Have you ever tried to download a presentation on the Showcase Workshop app and found it just doesn’t want to play ball? Are you getting all too familiar with that red triangle icon, or an error message talking about "missing files" or "invalid pointers"?
In our latest instalment of Questions You Were Afraid to Ask, we tackle one of the common issues people report when using Showcase Workshop – and the surprisingly simple workarounds you can try if you run into this same issue.
What causes a download to fail?
This is a common issue and can happen for a variety of reasons:
- A patchy internet connection
- Part of the device's system crashed or restarted during the download
- The download was taking a while and the device went to sleep while downloading. Zzz.
A presentation is made up of multiple files, and Showcase Workshop needs to download each file individually before it can put them together.
If your internet or device cuts out while downloading any of these files — even for a moment — you might find your presentation doesn't look quite right. This can present itself in a few ways:
- A red 'warning' triangle may appear under the presentation thumbnail
- An error message may appear on your screen
- You may see a black screen when you open your presentation
Troubleshooting a failed download
Here are some things you can try to kickstart the download process:
Check your internet connection
We recommend downloading presentations and files over a solid connection — particularly if you're downloading a large presentation with lots of files. Remember, if your connection drops out even for a moment, this could cause your download to fail.
Update your app
An outdated app can cause Showcase Workshop to behave in janky ways, as it won’t have the latest bug fixes or security patches. It's one of the first things we check when someone emails the Help Desk about an issue. We’ve got a whole blog about how to update your app so do check it out if you haven’t updated your app in a while (or ever)!
Try turning it off and on again
Close the app and reopen it again.
If that doesn’t work, try the age-old trick of turning your device off and back on again. If you’re a fan of The IT Crowd, you’ll know that this is the number one trick for troubleshooting anything IT-related.
Log out of the app altogether
This is along the same lines as “try turning it off and on again”. Sometimes rebooting your session is enough to remind the app what to do.
To log out of your app, tap the Settings wheel icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a pop-up box like the one below – simply select the ‘Main’ tab and tap ‘Log out’.
You can then log in again using your usual email and password.
Delete the presentation from your device
If you’re trying to update a presentation that you’ve downloaded in the past, you could try deleting the presentation and starting again.
To do this, tap the small grey circle with a line in it directly below the presentation.
You'll get a pop-up asking if you'd like to remove this presentation, so don't worry about accidentally deleting one!
Once you delete the presentation, the grey icon will change to a green cloud. This means that you can re-download it by clicking the cloud icon!
Uninstall the Showcase Workshop app
Uninstalling the Showcase Workshop app is a great way to clear your cache and start over. Don’t worry – it won’t delete your account or any of the content; rather, it will remove the presentations from your device so you can download them again.
To uninstall the app, locate the Showcase Workshop icon (the fetching blue flower) in your apps list and hold down on it. The next step will depend what kind of device you’re using:
- If you’re using an Apple device, you’ll see a small ‘x’ in the corner that you can tap to uninstall the app.
- For Android, you’ll need to drag the icon to the ‘Uninstall’ area that appears when you hold the icon down.
- And for Windows, tap ‘Uninstall’.
Once you’ve uninstalled the app, you can download it again from your app store.
If all else fails, get in touch with our friendly Help Desk team and we’ll take a look for you!
Header image by krakenimages on Unsplash