Save error message

May 14, 2012

Twice today I have been working in Storyline and received a pop-up error saying "This project can not be saved" once I get the error I am unable to save or even do a save as and rename the presentation. The first time I received the error the title of my presentation name was changed to untitled2 and I wasn't able to change it,  the second time the title stayed the same, but still unable to save it to my desktop or to a shared folder.

When I close out the presentation it gives me the pop-up asking if I want to save and I click save and nothing happens the only way to close the window out completely is to click on don't save.

Has anyone else seen this error and if you have do you know what happened or is it a bug?

69 Replies
Devon Rubin

I have received this as well.  I receive a message stating that the project cannot be saved because my system is low on memory.  There is an instruction to close programs and try to resave, however it still will not allow me to save the project.  I have to close out without saving and lose the changes that I have made.  Anyone with ideas on how to eliminate this problem? 

Phil Mayor

You can check how much memory you have in stalled by right clicking my computer/computer and choosing properties.  To check what resources are available right click the taskbar and choosing start task manager.  Look under performance and you can see how much free memory you have.  In the beta I found if this dropped below 100-150mb then the project would fail to save.

I would still report this as a bug though

Devon Rubin

I wonder if it has to do with how many interactions occur within a scene?  I have a fairly complex project with about 50 slides, many of which have 10- 12 layers.  There are multiple triggers to navigate within layers and between slides.  When I make minor changes to the slides, I can save fine.  The problem occurs when I try to duplicate one of the slides that has about 12 layers and multiple triggers.  After duplicating and trying to save, I consistently receive the memory error message.  Is there a limit as to how complex a scene or slide can be?

Devon Rubin

This happened again to me while using it on a different computer.  I didn't have anything else running.  Storyline had been opened for about 6 hours, so I wonder if, as was mentioned, it is an issue of time on the program.  There is nothing open that I can close out.  This is an annoying bug, since I can't continue working and saving my work.  Is there a way to report this such that this "bug" can be fixed?

Gerry Wasiluk

This is not for the faint-hearted, but if you cannot follow Phil's excellent suggestion of adding more RAM, then you can try (or, better yet, use a program to do this, like Norton Utilities or System Mechanic) to close down some unneeded services on your PC.  This MIGHT (and I stress MIGHT help) and free up some resources. 

Some services running in the background are unneeded and just take up memory resources.  Again, I would not close down any services manually unless one was an experienced PC user--you don't want to shut down something that is necessary.

Phil--did you try that when you had your problem?  Just curious.  In your case, I might have tried to temporary close down a few services to see if they MIGHT help, knowing that once I rebooted they would be restored.

Phil Mayor

Gerry, I was more foolish, I used task manager to stop the processes, I started with the unimportant ones then went onto indexing, security.  At the end of creating the periodic table i was a master at just getting enough resources to save!  I then closed down SL and reopened.  I do wonder if there is a memory leak because often saving would take up memory and never give it back.

Gerry Wasiluk

@Phil - I've often thought the same.  I've been working on what is currently a five-slide project (with one fairly complex slide) all day and many, many, many publishes.  Storyline.exe's memory is up to 535,084 K, which seems high to moi.

@Nancy - I agree.  What I was suggesting was triage at best until the issue can be resolved.  But, as a general rule, I think more RAM is usually a good thing.

Phil Mayor

Nancy I agree as far as system resources go, but RAM is really dependent on what you have on the machine.  I dont know what Articulate recommend to run SL but I expect that is based on only SL running and no other software. 

SL processes video and images, both processor and RAM intensive the more RAM the better SL will run.

Gerry Wasiluk

Another cheaper (and obvious), temporary solution is to close and re-open Storyline every couple of hours during intense work.  When you take a break, give Storyline one also.   Not optimum but an option for now until the Articulate wizards can figure it out.

Just did that and my storyline.exe process, with the same story file opened, only takes 126,868 K--at least at first.

Just did two nothing but two publishes and I'm stuck at around 277,380 K.  Hmm . . .

Jennifer Bircher

Hi all,

I am having the same issue. Storyline reported "low memory." I closed everything out, then tried to save, but it failed to save. I then followed the advice above and found the following:

1. I have 4 GB RAM total on my company-issued laptop.

2. After receiving the Low Memory message from Articulate and closing all programs, I checked the processes in Task Manager. Storyline showed using 926,396 K.

3. Total available RAM per the Task Manager at that time was 51%, about 2 GB.

4. I talked to our company's tech support team and they said based on that information Storyline must be looking for slightly more than 2 GB of free RAM to continue working. Is that right?

Thanks!

Diane Elkins

I've been struggling with the same problem for a week.  Sometimes I can save with several other applications open, and other times I can't.  If I cant, sometimes closing the other applications helps, and sometimes I still can't save.  In between, I'm mainly making text edits--so nothing that should significantly change the size of the file.

When using other tools, I can have Captivate, Lectora, Outlook, Photoshop, Word, and Excel all open at the same time without any problems. 

Very troublesome!.  I'm finding myself doing a lot of finger crossing.

Brian Batt

Hi Jennifer, Diane, and Tabatha,

Could each of you submit a support case to us & include your .story file for testing?  We'll take a closer look into the issue:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

Be sure to describe to us what you have done up to the point where you receive the message.  If possible, record a screencast of the message appearing during the case submission.

Marie Romani

I have the same problem...

With a clean restarted computer, with NO other applications open, memory usage of Storyline shows over 800 000 K !!!

I have a few slides but the problem is I think is the step by step scenes that I have...

Stripped it down to only one scene with 15 slides just to see the difference - but storyline still shows over 600 000 in memory usage.

I really like storyline, but If this isn't solved I will have to stick with my old tool for application courses :(

Brian Batt

Marie Romani said:

I have the same problem...

With a clean restarted computer, with NO other applications open, memory usage of Storyline shows over 800 000 K !!!

I have a few slides but the problem is I think is the step by step scenes that I have...

Stripped it down to only one scene with 15 slides just to see the difference - but storyline still shows over 600 000 in memory usage.

I really like storyline, but If this isn't solved I will have to stick with my old tool for application courses :(


Hi Marie,

Are you receiving an error message?  If so, can you submit a support case to us along with your .story file & a screenshot of the error message?

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

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