X

Issue: iPhoto: Invalid media found in movie when exporting to slide show

<p><b>Description:</b> When exporting slide shows from iPhoto to other applications using the Share menu, some people are getting an error that claims the exported movie contains invalid data. </p><p> Sammytheblade-- <blockquote>"I have been trying al

CNET staff
2 min read

Description: When exporting slide shows from iPhoto to other applications using the Share menu, some people are getting an error that claims the exported movie contains invalid data.

Sammytheblade--

"I have been trying all day to send a photo album to ITunes to put on my IPod. Every time I try, I eventually get the message that Invalid Media Data was found in the movie. What does this mean and how do I fix this?"

This error happens when people try to share files with iDVD for burning, as well as when exporting to iTunes, and appears to be a problem with how iPhoto handles large files. This could be either from the resulting movie being large due to high-quality exports used, or from the quantity of included pictures being large. When users have split up their slide shows, they have been able to bypass this error.

Unfortunately, this appears to be either a bug in how the iLife applications handle slide shows, or perhaps a bug in QuickTime, which is used to encode the slide show. Regardless, there are a couple of workarounds that should work for affected users.

Workarounds:
1. Export slide show as a movie file. Some users have had success by first exporting the slide show as a movie file and then manually importing it to iDVD or iTunes, as opposed to sending it directly to those programs using the "Share" menu. To do this, use the Export button at the bottom of the main iPhoto window.

2. Split slide show into smaller parts. If users are OK with the slide show being in two parts for DVDs and other presentations, cutting it in half in iPhoto before sharing it to iDVD or iTunes may help. Selecting approximately half of the pictures in one slide show and clicking the plus button will create a new slide show with those items, which can then be deleted from the current slide show. If the resulting slide shows are small enough, they can be sent to other applications without errors.

Resources

  • More from Late-Breakers