Exporting error related to QuickTime

Make sure that your project disk has write permission

Click on the file. Go to File ~ get info. At the bottom you can change the permission from Read to Read-Write (it will ask for your password).

Then try again.

Already tried that as well as moving the video to a
newly created project file.

Did you try re-setting permissions of the folders and files INSIDE the iMovie project? They may not be allowing you to access file data required to export the movie to QuickTime.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2811543&#2811543

Karl

I tried moving my movie to a new iMovie project file, tried repairing permissions, tried reinstalling QuickTime, tried restarting, but I can't get this to work.

Sorry, but I'm a little confused at what exactly you're trying to do. You've referred to both a "movie" and to a "imovie project file", in different contexts.

The error occurs when you try to export the iMovie project Timeline to a new QuickTime movie, right? If so, then normally the error message like that would be referring to the folder/disk you are exporting TO. Either the disk is full or you don't have permission to save the exported movie there.

It's possible too, I suppose, that the error message is a bit confused, and the permissions problem is with the iMovie project package (which is why I suggested that.)

Yet the wording "The movie could not be sent to QuickTime, because of an unknown error." seems to suggest the problem is in SENDING the movie to QuickTime, not saving the exported movie to disk. In other words, it may be having trouble GETTING and SENDING the project data to QuickTime.

Maybe it's an authorization problem with the iMovie project music? Does the iMovie project contain iTunes music?

If so, you might try turning off the music track checkboxes, saving the project, then trying to export again. If it exports properly, that's the problem.

If you have QuickTime Pro, you might also try using QuickTime Player to export the "Timeline Movie.mov" that's inside the Cache folder of the project. QT might try to do it differently than iMovie, and not experience a permissions problem, if that's what this is.

If the project permissions look okay, then I'd rule some sort of disk problem — the disk that should receive the export. Check the disk format to be sure it is Mac OS Extended. And, of course, that there's enough free disk space.

Anything else you can say about the history of the project — I notice you describe two different Macs — would be helpful. Has the project been moved from one disk to another? Has it at any time resided on an external drive that was not formatted Mac OS Extended?

Karl

QuickTime was able to export is in a really low
quality but default settings or even medium streaming
or medium broadband settings result in it attempting
to export the movie and about 1/3 through it says
failed and in the same window it says, "-50",
suggesting the same error is occuring that iMovie is
having.

That might be an important clue. It sounds like there may be a video clip or audio file 1/3 into the project that is causing a problem.

You may be able to identify the clip by exporting (selected) portions of the Timeline to QuickTime. Use the "Share selected clips only" checkbox in the export dialog.

Start by exporting the first quarter or so. If that exports successfully, that part's good. Then the next quarter, etcetera. When the export fails your flawed clip is in that quarter. Keep dividing the selected clips in half until you've found it.

Yet if a low-quality export succeeded, it was probably a small movie. For which there may have been enough disk space.

You may not have the free space on the disk you need. If your project is large, the export may in fact be running out of disk space. So the first thing I'd try is to free up more disk space.

We are encouraged to keep 10-15% of the disk free, just for normal operations. Less than that, and basic tasks will start failing. (Remember, iMovie, QuickTime and Mac OS X may need a lot more disk space than we assume for basic operations.)

Using an external FireWire drives to edit our projects can help deliver the disk space we need. If you get one, be sure to use Disk Utility to reformat the drive with the Mac OS Extended disk format, the format iMovie requires. Many drives ship with other disk formats.

Karl

Tip: note that some online retailers — Other World Computing is one — include Retrospect Express on some of the external drives they sell. Retrospect lets you do automatic scheduled backups of your Mac. You can configure Retrospect to back up your Mac to an external drive every night, for example. Unlike many other backup applications, Retrospect does incremental backups. (Which means you can retrieve a backup of a file as it was two weeks ago.)

the error occurs on every item I try.

Rats!

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas. I still have to suspect there's a permissions problem, something is not okay with the iMovie project. Either the project package permission is wrong, or something is wrong inside the package.

When you re-set permissions earlier, did you Quit iMovie, remove the ".iMovieProject" suffix from the iMovie package name, then select that folder, then set permissions, then "Apply (new permissions) to enclosed items"?

As described here...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2811543&#2811543

If there's a permissions problem, that should have fixed it.

Sorry to keep beating on that drum, but everything points to it. Moving the project between computers is exactly the kind of thing that might have caused it, so it's still at the top of my list.

So I'd try that "fix" again.

Karl

Yeah, that's what I did last time and I just tried it again right now, didn't fix it. I guess I can try reinstalling iMovie.

It's something to try, but I don't think it will help.

You might try dragging a copy of the iMovie project to your Public folder. (Option-drag to copy it.) Then create a new user account, log in as that user, open the project, and try exporting as that user.

If that works, that suggests a software conflict that's affecting iMovie & QuickTime when YOU are the user.

BTW, if iMovie can export OTHER projects successfully — especially a new project that you create today — that would suggest iMovie itself is okay. But if other projects cannot export either that would suggest a software conflict or, as you suspect, an iMovie flaw.

Karl

Guys,

I'm experiencing much the same problem with iMovie. I am able to capture and export my movie in quicktime without problem UNLESS I select iPod as the export type. When I do this I get the error about not being able to send to iTunes.

I think this error is related to the fact that I moved my movies directory. In my home directory (located on the system disk) was the movie directory. I created a movie directory on an external 1394 disk and created a soft link using ln -s & terminal to the movie directory on the 1394 disk. Permissions are fine, I used /Developer/Tools/GetFileInfo to look at the file attributes and they look fine (Avbstclinmedz) and as I stated above, other QT exports works fine.

Any thought how to configure iTunes or iMovie so this problem doesn't occur?

Thanks,
Steve