Storyline 360 losing imported audio after reopening

Has anyone experienced Storyline 360 losing imported audio after reopening a project?

I’m trying to determine whether this is project corruption, an import issue, or something introduced by a recent update.

Here’s what’s happening:

I imported a PowerPoint into Articulate Storyline 360 that included narration/audio.

The audio imports successfully and initially works normally.

I go through the project and add animations and closed captions, etc.

I save the .story file and close Storyline.

When I reopen the project later, the audio no longer plays in the slide or timeline preview.

The playhead moves normally and everything appears intact.

The audio object/waveform is still visible.

If I double-click the original audio file itself within Storyline, the audio plays normally, so the source audio does not appear corrupted.

I am working from a local drive, not a network location.

This has happened to me more than once.

Current workaround (but it’s extremely time-consuming):

I go into the Media Library, select Audio, and download/export each individual MP3 file along with the associated VTT closed caption files. Then I go slide by slide, delete the existing audio, insert the newly exported audio file, and reattach the captions.

This workaround does restore functionality, but it’s very manual and inefficient, especially for larger projects.

I’m trying to figure out:

Has anyone seen imported PowerPoint narration become disconnected after save/reopen?

Has anyone recovered the audio without rebuilding slide by slide?

Is there a way to relink or refresh media assets globally?

Has anyone found a faster method than exporting/reinserting audio and captions individually?

Did this end up being project corruption, imported media behavior, or something else?

Thanks in advance. I’m hoping to understand whether this is a known issue before continuing to rebuild projects manually.

I have reported to the support team. just waiting for their response.

Many thanks

Johnna Hodges