Captivate File Not Opening

[Olimpia Sawaia]

Ohmy gosh! You won't believe it! I made all kinds of cool changes, but now I can't open the file. HELP! I have a back-up of the file, but not with the cool changes. Here is the error I get when I try to open it:

When Cp opens a project file it creates a hidden file that 'locks' the file so no one else can open it. When you close the project, it removes the file. The message you're describing can come up when that file doesn't get removed when Captivate closes. It can also be all those scary things mentioned there.

If you go to the folder options you can 'show hidden files' and remove it manually IF that is really the problem. Make sure you're not running two isntances of captivate and that no one else is working on the file (if it's in a network location) before doing anything.

Having the exact problem that Terri Maguire did but my work was over 4 days and I'm one hour from completion. During my last attempted 'save', the window did a 'not responding' error and ended up crashing. Now, I can't open the 5.0 file and I'm sick to my stomach at the prospect of having to start over.

My file was saved on the 'desktop' so I'm not sure what Andy means in his solution of going to the 'folder options'. Can anyone help me find this hidden file and close it so I can try opening the original again?

your desktop is also a folder. If you're on Win XP it's at: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop or some equivalent if you're running some other version of windows. Once you're there, select Tools > Folder Options > View > Hidden files and folders > Show hidden files and folders. Look for the lock file and delete it.

My colleague was getting this message on a file that I could open perfectly fine. It turned out that I was on version 11.5.0.476 and he was on 11.1.0.245. Who knew? Anyways he updated and now it works like a charm.

DISCLAIMER: While you can edit AND publish these "hacked" cptx, if you save it, you will always get a new error prompt that Mr. Google has not heard of. Simply hit Retry, then let Captivate save out your editted cptx. The only compromise now is... to reopen your new cptx without the original corruption prompt, you must attend the same "info" file replacement business on it before it will open.

While I work with Adobe Support on this issue (see below), I'm posting here as well. Perhaps someone has experienced a similiar issue when updating their New Adobe Captivate to the recently-launched version (12.3) and can provide me with some guidance/insight.

Since updating to the 12.3 version, my project files are not opening properly. The software program buffers and then generates the following error message ("An unexpected error has occurred, which may cause Captivate to behave unexpectedly. You can restart Captivate with backed-up project."). I have tried but cannot figure out how to restart my project with the BAK files. I tested it out with a work colleague of my mine; they can open the same project file on their computer. They did not update their Captivate to the latest 12.3 version.

I am using Windows 11 Enterprise, version 21H2. The project files in question are located within a OneDrive work account. I know cloud computing can cause issues for Adobe Captivate; however, I didn't have a problem with them before this update. Also, the smaller project files that are opening properly are still located within that OneDrive cloud folder. I have since moved the larger problematic files to a non-cloud folder on my C:/drive. Still cannot open them.

I never had issues with OneDrive neither, until this version. I would move them outside of the location which is synchronised with OneDrive to check it out. It is very annoying but I don't use OneDrive anymore for Captivate projects in that new version.

You are correct @Lilybiri, the project does include embedded video. They are episodic. The video itself is around 405 MB. You will have to clarify for me. I'm still learning Adobe Captivate. Which folder is considered the 'output' folder? Are you referencing within the SCORM package (or what is published)? Or something else?

I've just realized, looking into this issue, that the project files keep getting bigger and bigger. Again, what I am building is episodic--a distance learning on-demand course for ESL students. So Episode 1, 2, 3, etc. etc. Each episode includes a preview, the embedded episode video itself (as I mentioned before, around 405MB in size), and two checkpoints to check for comprehension of the story in the video. An entire episode captivate file is between 30-35 slides in total.

Because the episodes are very formulaic, and what I originally built in Episode 1 can be used like a template for Episode 2, Episode 3, etc, my workflow for this project so far has been the following...

I have realized each episode captivate file increases in large increments. Episode 1: 1,700MB. Episode 2: 2,400MB. Episode 3: 3,600 MB. Episode 4: 4,600MB. Episode 5: 5,500 MB. What the heck is going on here?! Is this somehow related to cache files not being cleared when I am essentially copying all episode material into a new file? My project has 16 episodes in total. This seems completely unmanageable. I also don't want to build each episode from scratch--and all of the interactive components within each slide. Especially since they are so formulaic.

Some may label me as expeert, but all my expertise was thrown in the trash bin with the release of this version. I am unable to use it for any consultancy job, and I do not want to train for this version. In 6 months this version crashed more than all the crashes in two decades of the Classic version. What I appreciated in Captivate and made me stick with it, trying to help users, is all gone. This is a very bitter comment but try to imagine what it means when suddenly someone decides that all what you have learned during thousands of hours need to be forgotten.

I am still waiting for the promised experts on the new version to assist in this forum. I never have given an answer if I didn't have double-checked it. I am NOT an expert on the new Captivate version but continue to help the users of Captivate Classic, where the most recent version also added a lot of bugs (I hope not on purpose) and causes a lot of panic with my clients who were not warned that this recent version is incompatible with the stable 11.5.5.553 version and are now coping with many corrupted projects without the possibility to get back to the previous version. Once Captivate Classic is abandoned, I leave this forum.

Thanks for the detailed insight @Lilybiri. Yeah, using a completed project as a template does appear to be the cause of this unmanageable increase in file size. I'm glad I caught it now, before I reached the half-way mark with this course build.

I wish I could access this Project Library. It sounds like that could've been the solution to 'clear' those caches and all older data that was transferred from the Episode 1 project file to Episode 2 project file and on and on and on.

Crossing my fingers that a live chat with Adobe Support will give me some sort of manageable fix. So much time and effort on this course build would be wasted otherwise. Feeling your pain @Lilybiri, if only slightly.

If interested, I figured out the ballooning file size issue. Open the Captivate file, click on the File dropbox and select 'remove unused items.' Perhaps this serves the purpose of the 'Project Library' you mentioned earlier @Lilybiri? With, of course, less control and backend access. Second, click on the Edit dropbox and select the Preferences option. Then clear the cache.

I know about the Clear cache in the Preferences. Thanks for the tip abbout unused items, although I would hesitate to use it, as long as a project is not completely finished. Indeed, being a control freak, I'd prefer the former way using the Project Library to clean a project from unused items.

For anyone who might have been following this issue, I am going to share the results in this post thread. No explanation behind the phenomenon, but it was a 12.3 version issue. As soon as I was able to convince Adobe Support to share with me CP 12.2 (before I updated), all of these large 'problemmatic project files' became accessible once again. I can open them up, edit, and have been able to reduce down to a manageable size with the 'remove unused items' option under the File dropbox. Brought the files down to around 950 MB each.

Took two weeks to solve and a halted timeline in development, but hey, lessons learned I guess? Do not update while in the middle of a build. I never had to consider that before with other programs. Sigh. Oh well.

This ia partially due to hiding that functionality. In Captivate Classic when the Project Library had too much unused items a warning appeared automatically. BTW you had full control over all the warning messages and could override the defaults, which is now lost as well.

So, i open the Task Manager and look at the resources it is using. When opening the file the RAM goes from 10% to about 30%, page file looks good, a little note of concern is that core 3 and 7 are pegged at 100% during the whole process of opening the file. As soon as the file opens, if it opens, the cores go back to a nominal load. This happens on either on the network share or the local computer. The computer is only about 3 months old and exceeds the suggested requirements for the program.

And it only does this with Captivate. The user can have Photoshop, Power Point, 6 tabs of IE going, and running same published captivate file as he was just trying to open to edit and computer is smooth sailing no slowing no issue. but when you open a Captivate to edit it, it would be who of you to not touch the computer.

Captivate opens, but when I try to acces any of - New Project, New Simulation, Templates, Learn - it enters on Opening Mode like this screen and it doesn't work. I have restarted many times, removed all the files related to captivate, but still doesn't work. Any idea? Thanks!!!

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