CadeRageous

Q: QuickTime won't save ("This operation could not be completed")

I've done several Full Screen Recordings that are very important, but none of them will save using the File > Save option OR the File > Export options.

 

Running QuickTime 10.3 on a Mac Book Pro (OS 10.9.5, 2.7GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM). This should work just fine. Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 6.49.11 PM.png

 

There's no help I've found on the internet or these help forums that are new enough to be relevant. Help!

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Feb 6, 2015 6:55 PM

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Q: QuickTime won't save ("This operation could not be completed")

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  • by Johnvb,

    Johnvb Johnvb Jun 4, 2015 8:05 AM in response to CadeRageous
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2015 8:05 AM in response to CadeRageous

    This is also an intermittent problem for me and I can't figure out why it sometimes does this.

     

    I have experimented around to see how I can save it anyway. Sometimes creating a duplicate will help other time choosing the split track option and then closing the file will work. I've even tried doing a hard turn off (pressing the power button until you force reboot) [Careful!!! May loose everything with this even crash tour HDD] but that should be the very last resort. This is the only post I could find about this issue.

     

    Side Note:

    I've upgraded from OS X 10.8 to 10.9 and eventually to 10.10. I got the feeling that somewhere along the way this corrupted something in my local user account. It could be that this is one of the symptoms of that. I just bought a 1TB SSD to upgrade my system and will do a clean install on that. Hopefully this will resolve my problem.

  • by Raymond Riley,

    Raymond Riley Raymond Riley Jun 4, 2015 8:51 AM in response to CadeRageous
    Level 1 (110 points)
    Jun 4, 2015 8:51 AM in response to CadeRageous

    What is the typical duration of these screen recordings?

    Is this only when recording the same app?

    Are you capturing audio sources as well?

  • by Johnvb,

    Johnvb Johnvb Jun 4, 2015 4:14 PM in response to Raymond Riley
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2015 4:14 PM in response to Raymond Riley

    They're usually longer recordkings. between 15m and 1h30. I'm usually capturing from safari, websites can include flash or video including audio  I use soundflower to capture system sounds.

  • by Raymond Riley,

    Raymond Riley Raymond Riley Jun 4, 2015 6:14 PM in response to Johnvb
    Level 1 (110 points)
    Jun 4, 2015 6:14 PM in response to Johnvb

    Johnvb wrote:

     

    They're usually longer recordkings. between 15m and 1h30. I'm usually capturing from safari, websites can include flash or video including audio  I use soundflower to capture system sounds.

    Troubleshooting this is going to be a challenge. You have a fair number of variables to consider. I know from personal experience that QuickTime X in Mavericks would hang quite often when my students were recording tutorials in Logic Pro and using Soundflower-2 channel to grab the audio output of Logic. But they were not having the issues at the point of saving or exporting but during the capture. In your case, you seem to be able to get through the recording stage but can't save or export. Then you have the added complexity of recording Flash embeds which may or may not be a contributing factor.

     

    Do you know if you have the latest version of Soundflower installed (1.6.6b)? Have you considered upgrading to Yosemite and QuickTime 10.4. I say this only because I've been conducting some testing with QuickTime X (10.4) screen recording and using Soundflower to capture sound output. So far I have not been able to produce an error on saving or exporting.

     

    Wish I could be more helpful.

  • by skifreak319,

    skifreak319 skifreak319 Sep 27, 2015 4:23 AM in response to CadeRageous
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2015 4:23 AM in response to CadeRageous

    I have been having the same problem periodically in Quicktime.  I have been able to take up to 5 hour long recordings and they save just fine, as long as you have the space for it.  But what I have noticed is that I only have this problem, "The Operation Could Not Be Completed" when saving, if I start a new screen recording before saving the first one.  It is the first one that I am then unable to save. 

     

    I have had some luck that if I trim the first recording I am sometimes able to save it.  But this time I did not have enough extra recording to trim much and so it still wouldn't save, which is when I found this thread.

     

    I resorted to making a new screen recording of my recording (silly I know, and it probably reduced my resolution and sound quality).  Since the recording that would not save still plays in Quicktime, I was able to make a recording of my recording and that saved just fine.  So I was at least able to keep the content, which for me is much more important than the quality.

     

    I realize this tread started a while ago, but I hope it may help anyone else struggling with the same issues.

  • by colleenwaters,

    colleenwaters colleenwaters Oct 1, 2015 10:18 PM in response to skifreak319
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Quicktime
    Oct 1, 2015 10:18 PM in response to skifreak319

    I trimmed the first 15 seconds off the video and then it saved just fine! 

  • by Brother Antonio,

    Brother Antonio Brother Antonio Oct 13, 2015 8:42 AM in response to CadeRageous
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 8:42 AM in response to CadeRageous

    I have the same issue. I opened a .mov file from my Nikon camera in quicktime 10.1, did a simple Trim, and tried to export. No matter what format or file name I gave to the export I received the same "This operation could not be completed" error. HELP!!! Is Quicktime REALLY this dysfunctional that it can not perform such a simple task? Am I missing something so obvious that I can not see it? Thanks!

  • by Brother Antonio,

    Brother Antonio Brother Antonio Oct 13, 2015 9:00 AM in response to Brother Antonio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 9:00 AM in response to Brother Antonio

    Quicktime Player 7 IS BETTER than Quicktime Player 10! Go figure... I will never understand the logic in the Apple World at how something so simple can go unnoticed for SO LONG!!! I saw threads about this back from 2013! and people receiving the "The operation could not be completed An unknown error occurred (-12738)" error. Sad Apple, very sad!

  • by nebula_rider,

    nebula_rider nebula_rider Nov 4, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Brother Antonio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Brother Antonio

    Similar situation here, only in my case it is adding splits that disables the Save option in the File menu. If I try to trick it by closing the window and setting a name and location for the file when prompted, Quicktime goes through the progress bar as if it was saving, and in the end tells me that "this operation could not be completed". This only happens when adding splits - no problem with trimming.

     

    Has anyone had any success figuring this out? I've tried removing plist files from the library in an attempt to "reset" Quicktime, but it didn't work. Perhaps somehow re-installing Quicktime X from scratch would help? Though this seems very difficult to do from what I could gather on forums.

     

    I'm running OSX 10.9.5 on a Macbook Pro 13-inch mid-2012, 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7. Quicktime version is 10.3.

  • by super-mysee,

    super-mysee super-mysee Nov 4, 2015 5:47 PM in response to CadeRageous
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 5:47 PM in response to CadeRageous

    *** SOLUTION FOUND ***

     

    On quicktime there is a stupid little share button like this:

     

    Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 5.45.26 PM.png

     

    i clicked it and selected mail (don't worry if you don't have it setup, i don't think it matters)

     

    Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 5.45.35 PM.png

     

    this took a while but it opened mail and opened a new mail window with the video as an attachment

     

    I simply right clicked on the image of the attachment, and saved attachment!!!!! (or i could have control-clicked)

     

    SAVED NO PROBLEM

     

    opened it back up in quicktime and everything is fine!!!

     

    YOUR WELCOME INTERNETS :-)

  • by nebula_rider,

    nebula_rider nebula_rider Nov 4, 2015 11:02 PM in response to super-mysee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 11:02 PM in response to super-mysee

    Oh dear. This works.

     

    Thank you, super-mysee! You should work for NASA or something - no such ingenius problem-solving had been seen since Apollo 13! ;-)

  • by christopherfromstanmore,

    christopherfromstanmore christopherfromstanmore Aug 1, 2016 3:11 AM in response to nebula_rider
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPad
    Aug 1, 2016 3:11 AM in response to nebula_rider

    Same problem trying to save short clips after trimming. Some only 20 secs long.

    Tried the above suggestion from super-mysee but don't even get the option to share via email (see screen shot below) When I click 'more' I just get a system preferences window with outlook mail and a greyed out check box (which is checked) and no option to add apple mail app.

    Screen Shot 2016-08-01 at 11.06.34.png

  • by christopherfromstanmore,

    christopherfromstanmore christopherfromstanmore Aug 1, 2016 3:12 AM in response to christopherfromstanmore
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPad
    Aug 1, 2016 3:12 AM in response to christopherfromstanmore

    Also tried 'add to photos' but nothing happened.