Storyline is locked by another process

Having this problem now. I have tried the above options. Still not working.

Please help!!!

Oh no, Andrew! Thanks for trying those options already. I started a case for you to work directly with our Support Team. You'll see a notification shortly and they'll have you fixed up! 

Having the same issue. I tried opening Storyline first then browsing for the file (got the same error message), Opening the file from it's location (got the same error message), Change the filename (this is an awful work around especially when I have to name files in a specific way for the client......got the same error message). I am rebooting my computer, which necessitates closing the many files and programs I need to use (MS Word, Teambox, Outlook, Chrome for my Google Drive backup files, IE so I can view the clients original modules which have flash in them on the three monitors. After rebooting, Articulate asked me to log in again to the software and once I did I the file opened. Hope this helps others and provides info to Articulate so they can fix this issue.

Thanks, Debra for sharing here and helping out others who may run into the same issue. How often do you shut down Storyline and your computer? One of the best practices outlined here is to not leave the Storyline application open and unattended for long periods of time. If you leave the application running overnight, it’s possible that a malware scan or disk backup could run because the machine is idle, making your application vulnerable to crashing.

Hi Debra,

I'd say a number of hours (not an hour or less) and especially if it's not shut down nightly. I don't shut down my computer every night for similar reasons, but I do try to get in the habit of shutting it down on a regular basis, say every weekend or nights I know I won't be home (therefore not checking work).

It's not just good practice for Storyline, but other tools, applications and your computer as a whole. We all need the occasional reboot and reset, that more than a standard nights sleep offers. 

I'm having this issue with two of my files that I worked on yesterday and today.  I followed all of the suggestions and still am getting an error.  Is this related to the most recent update?  I'm afraid to open anything else...

OF COURSE, I'm under a deadline (well now the project is overdue).  HELP!!!!!!

The only thing that has worked for me is to reboot my PC computer. Time consuming, but in order to open the files I cannot let them set open for hours ( I close them about every two hours), and have to shut down my computer every night and open the next morning. I also have a Mac so I run my Adobe suite, Teams, outlook and Skype on it to avoid further issues and use Google Drive to share needed files. NOT the workflow I want or need (time consuming). I’d move to Lectora or Captivate, but the client specified Storyline. Articulate please 🙏 fix this bug.

Renaming the file did not work for me so I had to take my SL file out of Google Drive and then place it in another directory on my workstation. I suppose that when using cloud file synchronization services like Google Drive or Dropbox or OneDrive can interfere with opening the file.

Thanks for your replies David and Debra,

From what I can tell, the culprit IS the sync with GDrive.  I just started using it last week (backing up my laptop before some memory upgrades) and that's when I started seeing the SL Locked issues.  I've disabled sync for the time being.

@Articulate:  I suspect there are a lot of us Storyline users who do sync with some cloud service so I think this bug should be addressed....sooon!

External drives would be a cause for concern for some IT departments. I had worked at at finance company which told all its employees to not use external drives and usb sticks in fear of virus/malware issues.