Audio Missing for Some Captivate Slides in Video Output

[CaterinaWrites]

I've had an ongoing issue that I'm wondering if anyone knows how to solve permanently. 

I'm using Captivate 2019 for software simulations. These projects average 3-5 minutes, 40-60 slides. All the audio is mp3 format, sometimes wav. When I publish the project to video I usually have to do it several times for Captivate to actually include everything in the slide deck. 

By that I mean, audio for some slides just does not show up. I can hear the audio in the editor, in the preview, in the SWF output format, but when I'm publishing to video specifically, the same few slides just keep encountering the same issue: they're completely silent despite there being an audio file imported to the slide.  

Sometimes duplicating the slide and deleting the original works, sometimes reimporting the audio works, sometimes a machine restart, application restart, or just republishing altogether works, but none of these solutions work consistently, reliably, or predictably. Sometimes I fix the issue on one slide and it shows up on another. 

I'm working on files from the hard drive, not the cloud. The force republish checkbox is selected on the output dialog. I'm working with Captivate 2019 using Windows 10 Enterprise, but have had the same issue with 2017 before.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on how to troubleshoot it?

All audio is imported to the slide, not the background, does that make a difference?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I haven't publish my content as an MP4 in some time so I decided to test this out. Essentially there are three places you can attach audio in your Adobe Captivate project - on just about any object, to the slide and to the background of the project itself. I tested a mix of these types of audio and no problem publishing. My only thought is the audio itself. Perhaps it's encoded in an unusual bitrate that gets "lost in translation". One last thing, make sure you update to the latest version of Adobe Captivate that you are entitled to. Currently, with Captivate 2019 we are on update 5. Many of these updates included bug fixes. Making sure you are on the latest version can help with issues that are fixed by these types of updates.

[CaterinaWrites]

I appreciate you testing this out! But all the audio files come from the same source, usually, so it's not like the ones that keep disappearing are any different from the ones that aren't. I am using the most updated version, and I also had this same issue with Captivate 2017.

[dianneb25448094]

I am having the same issue.  My first slide plays audio when I publish as an MP4, but none of my other slides have audio.  Very frustrating.  Would love to hear if there is an easy way to fix this.

[RodWard]

Is your audio added slide by slide, or is it added as one big MP3 or WAV file spread across multiple slides?

[dianneb25448094]

I added my slides via audacity, in a WAV file spread across multiple slides.

[RodWard]

Try going into each slide and then dragging the audio to the right slightly to make a one tenth of a second gap before it starts.  Do the same at the end of the slide.  Then dry republishing to MP4.

[CaterinaWrites]

This is also another one of the inconsistent solutions I've found. Sometimes it works to add some space, sometimes it works to jiggle the file within the slide, re-save, then re-publish, but this doesn't work all the time for me.

[Laura Cee]

I am also having this issue but on the 2017 release so its disappointing to see this happen on the 2019 release because that was my next step.  To fix I am having to redo entire slides.   If I publish my CPTX file as SCORM for my LMS then the audio plays beautifully every single time - it only seems to happen if I then have to republish as video for say Microsoft Streams for my intranet.  

Is there anything else that can be done?  i've tried adding the tiny gap at the start - i've resaved, i've tried copying slides but to no avail.  Its incredibly time consuming especially given that the publish as SCORM plays the audio perfectly so i know there's not an audio problem.  Posting in the hope that someone has found a solution!

Thanks, Laura 

[CaterinaWrites]

I ended up having a call with a support person from Adobe and while we couldn't fix the issue, we found another workaround. I copied and pasted all slides into a new project, saved it as a new file, and republished. I haven't made any new videos since those, so I don't know how consistently that works, but it did the one time I tried. So, let me know if that ends up working for you. I'm sorry I don't have a better solution!

[Jennifer3O]

I'm having the same issue with ONE small audio file. I've tried moving it slightly, I've tried deleting and reinserting it, I've tried copying and pasting all slides into a new project, saving the file as a .wva instead of an .mp4. I've been trying to fix this issue for a solid three hours. So effing frustrating. It would be nice to have an actual fix for this.

[Raymond_H]

I have the same issue, when using text to speech and generating the audio. I haven't found a good solution to consistently work, however I am going to try the cut and paste to a new project in the future.