Articulate 360: Running Diagnostics

You can run diagnostics right from the Articulate 360 desktop app to find out what’s wrong if Articulate 360 isn’t working properly. In this article, you’ll learn how to:

• Check the Status of Articulate 360 Services
• Understand Status Errors and What to Do About Them
• Enable Detailed API Logging
• Turn On Comprehensive Network Logging
• Export Log Files for Articulate Support
• Delete Articulate 360 Logs
• Clear Cache When Advised by Articulate Support

Check the Status of Articulate 360 Services

We made it easy to check your connections to Articulate 360 services, which is helpful if, say, you can’t browse Content Library 360 images or publish to Review 360.

Just open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop. Then press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the app and choose Diagnostics.

The app will immediately check the status of Articulate 360 services and display the results. If there are any errors, you’ll see details explaining why.

You can run the connection tests again by pressing F12 or clicking the refresh icon in the upper right corner.

See the next section to find out what to do about status errors. When you’re finished, click Done in the lower right corner of the app to close the diagnostics.

Understand Status Errors and What to Do About Them

If the diagnostics return an error for an Articulate 360 service, the first segment lets you know if the service is temporarily down (see the example below). A red sidebar means the service is down, yellow means the service can’t be checked, and green means the service is operational.

Click the link in the message details to launch our status page, where you can see if any services are currently down and what we’re doing about them. (Depending on the error, the linked word will be unavailable, available, or status.)

Additional error segments describe specific services to which you can’t connect (see the example below). They always have a red sidebar and include the specific service URLs you’re unable to reach and detailed error messages.

If a service is operational (green) but you can’t connect to it (red), it may mean a firewall is blocking your access. To find out, click Copy to Clipboard at the bottom of the app to copy the status results, then paste them into a document and ask your IT staff if your network security is blocking access to the service URLs in the error messages. (If you just need to copy a single error message, click the clipboard icon that appears next to the error, as shown in the image above.)

For full access to all Articulate 360 services, your IT staff should add these domains to your allowlist.

You can find more information about your interactions with Articulate 360 services by clicking the Logs tab at the top of the desktop app. Click Copy to Clipboard at the bottom of the window to copy the latest messages, then paste them into a document for your IT staff.

And we’re glad to help too! Send us a copy of your test results and message logs, and we may be able to determine what’s wrong.

Enable Detailed API Logging

Follow these steps to use detailed API logging when investigating issues with Articulate 360 features. This allows extra logging on communication between Articulate 360 apps and services.

1. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the desktop app and choose Diagnostics.
3. When the diagnostics appear, click the Logs tab at the top of the window, then click Options.
4. Under Enable Detailed API Logging, mark the box beside the features or API endpoints you'd like to inspect. For example, if you can't access characters from Content Library 360, select Content Library 360 Characters, as shown below. Then click Done.
5. Click Yes when prompted to restart the desktop service process in the background.
6. Reproduce the error you're investigating. In our example above, open Storyline 360 and try to insert a character. Articulate 360 will record details about processing requests and responses.

After reproducing the problem, export your log files as described in the last section of this article and send them to us for review. Detailed logging can use more computer resources, so it'll automatically turn off the next time you restart your computer if you forget to disable it. You can also click the Delete Logs button to clear your logs when you're done.

Data sent to or from an API endpoint can contain personal information, such as your name or Articulate ID (email address), which is sent securely over HTTPS. See what's included with your log files and what we do with the data.

Turn On Comprehensive Network Logging

Enable detailed network logging in the Articulate 360 desktop app when you're troubleshooting a difficult network issue. Here's how:

1. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the desktop app and choose Diagnostics.
3. When the diagnostics appear, click the Logs tab at the top of the window, then click Options.
4. Mark the box under Enable System Network Logging and click Done.

Next, reproduce the error you're trying to fix. For example, if you're unable to sign in when you're on your VPN, connect to your VPN and try to sign in again. Since network logging is enabled, Articulate 360 will record details about your service requests as you connect.

After reproducing the problem, export your log files as described in the following section for review, or send them to us and we'll be happy to help.

Comprehensive network logging can slow down your Articulate 360 apps, so it'll automatically turn off the next time you restart your computer if you forget to disable it. You can also click the Delete Logs button to clear your logs when you're done.

Export Log Files for Articulate Support

We may ask you to send us the Articulate log files from your computer to investigate a problem. The good news is we made it easy to collect those log files. Here’s how:

1. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the desktop app and choose Diagnostics.
3. When the diagnostics appear, click the Logs tab at the top of the window, then click Export Logs at the bottom of the window.
4. Click Export to confirm your request. A progress bar indicates that the export is processing. It could take a few minutes.
5. When the export is finished, you’ll see a system notification that the logs have been saved to a file named Articulate-Logs.zip on your desktop. Click Done at the bottom of the desktop app to close the diagnostics.
6. Reply to the email from Articulate Support and attach the Articulate-Logs.zip file, or upload it here. We’ll review your logs and let you know what we find.

Delete Articulate 360 Logs

Quickly purge Articulate 360 logs from your computer when you want to declutter. Here's how:

1. Close Storyline 360, Studio 360, Replay 360, and Peek 360 before deleting your Articulate 360 logs to ensure that the log files aren't locked by other processes.
2. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop.
3. Press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the desktop app and choose Diagnostics.
4. When the diagnostics appear, click the Logs tab at the top of the window, then click Options.
5. Click the Delete Logs button on the lower-left corner and select Delete to permanently remove the log files.

Clear Cache When Advised by Articulate Support

We may ask you to clear your app cache to troubleshoot issues with Storyline 360 or the Articulate 360 desktop app. We suggest only using this option when recommended. Here’s how:

1. When investigating Storyline 360 issues, close Storyline 360 before clearing your cache. (Otherwise, skip to step 2.)
2. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app from your computer’s system tray (by the clock) or the icon on your desktop.
3. Press the F12 key on your keyboard or click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the desktop app and choose Diagnostics.
4. When the diagnostics appear, click the Cache tab at the top of the window, then click Clear Cache at the bottom of the window.
5. Click Yes to confirm your request.
6. It may take a minute for the cache to clear. When it’s finished, you’ll see a system notification that the app data has been deleted from your computer. Click Done at the bottom of the desktop app to close the diagnostics.