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error in user parameter list

i am trying to export my imovie that i just completed and i am getting a messaage that says unable to prepare project for publishing because of an error. the error in user parameter list. frustrated?

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 10:18 PM

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38 replies

Feb 21, 2012 11:27 AM in response to jonwlurey

Hi


May be this can help ?


Error -50


Error -50 paramErr Error in user parameter list

Can there be any external hard disks - if so How are it/they formatted ? Must be Mac OS Extended (hfs) if used for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - works for most but not for VIDEO.


What this means in Your situation is above me.

• free space on internal boot hard disk? How much ?


Pictures

• in what format ? .jpg, .bmp, .tif, else ?


Audio

• from where/what format ? iTunes, .avi, .mp3, .aiff, else ?


The "com.apple.iMovie.plist" file


Many users has not observed that there are TWO libraries.

• Library - at root level

• Library - in user/account folder - THIS IS THE ONE to look into


from Luke Burns


I fixed the problem.. but it was very, very strange. I had a very long section for credits and set the line spacing to 1.0.. for some reason this caused it. I removed it, and it worked fine. I put it back, and I couldn't preview or play the video.


I don't know why that could cause that big of a problem, but it did..


Yours Bengt W

Mar 24, 2012 9:28 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

what are you talking about ? none of this has helped. please be specific of what to do ... regarding this error.

my movie is 3 minutes, 16 gigs ram. imac 27 inch, osx lion, imovie 11. all data exists with in my imac's hard drive with > 500 gigs of space. 1 tb hard drive. i used an itunes song, and all pics are compatible all video came from iphone importing from aperture ...

Mar 27, 2012 10:41 PM in response to jonwlurey

UGH!!! Having the same problem. (Error in user parameter list) This macbook pro is only 6 months old and it's struggling with imovie. This is the second time trying to edit the movie, just to get past this error. PLEASE HELP!!!


I dont have any credits so I know it's not that. I tried exporting at a smaller size and that didn't work either. I didn't even add a song to it this time. Trying to do anything to get it to work.


Hardware Overview:


Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Mar 28, 2012 7:35 PM in response to ammovano

I encountered the same error message Sunday when attempting to export a 15 min movie. I was finally able to export it following the advice of another poster, but the exported file was quite large (7.5 GB for 1080 export and 5GB for 720 export.) Both were too large to burn directly to DVD so I had to air drop over to my son's computer as my Mac does not have iDVD. I will paste below the steps I followed in case this allows you to get your movie off your computer. Read all the way through so that you will see the other issues I encountered. I sense that this is really not the way to go but it did allow me to get the movie off my computer. This was the eighth or ninth movie that I have had to burn to disc in the past two years and things seem to be getting worse instead of better. Hope this helps. Noreen


I received the following error messages:


Unable to prepare project for publishing


The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (Error in user parameter list)


The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (Not enough room in heap zone / )

I had already shut down everything other than iMovie, the project's file name did not include any unusual characters, and my 1TB HD, 16RAM 27 inch iMac should have been able to handle exporting the movie project, but it couldn't (more than 350 GB free). I followed Brian's advice pasted here from earlier post:


"THIS FIXED THE PROBLEM FOR ME: Use iMovie to "Export Quicktime", set to Apple Intermediate Codec at 1080. I then open this movie in Quicktime Player, and Export. This export works, and is H.264 1080"


We then experienced other problems, but eventually resolved them. I needed to copy the movie onto DVDs to distribute at a swim team banquet, but new Macs are shipped w/o iDVD installed. (My attempt to install that a few weeks ago corrupted my iPhoto library so I didn't want to try that again.) Instead, I air dropped the movie project over to my son's older 27 inch iMac (running same OS and iMovie but also has iDVD). He could only hear the audio file but not see the video. (No idea why.) Then air dropped to other son's Mac Book Pro and transferred from MBP again to first son's older 27 inch iMac. The audio and video both transferred this time, and we were able to succesfully burn to discs.


My son wasn't able to export to QT from the air dropped file. We also were not able to transfer the file from my computer to his using an external drive as two different Mac-formatted drives gave us error messages. I don't know if the back-up drive's error message has anything to do with the Apple Codec selected. I have backed up other iMovie projects to these drives but they were not exported using Apple Codec. I do need to resolve that issue so that I can transfer the Movie project to the back-up drive and get it off my HD, so if anyone has any suggestions, would love to try them.

Apr 6, 2012 2:30 PM in response to jonwlurey

Solved!

I had same error come up when i tried to export my 11min 1080p video. No matter how many times i tried (3 times to be exact at 29min each!) it would always stop at about the five min left mark and pop the error message. so I tried something different. I made a duplicate of the project in imovie11 and tried to export that version, and to my suprise, it worked! I dont know why it worked, but am very pleased that it did! Hope this helps.

Apr 11, 2012 10:07 AM in response to jonwlurey

I have this exact same issue. I'm using iMovie 9.0.4 and I have uploaded a handful of videos to YouTube before, and never had this "user parameter error" before. The only thing I'm doing different with this current video I'm working on is that I've added audio (a song that I bought using iTunes no doubt). I've tried removing the "-" symbol in the title, still doesn't work. I've tried exporting the movie to a folder on my computer, still doesn't work. I've tried exporting using the "export to Quicktime" option, and no go there either. Finalizing or exporting will NOT work now, no matter what I do.


It would be nice to get a solid fix or an answer for this problem.

Apr 11, 2012 10:15 AM in response to DVusfrogman

I went around and around in circles with this involving three Macs inside my house. Someone else on this forum suggested turning the computer off and restarting. I didn't try it the day I was trying to get the movie off my computer but have since been able to export the same file w/o any trouble. SO.....just try turning it off and see if that helps.


I have used a couple of different versions of iMovie and never encountered the user parameter error before. I have made longer movies (35 minutes consisting of 2000+ still photos and a dozen trimmed songs). I had received the heap zone error message before and did again with this project. I still think this is crazy as I have 16GB RAM and a 1TB drive on a fairly new computer. The current movie was only 14 minutes but did include a number of transitions.


I feel your pain!

Apr 11, 2012 11:04 AM in response to Noreen KB

Noreen,

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, it did not work. I just got off the phone with Mac suuport and they had me try:

1) duplicate project, then try to export the duplicate = did NOT work

2) export = did NOT work

3) export using Quicktime = did NOT work

4) remove audio track = did NOT work

5) final suggestion by support rep was to start removing things one at a time. So far I've removed the end credits, transitions to the end credits, last 30-40 secs of video (including transitions, effects, etc.) and nothing has worked so far.


Pretty soon, I'll be down to the just the intro, and it probably still won't work. Imagine telling someone that they have to recreate something they just finished, with all the little tweaks here and there... Depressing.


Maybe switching to Final Cut Pro is going to be the answer... hmmm....

Apr 11, 2012 11:20 AM in response to DVusfrogman

Did you try this? It was what worked for me. But, as I said, I can mysteriously export the w/o any issue. (Perhaps the settings I changed when following the instructions below are now the default for this project?)


Use iMovie to "Export Quicktime", set to Apple Intermediate Codec at 1080. I then open this movie in Quicktime Player, and Export. This export works, and is H.264 1080"


You should not have to disable the project you produced; that is crazy!

Apr 11, 2012 11:46 AM in response to Noreen KB

Nope! That did not do the trick for me. I selected "export to Quicktime" then under the "Export" pull down, I have "Movie to QuickTime Movie". I clicked on the "Options" button and it pulls up a new window with video and sound settings. I have "Compression: Apple Intermediate" as you suggested. I have tried size settigns at both "HD 1440 x 1080 16:9" and "1920 x 1080 HD" and neither worked.


What other settings do you have? Can you include a screenshot or screenshots?


Thanks!

Apr 11, 2012 1:14 PM in response to DVusfrogman

Here is the discussion where I found the advice that worked for me: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2623925?start=30&tstart=0


I don't think this screen shot will help you any as it doesn't seem to tell you anything. Sorry. Perhaps the other discussion thread will be of some use. I agree that this is unbelievably frustrating. This is the first movie where I used a number of transitions, but other than that change, I didn't do anything that I had not done before. I am guessing it is some glitch created by a program update. Sorry.


User uploaded file

error in user parameter list

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