if you publish a course to the folder 'test', everything inside the folder will be deleted first before the new course files are published.
  
  This will however, not delete any other file outside the test folder. In the scenario that you reported, there isn't a way for Storyline 360 to delete all existing files in your local drive, and access your network drive to delete the files there as well. There's a high probability that the files may have been moved or deleted by something else.
  
  Please reach out to your IT staff to see if the files may have been quarantined by your organization's anti-malware applications. Feel free to open a case with our support team here if you need further assistance in identifying what happened to your files.
SoheeChung
Community Member
2 years ago
I have been having same issues. I have saved the storyline files in my local drive but it disappeared so still I can't find my project files.
KellyAuner
Staff
2 years ago
Hi Sohee,

Thanks for reaching out!

I'm sorry to hear you. can't find your project files after saving them to your local drive. Is this happening with every file you save? Have you tried checking your temp files for your project using the steps Leslie suggested above?

I hope this helps. If you need additional assistance, please let me know!
CherylKlein
Community Member
6 months ago
I also am having this issue. I worked on two files and later that day both files were missing. Additionally, a file from February is also gone.
- MartaMartinez-4
  Community Member
  5 months ago
  Sorry I cant help. I couldn't get it back. I just save everything on one drive now
  
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- EricSantos
  Staff
  5 months ago
  Hi Cheryl,
  
  I'm really sorry to hear about what you experienced. I find it strange how files can just go missing. My first thought will be to check your antivirus settings. Can you reach out to your IT team to help look at how the antivirus quarantine settings are set up? It may be automatically flagging *.story files.
  
  We'd be happy to investigate further as needed. Please feel free to open a support case so we can provide more targeted help.
MoumitaSiPal299
Community Member
5 months ago
Hi,

I saved my .story files on my local C drive, a backup hard drive. a couple of years of work and today I found that all my story files are missing from my local and backup hard drives. As a result not probably displaying in my portfolio WordPress website... This is highly frustating and scary. What's going on? Articulate charges freelancer's such high fee and this is happening... can't believe it.. I was supposed to send my portfolio to a prospective client in an hour... Is there any way to retrieve the files? I don't have the subscription anymore, though..Please help and thanks in advance for all input
PhilMayor
Super Hero
5 months ago
The files being missing is not going to affect published content on Wordpress.

For the storyline files you are missing there is nothing Articulate does to remove them.

I would search in windows explorer for *.story files and see what turns up.
MoumitaSiPal299
Community Member
5 months ago
Hi Phil, Thanks, but I tried that as well, and the files are not displaying in my local C drive, file manager, and backup hard drive. So, I am not sure. I have contacted Articulate Support; let's see