Forum Discussion

MadelineBecker's avatar
MadelineBecker
Community Member
6 years ago

Storyline Audio on First Slide Won't Play Automatically Once Published

Hi! Thanks for reading my question :)

When I upload the published file to the final online platform, the audio on the first slide of the course won't play automatically. However, when the user clicks the volume bar or clicks the Pause button, the audio magically 'turns on' and starts playing. There are no special triggers (just the usual NEXT and PREV buttons) on this slide and the audio file is aligned to the beginning of the timeline. The audio file is there and will play, but only if the user engages with the slide. The issue is that it does not begin playing automatically. This is the only instance of this issue in the entire course. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this error? Thank you!!!

storyline 360
  • GabrielleCook's avatar
    GabrielleCook
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    Hello, all:

    We are experiencing this same issue, now 3-years later. What can we do to ensure that the audio plays on the first slide when the course launches? It doesn't do so when published to SCORM or REVIEW. All settings in Storyline 360 are correct.

  • MadelineBecker's avatar
    MadelineBecker
    Community Member
    6 years ago

    Update! After reading other posts/comments, I realized that this was likely a browser issue. After updating Google chrome to version 72, I was able to publish in Chrome with no issue. HOWEVER, I still can't figure out how to update in Internet Explorer or Firefox. Any suggestions? Thanks!!

  • LeslieMcKerchie's avatar
    LeslieMcKerchie
    Staff
    6 years ago

    Hello Madeline,

    The auto-play policy that we've seen recently were specific to Chrome as you can read about here.

    What is the behavior that you are experiencing in the other browsers? If you are simply looking for a way to update those browsers, I'd do a quick Google search for how to do so within your environment. Many of them auto-update now due to security requirements.

  • MCostaStienstra's avatar
    MCostaStienstra
    Staff
    3 years ago

    Hi, Gabrielle.

    Thank you for reaching out!

    Some modern browsers no longer allow audio to autoplay. If you have audio on the first slide or set it to advance automatically, the browser will expect the user to click. 

    If this is your scenario, here are two workarounds:

    • Set the first slide (or the slide that comes before the one with the audio) to advance only when learners click a button or interact with it in some way.

    • Insert silent audio on the first slide to trigger the Play button. You can use Storyline's Record Mic option for this.

    Let me know if this works!

  • AmyAshby's avatar
    AmyAshby
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    I'm experiencing this issue. I have a "dummy" slide with no audio to advance to the "real" slide and I can get the audio to play automatically.  I would like to do one of your workarounds, but I don't know how to do that. This would be a workable option for our project, but how do I do that? 

    • Insert silent audio on the first slide to trigger the Play button. You can use Storyline's Record Mic option for this.

  • MCostaStienstra's avatar
    MCostaStienstra
    Staff
    3 years ago

    Hi, Amy. 

    Thank you for reaching out!

    You can insert audio using any of the main three options (Record Mic, Text-to-speech, and Audio from file), and then edit it to make it silent. 

    For example, if you insert text-to-speech and type ".", the voice will say the word dot. It will show on the timeline like this:

    You can then right-click that object on the timeline and select Edit Audio. On that screen, select the entire audio wave and click Silence:

    This will force a Play button to appear when you publish your file.

    I hope this helps!

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