Forum Discussion
Storyline 360 courses - audio not playing or very delayed in published output
Hi, I already submitted a case for this and support and although they have been able to duplicate the issue, they haven't been able to track down a solution yet so I'm hoping someone else is having this problem too:
On random slides the audio is either delayed or not playing at all after published and uploaded to LMS. It works perfectly fine in preview or if I view the published output locally. It just doesn't work when I test in my LMS (Saba). I've also tested in SCORM Cloud and it doesn't work there either.
I've tried everything from uninstalling SL360 and reinstalling, starting a new project and importing the old, re-coverting from Storyline 2 to 360. I even tried recreating the affected slides from scratch but the audio is still messed up on those certain slides. It only happens with SL360. If I keep the project in SL2 and republish it, it works fine.
I am a Mac user and operate SL using Parallels and Windows 7. I have my shared profile disabled, I operate locally on the windows side and followed all the suggested instructions when using SL with a Mac.
So basically, I'm stumped. Anyone out there experiencing anything similar? This issue has affected 2 separate courses that need to be updated asap so I'm sort of desperate here.
Oh, one more thing. If I add a seekbar to that slide and scrub either back or forth, it starts working immediately. And yes, I even tried adding a trigger to those slides to play audio when timeline starts. I also added the audio to a layer and triggered to play that layer when timeline starts and that doesn't work either. As you can see, I've been spending hours on this annoying issue.
Today I began experiencing a similar problem. I did a bit of testing to narrow the problem down and I have two projects, each with a single scene containing two slides.
- In my Example 1 project, when loaded in Chrome, the audio on slide 2 does immediately play as it should. In this project, slide one is set to advance by user
- In my Example 2 project, when loaded in Chrome, the audio on slide 2 does not immediately play as it should but if the reload button is clicked, the audio immediately begins playing when the timeline for the slide resets. When the Example 2 project is loaded in Internet Explorer, the audio for slide 2 plays as it should. In this project, slide one is set to advance automatically.
- Other than the slide one advance setting, both projects are identical.
Both projects are attached.
Chrome Version 72.0.3626.121 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Internet Explorer 11 Version: 11.316.17763.0
Hi David,
Thanks for reaching out!
I published both Example 1 and Example 2 using the latest update of Storyline 360 (Update 25), and I could hear the audio in both files.
Here's a link to the Example 2 output. Can you hear the audio when you view that link in Chrome 72?
Hi Alyssa,
Thanks for looking into this. I really appreciate that you did so.
Here are the steps I took to test the link you provided along with my results:
- Clicked the link.
- The audio on slide 2 started correctly. This surprised me since it had not worked when I previously tested the project. I have been working today on this original project though, so I decided to clear my browser cache and continue the test.
- Cleared the cache of my Chrome browser.
- Clicked the link.
- The audio on slide 2 did not play for the entire duration of the slide.
- Closed the browser.
- Clicked the link.
- When prompted to Resume or Restart, clicked Restart.
- The audio on slide 2 started correctly.
- Cleared the cache of my Chrome browser.
- Clicked the link.
- The audio on slide 2 did not play.
- After the seekbar indicated the slide timeline was halfway complete, I clicked the restart button on the seekbar.
- When the frame restarted, the audio on slide 2 started correctly.
So far the only work around I have found for this is to require the student to click the next button to proceed from slide 1 to slide 2. I would prefer that when slide 1 ended, it automatically proceeded to slide 2. But the slide 2 audio does not seem to play for someone who is clicking the link for the very first time, and only plays correctly when the slide is restarted or revisited. This is of course a non-starter. Until a solution is found for this, I will update my project (and future projects) to require user advancement of slides that have audio on the following slide. I look forward to hearing that a solution to this issue has been identified though.
Thanks again,
Dave
Hi Dave. Thanks for outlining those steps. When I first clicked Alyssa's link and let the slide advance automatically, I didn't hear the audio on slide 2. This behavior matches an issue we have documented regarding audio not playing automatically when the slide advances automatically. I suspect it has to do with the Chrome (and Safari) media autoplay policies and the fact that I hadn't yet engaged with the course at all.
Your workaround is the one I'd recommend for now, and we'll let you know in this discussion if that changes!
Thanks Crystal. By the way, it this issue also comes into play for audio contained on the first slide of a published project.
Hi Dave,
If you're seeing it for audio on the first slide of your project, that should be fixed if you're using the latest update of Storyline 3 (build 3.6.18134.0) or Storyline 360,(build 3.25.18088.0). Do you know what version of Storyline you're using? You can check by going to the "Help" Tab -> "About Articulate Storyline".
Using a different version would also explain why Alyssa's published output worked and played back the audio.
There is still a delay between the time the initial slide appears and audio starts with my project and I am on build 3.25.18088.0.
Curiously, I have a project that consists of multiple scenes, each of which includes a View Mode simulation. The slides in each simulation auto advance. I added audio to key spots in each simulation by adding a frame with the audio as its only content. I set the properties of these frames to not hide the other slide layers and to pause the base layer. I added a trigger to the base layer to show the audio layer when the base layer started. I added a trigger to the audio layer to hide the audio layer when it ended (see attached image). The audio immediately plays when these slides play. One thing that is a bit different is that the auto advance trigger is Player trigger instead of a Slide trigger. I couldn't find a way to manually add a Player "Jump to next slide When the timeline ends" trigger though. And when I copied that trigger to other non-simulation recorded slides, the audio did not immediately play on the slide that was advanced to automatically due to the copied Player trigger.
Hi David,
Our team is still working on an issue where audio is not automatically playing when the slide is set to advance automatically or using a jump to slide trigger when the timeline ends in Chrome v72 and Safari v12. I'd love to take a look at your file to help figure out any other workarounds to get you up and running - are you able to share that with us here?
Also, I wanted to let you know Storyline 360, build 3.26.18364.0 was released yesterday. So in case you wanted to install the latest update, that's now available in the 360 Desktop app.
Here is the project file. The audio on the first slide plays after a slight delay once the slide appears. Here is the published project:
http://alpscycler.com/cloudformation
As I mentioned previously, it is curious that there is no delay in the audio that I inserted on separate frames in the simulations that exist in each of the scenes.
Hi David. I tested your output with a few other folks on my team, and we didn't hear any delay in audio on the first slide of your project in Chrome v.73. I also heard audio on the screen recording slides that included it in Task 1.
Could you let me know what browser you're using? If you could do a Peek recording of the delay you're seeing as well, that will give me some guidance on what you're experiencing. Thanks for working with us, David!
Hi Crystal. I will get this done on Monday. I look forward to checking out the Peek tool and compare it to other similar tools. In particular, I am interested in seeing its editing capabilities to the recording, e.g., trim, cut, and insert functions. Thanks, Dave
Here is the Peek recording. The audio quality is pretty poor and very loud but it illustrates the issue. Here are the steps I followed in the recording in case it isn't obvious.
1. Opened the published project in Chrome Version 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit)
2. After a significant delay, the audio on slide 1 plays.
3. Closed Chrome.
4. Open the published project again in Chrome and clicked Restart.
5. Once again, there was a significant delay before the audio on slide 1 plays.
6. After advancing to slide 2, clicked the back button to return to slide 1.
7. The audio immediately plays.
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/369b1511-b759-489d-adfd-39fe371b3d08/review
Happy Monday, David!
Appreciate the handy Peek recording, and sorry you're running into that delay! I tested your published 3.25.18088.0 output on Chrome v.73 where I'm also unable to reproduce any issues with the audio as heard in your Peek.
Out of curiosity, do you hear any issues with the audio in this Build 3.26.18364.0's published output?
In the meantime, I've opened a case with our Support Engineers. This is an excellent opportunity for them to lend a hand; look out for an email with some new approaches to try, and I'll follow along. We'll figure this out together!
Hi Katie,
The same delay occurs with the build you provided the link to. I wonder if there is a Chrome setting that is causing this delay. I recall reading that how Chrome treats the autoplay function is connected to the audio delay seen on slides that are auto advanced to.
