Publishing a projector no longer works

[badporcupine]

I've been developing a fairly simple presentation in CS4, AS3, OSX, which runs as a standalone projector.

Everything was working for a while, but now for no apparent reason, any file I publish as a projector starts the Flash Player app, but the projector does not appear or play.

Older versions that I had already published will play correctly, but if I re-publish them they do not work any more.

I have deleted my preferences, uninstalled and reinstalled Flash, but still have the same problem.

Any ideas are desperately needed and appreciated!

[Northcode]

It still creates an EXE but your content isn't in it? It could be a corrupt FLA. I'd try Save and Compact first. If that doesn't work then try copying everything to a new FLA while you can still edit it.

[badporcupine]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I'm working on a Mac, so it's creating an OS X app instead of an .exe... but anyway, I've tried creating brand new Flash files (with just some text content for testing) and when published as a projector, same deal. It creates a file, file is around 12MB, but when double-clicked, the Flash Player app starts as usual, but nothing happens--nothing appears.

I know it's not the Flash Player, because old files I've published work fine. But anything I publish now doesn't work... and I've also tried running the published files on another computer, and they don't work there either. It definitely seems to be something going wrong when publishing.

[Northcode]

If you publish just the SWF does that work? Can you open the SWF in the standalone player after publishing it?

[badporcupine]

Yes, the SWF works fine, in a browser or when opened in Flash Player...

[Northcode]

When you open the SWF (just by double clicking on it) there should be an option under the File menu to "Create Projector". Can you try that? If the SWF plays then that should generate a working projector.

[badporcupine]

Hmm, that option is grayed-out when I open my SWF... not sure this would carry over my navigation controls, even if it did work. This is a bummer!

[Northcode]

If you want to send me one of the FLA files you're having problems with I'll publish it here and see if it's the FLA or something on your system. If it works I'll send you back the app so you can try it there.

[Dazh]

I am having the same problem. I am using OSX snowleopard, Flash CS3. It was working fine, then suddenly stopped working. When publishing to Mac projector, it opens the flash player then nothing happens. I tried clicking on the file it generated and again it opens flash player and nothing happens. I tried restarting and same problem.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[badporcupine]

I don't know why this happens, and don't know a fix, but here's a workaround that someone sent me:

1. publish your projector as usual, but also publish with a SWF file
2. re-name the SWF file "movie.swf"
3. control-click (right-click) the projector and choose "show package contents"
4. move the "movie.swf" file into the "Resources" folder inside the package

Now your projector should work. But, you'll have to do this same procedure every time you re-publish your files. Pain in the butt.

[Dazh]

Great. That worked. Thanks so much for your help.