Forum Discussion
This project is invalid or corrupt......
I updated Storyline due to the latest release. I then attempted to open a file I had been working on just previous to this release and now I receive the error message - "This project is invalid or corrupt and cannot be opened. It may have been created in an earlier version of Storyline."
Please let me know if there is a fix here, I'm under a time constraint and don't need this headache with this course.
Hi Everyone, I had the same issue this morning and after reading the posts here, I was very disappointed as I lost almost 2 days of work.
However, the good news is that I have found a way to recover some of the work if you still have the original files. I am using Windows 7 and there is a recovery mode of windows 7 itself.
Right click the file and check properties -> from the top tabs, select "Previous versions" and if you were lucky enough then the windows may have saved the last saved version of your file. All you need to do is to select the most latest one and click "Restore". Beware, the file will be replaced and you will no longer have the original file so make sure you create a backup before making any changes.
Good luck and Hope it will be helpful :)
Cheers,
Muhammad
You saved me from a headache. Thank you
Just had this corrupted file thing happen to me with a file created on a trial version then corrupted after I put in the licence number. I was devastated that I had lost a weeks worth of work! Muhammad - thanks so much for the suggestion! You saved my project!!!
You saved me some serious re-build time Muhammad! Thanks for sharing!!
Ashley Terwilliger said:
Hi Chris and welcome to Heroes!
I'm sorry to hear about the difficulty you're having with your file. First you'll want to check the following which could have caused file corruption:
- Work on your local drive (your C: drive).Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, includingfile corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior.
- You should also make sure the directory pathto your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters(for example C:\Articulate).
- Avoid using special characters, accents orsymbols in your file names.
I'd also try opening a new Storyline project and import this older one into the blank project.
Hello, I'm having the same problem. I tried importing the old one into a blank project as you suggested, and I got the following message (please note, I chose to import Storyline, and browsed to the location of the corrupt Storyline project):Any help is appreciated!!
Has anyone figured out a solution for this. I have had a help ticket open for a month, all kinds of advice and none of it works. I have tried everything here and still can't open the files. I have shared the files, nobody at articulate has been able to figure it out either. We are down to reloading windows is the new suggestion. Huge risk and work--has anyone else tried that and did it work?
Muhammad you have saved me the night before Thanksgiving on a project that is due December 1st. Utilizing your solution after trying everything under the sun for an entire day has saved me.
Thank you!
Hi,
i had the same issue, with some hard moment.
Then I solved by:
- making a copy of the .story file
- rename and save it as a .storytemplate file
- open a new SL2 project
- select import from Storyline
- import the .storytemplate
Hope this will help someone of you also..
Cheers,
Gabriele
Hi Gabriele,
I know this thread is 3 years old but may i ask how you copied the file and saved it as a .storytemplate file?
I cannot open the file so cannot save it using save as option.
Is there a way of doing this by not opening the file?
Actually i saved my file yesterday and there must have been an error and it saved a copy instead. Now when open the main file this is the error i get (shown in image 'Error Message' and when i open the saved copy file, I get an error as shown in the 'Error Message 2'.
Do you think your method will work in my case?
Hi there
I had the invalid/ corrupt message come through when I tried to open a project I have been working on. Thanks for the post Muhammed, the restore trick worked perfectly.
I am glad the community is here otherwise I would have had to start again. I hope that this will not be an ongoing problem.
Ren
I have been consistently getting the error with story files that have videos embedded. The restore has been working but I fear that there may be a bug. Any ideas.
i have just had the same experience and while it is nice to have a community try to find work-arounds, this is an issue and needs to be fixed. Comments from staff such as "I'm sure we all hope it doesn't happen again" are not good enough - unless the bug is identified and fixed, it will happen again. I'm sure you won't be putting the warning "Please note, projects are prone to corruption at any stage and may be unrecoverable" on the purchase page or that Storyline 2 is unstable. My 3 day project is now unrecoverable and has to be rebuilt.
I'm having the same problem repeatedly. My file is crashing and I get the "invalid/corrupted" message, even though the file was saved and opened only hours ago without prior problem. I can't keep saving my files repeatedly with new names. Is there a permanent fix being put inplace? I am sending the most recent invalid/corrupted .story file via the help line, but it is incredibly frustrating to find that I am expected to pay to access help via chat now and can only leave messages with uncertain response time when the software keeps crashing my files. This software is too expensive to be functioning this way, particularly without a direct contact system to address the problem.
Despite saving my project yesterday in multiple versions with different file names every 10 minutes, and despite verifying each version as functional by opening and being able to use the files before again saving the newest file version, today I went to work on my project and found that NONE of the version copies on my hard disc would open. Yet again each copy is now called invalid/corrupted, despite being able to open the files yesterday. I was able to go online to DropBox and download their cloud copy of one earlier to my desktop and then open that .story copy, but the more recent fie versions held on DropBox also will not open after being copied to my hard disc. This again means hours of work lost - with no clear reason. This problem seems to be universal and reported for months. Is there a fix in the works?
Hi Davoren,
I'm really sorry to hear that you're continually experiencing this issue. I did want to share a few reminders in regards to causes of file corruption and you mentioned you sent along a file to our team so they'll continue to investigate. If you'd like to share the case number here with us I'm happy to follow along.
File corruption is unpredictable, and there's no straightforward way to determine what causes it. Common causes are environmental (disk errors, power outages, improper shutdowns), viruses, failed Windows updates, and even file size (i.e., very large files have a higher risk of corrupting).Consider these preventative measures to protect your project files:1) Save and publish projects on your local hard drive. Working on a network drive or external USB drive can cause erratic behavior due to latency.2) Save incrementally. If your app has an AutoRecovery feature, take advantage of it. If not, save a new version of your project every hour or so with a new file name each time. If a file becomes corrupt, you'll still have a working version available.3) Install Dropbox. Snapshots of changes in your local Dropbox folder are kept for 30 days. If a file is damaged or deleted, you can restore a previous snapshot: https://www.dropbox.com/help/11/en.4) Don't leave the app open and unattended for long periods of time. Some users have reported file corruption after leaving their apps open overnight. It's possible that a malware scan or disk backup could run because the machine is idle, making your app vulnerable to crashing.
I am having the exact same problem as David. Was this ever resolved?
Hi there, Jennifer. I'm seeing the "corrupt" message also when trying to open your file in Storyline 2. Using Alyssa's suggestion above, are you able to find any temporary versions of your file?
