iPhoto export error "Unable to create /users/..."

Hi, I am having the same error while exporting from iphoto also.

I tried all the stuff mentioned in the post but nothing helped so I started digging into it more to narrow down the issue.

Here is my finding.

Also wanted to mention that I even tried copying and pasting the pictures, which are giving me, trouble but hat doesn't work as well. I am having no problem exporting out video or any other specific type of file but the problem seems to be limited to only two of my events (in iphoto). When I compared the pictures in these folders to the one in other folders / events the one thing I noticed is that under the information side there is one thing missing from these pictures (which are not getting exported). On the top right corner of the picture there is some information which says "AWB" which are not on the pictures with the issue but exist on pictures which are getting exported ok. Not sure what this is but except for this there seems to be no difference, which I can find.

Information displayed for problem files

Information dispalyed for files which are exporting ok

AWB stands for Automatic White Balance. It may have been turned off in the camera or the files are damaged somehow and that info can't be read. Check the camera to see if AWB is set or not.

Select the thumbnail for the problem photos and use the File ➙ Reveal in Finder menu option. That will take you to the original file inside the iPhoto Library package via the Finder with the file preselected. COPY the file to the desktop and open it with Preview.

When viewing with Preview type Command+i to bring up the Info window. Click on the EXIF button and check to see if what the white balance is listed at.

Since the problem went away in the Guest account and deleting the iPhoto preference file didn't help it could be another preference file in your acocunt that's causing the problem. Here's a way to determine if that's the case:

Trouble Shooting Preferences

NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.

If you're running Mavericks, 10.9, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:

1 - close all applications.

2 - open your Home/Library folder and Option-drag (copy) the Preferences folder to the Desktop.

3 - select the contents of your Home/Library/Preferences folder and drag them into the Trash bin in the Dock. You will be asked to provide your Admin password.

4 - reboot. Be sure to know your account's username and password as you will be asked to log in with it.

5 - run the application again and determine if the problem(s) is fixed.

6 - If the problem is fixed:

A - open the working Home/Library/Preferences folder.

B - Open the Preferences folder on the Desktop, select all of the contents and drag them into the working Home/Library/Preferences folder.

C - When the Copy window pops up check the "Apply to All" check box and then click on the Don't Replace or Skip button.

D - reboot.

7 - If the problem is NOT fixed, drag the contents of the Preference folder on the Desktop into the Home/Library/Preference folder and replace the entire contents that were created by clicking on Replace.

8 - reboot and you're back as square one.

Note: keep the Preference folder on the desktop until you're sure all registration info for your apps are working. If not you can copy the required files from the desktop pref folder to the working one.

I created a new library,imported one mp4 and managed to export it.

Try the following on your main library:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.

2 - Run Option #4, Rebuild Database.

Given that you are threadjacking a long and convoluted thread and supply no details about your personal situation the most general answer to your question is to export your photos as kind = original (see the user tip on exporting for details on export options available)

LN

Any unusual/non-standard characters in the title that you're using? Have you tried a diffrerent title? Can you successfully export using the original file name? If so a workaround would be to use a renaming application to post rename them.

OT

OK. Try the following: make a temporary, backup copy (select the library and type Command+D) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:

Fix #1

Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.

Since only one option can be run at a time start with Option #1, followed by #3 and then #4 as needed.

If #1 fails continue with:

Fix #2

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

I had the same problem. I tried all the possble workarounds I could find on Apple forums but to no avail. Then I started narrowing down the issue and found the file causing this 'unable to create' error. It was a .PNG file. I opened iPhoto, clicked the search button at the buttom left side, and typed 'PNG' (without quotes), it gave me all the PNG files in my iPhoto Library. Those were all some random graphic files, and some screenshots I took from my iPhone. cmd+a to select all the displayed PNG files and deleted them. I closed and reopened iPhoto. Emptied my iPhoto trash and tried the export again, it worked like a charm. Not sure if it'd help you, but that is indeed what helped me. Might be a worth a try.

Good Luck!

Another thing that I found causing problems were movie files in format .mp4. You will want to check for all files types not just .png file types in your library, although .png is a good start. Hope this helps.

Actually I just found that it was easier (and much faster) to just copy and paste all the items in iPhoto that I wanted to move to a new location, in my case external hard drive. Then there is no dealing with file types they all get transfered.

Hope that helps.

Had the same problem. What worked for me was to drag the photos I wanted to export out of the iPhoto window and drop them into the target Finder window. Some files showed up as zero kb files. Those were probably the cause of the problem. I tried exporting a set of different photos and had no problem.

I've found that this is due to a defect in iPhoto on OSX Lion.

If you select a set of photos to export, and any of them happen to be videos, iPhoto terminates the export with the "Unable to create /users/username/..." error message. There's no indication what file is causing the problem, and rebuilding the iPhoto database doesn't fix it.

I've been doing the same kind of export (to put photos onto a sdcard for my photo frame) for years. To get it to work with the current version of iPhoto, I had to find each movie file and delete it.

Older versions of iPhoto would export the offending file in the original format. I'd be happy if Lion was to simply skip the bad files. Or, at least provided something useful to help identify what file is causing the problem.

If you select a set of photos to export, and any of them happen to be videos, iPhoto terminates the export with the "Unable to create /users/username/..." error message.

Even if you use the File ➙ Export ➙ Export File menu option with Kind = Original selected?

If you use the "Kind=Original" setting, then you can't select JPEG quality or file size, so you get everything at full size. That's great if you want huge files, but I want to be able to do a JPEG export while controlling export options so I can control the size of the export. (a 16Gb export is what I get using "Kind=Original", while it consumes around 1 Gb with medium quality - which is quite adequate for my photo frame.)

When I choose "Kind=JPEG", the current behavior of failing without a useful error message is really a bad idea.

Effectively, iPhoto is telling me that "one of the 4,700 files in your library isn't a .jpeg. Good luck with finding it. Oh, and the next time you try the export and I run into another video, I won't tell you about that file either. Deal." That's a serious regression from earlier versions of iPhoto.

To fix this required me to visually scan almost 5000 files looking for videos (the video length shows up in the lower left corner), then multiple exports until it finally succeded. I found the videos by looking at the last successful pictures, then figuring out what album they were in and using that to find and delete the videos. It took me probably 30 tries to find and delete them all.

The original files for those problem export file are missing. That's why you can't export. Since there's on a couple of themn you can try to recover them from your Time Machine backups. Copy the file names of those files and then delete them from the library.

Next download and use Find Any File to search for each file name on the external HD that houses your Time Machine backups. Each search can take up to 1 minute due to the complex nature of the TM backup structure. When the file is found just drag it from the search result window to your Desktop.

If you have many missing originals then your best bet would be to restore your entire library from a time just before you noticed this problem.