Web publishing on Filezilla -Showing 403 error or just white screen

FileZilla certainly brings back some memories. Years ago, I worked for a team that had its own technical infrastructure and LMS environment, with multiple servers hosting our learning content. We used an in-house HTML course builder that generated course structures and configuration files in JSON format, which were then wrapped in a SCORM package for LMS tracking and reporting. At the time, I spent a lot of time using FileZilla to upload and maintain course files and folder structures across development, staging, and production servers.

I don't recall running into many issues back then, but that's probably because our servers were managed by highly skilled system administrators who took care of permissions, web server configuration, MIME types, and deployment processes. However, I do remember a few troubleshooting steps that might help in your case.

First, FileZilla itself is simply a file transfer client. There are no special Storyline settings required for FileZilla. If you're seeing a 403 error, the issue is usually related to the web server's permissions or configuration rather than the Storyline output itself. Likewise, a white screen often indicates that some published files were not uploaded correctly or cannot be loaded by the browser.

My initial suspicion would be one of the following:

• The course was uploaded outside the public web directory (such as public_html, www, or htdocs).
• Folder or file permissions are incorrect.
• Not all published Storyline files were uploaded.
• Some files were corrupted or skipped during transfer.
• The web server is blocking access to specific file types.

Using Binary transfer mode won't resolve server permissions, missing files, or web server configuration issues.

The quickest way to identify the root cause is through your browser's Developer Tools. Open the course, press F12, and inspect both the Console and Network tabs. Look for red error messages such as:

• 403 Forbidden
• 404 Not Found
• Failed to load resource
• Refused to execute script
• Incorrect MIME type
• Access denied
• CORS-related errors

Since you specifically mentioned receiving a 403 Forbidden error, it's worth noting that this means the server received the request successfully but is refusing access to the requested resource.

A few things I would verify:

1. Confirm that story.html is located inside your website's public directory.
2. Verify that all Storyline output files and folders were uploaded.
3. Check file and folder permissions through FileZilla or your hosting control panel.
4. Confirm that the server allows access to JavaScript, JSON, XML, and media files generated by Storyline.
5. Review any .htaccess rules that may be restricting access.

If you published for Web, the folder structure should look something like this:

public_html/
└── my-course/
    ├── story.html
    ├── story_content/
    ├── html5/
    └── other published files and folders 

The important thing is that story.html and all associated folders remain together exactly as Storyline published them. Missing even a single folder can result in a blank screen or loading errors.

Do not test using only the folder URL. Always use the full file path first, for example:
https://yourwebsite.com/my-course/story.html. A folder-only URL such as:
https://yourwebsite.com/my-course/ may return a 403 error on some servers because story.html is not automatically recognized as a default index page. If the issue persists, try renaming story.html to index.html, as many web servers are configured to automatically load index.html when accessing a directory. If the error still persists, create a simple test.html file in the same published folder on the server (at the root level of the upload) and access it directly via the URL. Add a basic line such as:

<div>Server is working</div>

• If test.html also returns a 403 error, the issue is related to server path configuration or permissions, not Storyline.
• If test.html works but story.html returns 403, then a server security rule or restriction is likely blocking Storyline content.
• If story.html loads but appears blank, inspect the browser Developer Tools (Console and Network tabs) for missing or blocked files.

Important checks:

• Confirm there are no failed transfers during upload from your local computer to the server.
• In FileZilla, verify that file and folder permissions are correctly set on the server.