Storyline is locked by another process

I've read that Articulate seems to think this may be related to a Windows issue locking the system. This may be entirely possible, yet this is the only piece of software I've ever used that has this issue, and it happens continually. With all due respect, this should be looked into further than "renaming a file" or "re-importing files into a new project."

Software should run efficiently within the OS it is designed for. The message may be generated from Windows, but the error is related to the software design. 

It would be like if you had a new car that keeps smoking after being driven over 2 hours, and the dealership telling you just to turn off the engine to let it cool down--there's a bigger issue here.

I don't want to leave any impression I'm unhappy with Storyline. I was a Captivate user for over 10 years. I'm a convert. I'm not shocked or daunted that it's still not perfect.

I've noticed one or two other things only AS360 does in Windows. When maximized, it can spontaneously resize its own window. When this happens pressing the maximize button or double-clicking the title bar first centers the window in the screen. You must then repeat that action to make it full screen. I've encountered no other application that requires the second click. Like the name-change thing, it's a nuisance, it's nobody's bug but Storyline's, and I fully expect it will be fixed some day.

In the last two updates I've noticed when I press Play to watch a layer it no longer stops when the layer timeline stops, it starts over at the top of the base slide, without audio. This I find to be a much bigger nuisance and I really hope it's fixed as soon as possible, preferably in the next update.

Had the issue today after a lot of file and cloud moving yesterday by my IT department. I was able to just copy and move the file and it opened. Looking at the thread this issue has something to do with where the files are stored. Our company has the same issues with external drives so we went to cloud storage. I think Articulate needs to look at this and make sure cloud storage works. When I copied it and put it back on my laptop it works.

Thanks everybody for the great information. 

Hello Richard,

Thanks for sharing what you are running into.

I scrolled through your previous forum discussions and searched for a support case on the issues you're sharing, but I came up empty-handed.

With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening (1. the two-click full screen and 2. timeline starting over). You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.

Glad this was able to help you as well, Alicia :) Thanks for popping in to share.

Hello, ground to halt today and keep getting this message. Potentially lost weeks of work, I was in the process of pasting slides to another project when the fault occurred? Any support much appreciated.

Regards, 

John.

Thanks David. We have GIT, but I'm the only one here who's ever used it, and in this case we're talking about retrieving changes that were probably never committed. Once I've copy/pasted the file, and then opened the copy I "Save as..." to restore the filename continuity, and then also delete the copy.

So to be entirely clear, in Windows 10, when I get "locked by another process" message I:
1) close Storyline (and I'm not sure this is absolutely necessary)
2) select the file in the folder, right-click and Copy
3) Right-click and Paste the file into the same folder... "Copy of" is appended.
4) Open the copy, and immediately "Save as..." the original.
5) Delete the copy ASAP, to avoid confusion and folder bloat.

As several have noted, it's unusual software behaviour, apparently unique to Storyline. I'm not the one to say if it's a feature or a bug. ;-)

I've opened case # 01942181.

I mentioned also that it took me three tries because when I used the backspace to correct a simple typo, the browser went back to my previous page, dumping my work. Probably for the best, as on each retry I tend to become more concise ;-)

I've been experiencing this issue for the past week. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Storyline 360, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft.NET. I have also submitted a case to Articulate Support. I'm feeling very lost!

I have tried these steps and I am still getting the error message. Any more tips?