Forum Discussion
Videos not playing in published course. HELP!!
I am working on a course with lots of videos. Originally they were really blurry and so I've been having to use the work around I learned here. //www.screenr.com/NTHH
I published the course last week and the work around worked fine. Today I realized that some of the videos were not blurry because of SL, but because of the video themselves. Fixed the videos. Republished. Renamed the video files so I could replace them in the output file. Replaced them just like i did before.
Now when I open the output file (both web and LMS output) the videos do not play. They show up in preview mode, but not in the published version , HELP!!!
Hey James!
We added support for Chrome's new behavior to yesterday's update for Storyline 3. Install the latest update and republish your course.
Learners using Chrome 66+ now see a play button when they launch or resume a course with a video on the first slide. Clicking the play button starts the course and allows the video to play. Videos on other slides should autoplay as expected.
It looks like your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.
I just encountered this same issue. Was using SL2 until a few weeks ago and did not have the issue when publishing. Today works fine in preview mode and when I publish it is not bringing my video file over to the story content.
Hi Lori,
Are you still using Storyline 2, or one of the newer version of Storyline? How are you publishing the course? Have you uploaded to a web server or Learning Management System (LMS) to test it? Also, what browsers have you tested the course in?
If you can share a bit more about how the course was set up and the issue you're running into, we can point you in the right direction!
Ashley,
We've worked it out...somewhat.
1) I am using Storyline 3 (not SL2 or Rise or 360)
2) Publishing the course for review as HTML 5 with Flash backup
3) Testing in LMS resulted in the same issues
4) RESOLUTION: Browser. The issue was when viewing in Chrome. Viewing it in IE (my company still has not moved into updated Windows versions or browsers), it worked although there was still an "issue" in that the user had to click for the automatic video to start playing. Someone mentioned that the Chrome update handled video/audio differently, so that was the issue. Soon after that, Articulate issued an update that "got around" the issue by providing a "play button" for the user to click. However, the issue is resolved when viewing the Modules in IE.
Basically, it was an issue with the browser - Chrome - not automatically playing audio/video on the opening slides. As 99% of our company uses IE (and outdated Windows 7), this actually turned out to NOT be as big of a problem as I had thought it would turn out to be. As the Course works within IE, I've simply updated SL3 to the latest build and directed all users to use Explorer over Chrome for the time being.
James
Does anyone know of software like Storyline that does not have this issue?
I publish for users who use all kinds of browsers.
Hi James,
Thanks for that additional info. Chrome (and Safari) have both implemented restrictions around autoplay of media recently - so that piece of it makes sense and likely impacts other tools as well. We did release the update to include the play button so that there is an obvious way for the user to have interacted with the slide and it's content and allow the audio to keep playing beyond that. You can read a bit more about this behavior in Chrome here.
Please can you tell me if there are any more suggestions about how to fix this problem? I have the latest SL360 updates and the problem is similar to that described by James earlier.
My file has a slide that moves to another slide When timeline ends. This slide has a video that should start automatically but does not.
The video will start if I click it three times in screen area.
The video starts automatically in Microsoft Edge and Firefox, but not in Safari or Chrome.
If I remove the trigger to change slide automatically, the video starts automatically.
I hope this is being investigated
This was such an important unresolved problem for me last year that I simply gave up on Storyline and decided I will be moving to Adobe Captivate. But I’m just an infrequent content creator, not up on all the most recent changes, so I hope professionals give you a good answer. I haven’t gone to Adobe captivate yet because I am such an infrequent creator and haven’t had time to move over. So if you did find a resolution to the storyline problem I might be convinced to stay with storyline still. Would certainly be cheaper :-) since I already have storyline 2.
Sent from my iPhone
Apparently, Articulate's patch somewhat fixed the issue. It had to do something with the browser settings (in the background/on the backend) and not a fault of Articulate/Storyline at all.
Since the patch, I haven't had an issue with videos auto-playing on the first slide at all. Same with audio. So now, I can incorporate the opening videos and/or audio I've created for our corporate training eLearning and not fear being bombarded with emails about the Modules not working.
James
Yeah, I've also installed all the recent Storyline updates, but am having the issue ... so I wonder if Google changed something in Chrome again that broke things that Articulate had fixed. We're on the most recent version of Chrome: 68.0.3440.106. (found via https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/the-latest-version/chrome )
Thank you, Will, for reporting this issue. Specifically, when the previous slide is set to advance automatically, the video won't play until the learner interacts with the Player in some way. This is happening in HTML5 output. We're having a look at this behavior.
In the meantime, can you try adding a trigger to the video slide to "play media (video) when them timeline starts?" This workaround might be the least imposing on the experience you're trying to give your learners!
Let me know if that works for you, Will.
I have the latest version of Chrome and have an old demo on my eLearning Heroes profile published in Storyline 2 and in my e-Portfolio which has a video on the first slide that someone is trying to view - I've check this, and all you get is a blank screen. I've re-published this in Storyline 360, and now all you get when you view this is the play button. Not attractive at all!
The workaround suggested above does not work, ie adding a trigger to play the media when the timelines starts.
For now, I've suggested to this person that they view this in an alternative browser (which I've tested and this works) - but this is not an acceptable situation, particularly looking retrospectively on anything that anyone may have produced that has this setup (a video on the opening slide) as James has pointed out above.
Adding an instruction to my e-Portfolio page that lets viewers know they need to use a workaround to view this demo is not something I'm happy with, and does not really make this Storyline software an attractive proposition for developers. Nor is being restricted from using video clips on the opening slide.
At this point, I'm wondering if there will be a resolution to this situation, or at least a workaround that works?
This was exactly my problem two years ago, and why I quit Storyline. I am
hoping Adobe Captivate won't have the same issue. I don't know if it does
or not, since I've had other life issues that took me away from video
publishing for 2 years. If you find software that works, please post here
so we all can know! :-)To be fair, this is primarily Google's fault for changing the rules for how Chrome treats media, but as a community it seems we could do more to push back against this policy Google forced on everyone.
For example, if you hate this change, please go and say something in the comments here: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes
This is a good point, Will, and I will do so. Do you or anyone know if
Adobe Captivate, or some other software, has managed to make videos play at
the start?I'm not a Captivate user, but looking at their forums, it looks like they are also having issues:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2488510
https://forums.adobe.com/message/10627799#10627799
It is most certainly on Google's end. What's interesting - to me - is that, since Articulate released that "patch" some time ago, I have not had an issue with auto-play of audio or video on any slide.
I create opening videos for our compliance training and every one of them works as designed. I've gotten into the habit of creating a popup and pausing the timeline on some opening screens of modules/courses, but the majority I do not.
I've worked these in Chrome and IE (our office still works with Windows 7) and have not had any issues with the auto-play function not working.
Wish I could offer more help or assistance on this issue.
I'm a public school teacher and my problem was that I was creating
educational lessons for teens, who have every kind of device imaginable.
They also have very low tolerance for things not working.
One little glitch and they tell their parent "The teacher's online lesson
doesn't work", then the parent gets on the horn complaining about
inadequate instructional materials and unrealistic expectations by the
teacher. All because the darn video wouldn't play automatically in the
particular browser of the particular device the kid was using.
I can see how these patches might work in a company, where adults are all
using identical devices.
I need a solution that plays video at the start for all devices... Because
frankly, if you're going to grab a kid's attention, a video clip at the
very start is ideal.
Hey folks,
Google no longer allows videos with audio to autoplay in Chrome 66+. As a result, a video on the first slide of a Storyline course might not work.
Dianne--since you're having trouble with an existing project, use this updater tool to fix the project without having to republish it.
We've also added support for Google's new autoplay policy to Storyline 2 (and Storyline 3 and 360) so any new projects you publish with the latest update will work as expected in Google.
Alyssa, I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying. You first say "a
video on the first slide of a Storyline course might not work" - which is
my experience -
but then "any new projects you publish with the latest update will work"
so... are you saying with the latest Storyline 2 update that the videos on
the first slide of a course WILL work, despite the fact that Google does
not allow videos with audio to autoplay in Chrome 66+?Thanks for your response Alyssa. I'm not sure what you mean by "will work as expected in Google". I understand the concept behind what they've done to stop videos auto-playing - but if the Articulate fix is to add a play button that looks like the one above, I think I'll be opting for instructions not to play this in Chrome rather than have learners see this play button, or not have videos at the start of any projects.
I agree with other comments here that this issue exists because of Google changing how Chrome deals with media - I've skimmed through the link you put up Will - there's a lot of people not happy about this, but I'm not sure that things will change from their end.Hi Dianne,
I believe Alyssa was sharing that the "will work as expected in Google" means that courses you've published with the latest update will follow what you're seeing with the courses modified using the Updater tool.
Since Google has required that a user interact with a site before it starts autoplaying media, that play button is what your learners will see at the start of the course. After a while, learners may stop seeing the play button as Chrome's Media Engagement Index (MEI) learns that they allowed audio to play on previous visits to the same site. When that happens, audio will automatically play as it did in earlier versions of Chrome.
Keep in mind, browsers like Safari have also started to implement similar policies and I expect other browsers to soon follow suit.
