Flash CS6, QuickTime: The export operation failed because it ran out of memory.

[231212]

Exporting a QuickTime movie file seems to be an old issue with previous versions too. In CS6 I always get the error message: "The export operation failed because it ran out of memory." I've got tons of memory and have allocated increasing amounts to the cache with no success.

My small and fairly simple file was created with Flash CS5 which seemed to work fine at the time of creation. I've tried everything recommended online but with no luck so far. BTW, I reinstalled CS5 and tried that too but it just hangs now, and there's no error message.

Does anyone have a solution?

(OS X 10.7.4)

[laptopleon]

Under "QuickTime Export Settings" there is a radio button selection for "Store temp data:". Change it from "In memory (recommended for higher frame rates)" to "On disk (recommended for longer movies). Try that.

This solved it for me, thanks. It's not so fast, especially the final, compressing part, and takes about two or three times the real time of the video, I estimate, but it's a 1280x720 so I quess that weighs in too. I even used a some actionscript, like a counter, works fine so far.

BTW, 231212, do you hear your hard disk crunching away / can you see activity spikes on this in the OS X Activity Monitor when you have this option on, or is it doing nothing?

[231212]

Early on I tried changing those QuickTime export settings and it still didn't work (in CS6). To answer your questions, laptopleon, no, I didn't hear the hard disk making any sounds (it's in a Mac Pro tower, always quiet anyway). The OS X Activity Monitor shows a large spike at the beginning, then smaller ones and dwindling use of resources until it gives up.

[laptopleon]

You're not the only one with a Mac Pro, hot shot      I am under the impression that the hard disks in the large, metal case can be heard better then the HD in most iMac models.

On topic: If you think it might be something with your particular installation, I can take give it a try over here if you like.

[231212]

Yes, iMacs seem to be very quiet too. There are four hard disks in the tower but it's silent except when a DVD or CD gets popped in. Then the fans come on for a while. Actually, I guess some of them at least are always on.

Thanks, very kind of you to offer but I finished that project a while back and must keep my nose to the grindstone with other work so I can get out in the sun once in a while. Reinstalling Flash CS5 did the trick so that will have to be good enough for now.

[lauracostelloe]

I'm having the same problem in CS5.5.

I have an animation with no actionscript, a computer with plenty of free memory. I restarted Flash to clear any performance memory.

I don't have Adobe Premier so I can't use a different program, and Quicktime won't allow me to open a SWF file.

It's 30seconds long and I just want to export a .mov file!

I have tried changing all the settings.. I just don't understand why this function isn't working!

Did anyone find any other solutions to this?

[laptopleon]

Like I said.. open the .swf with Premiere Pro and it will render it, no matter how big it is.

[Riccardo Sallusti]

I did a very deep test about this issue (out of memory while exporting to mov) and partially understood its behaviour:

In all this tests I've always used the "After time elapsed:" option.

- issue is not happening in CS5, both "in memory" and "on disk" setting works.

- issue is happening in CS6 if original fla document size is HD (1920x1080😞 even creating an empty movie of that size, and then trying to export the mov causes the issue!

if I reduce the size to 1280x720, for example, the export works and the mov is created correctly. In every case I had to set the "on disk" option.

The "on memory" does not work.

OSX 10.6.8

[laptopleon]

@Riccardo I only tried this in CS6. Others have claimed it works fine in CS5. That's interesting to know, but hardly a solution IMHO.

I don't think it's just the resolution, because very short HD animations did export fine here, if I recall correctly. If a certain amount of memory is exeeded, it runs out of memory. Even if you have much more hardwired memory available.

What seems to happen is this: Flash renders the movie frame by frame and just puts every pixel in the RAM memory. Because it doesn't compress anything at this level, the amount of raw pixel-data is huge. It doesn't matter what the size of a frame is, but of course with frames of 1920x1080, you will hit the problematic limit much sooner than with 1280x820. Then it's the x limit and stops the operation.

[Riccardo Sallusti]

I totally agree with you: the problem is related to bad memory usage/management.

But I've tried again one minute ago to export to mov an empty movie of 60 empty frames sized 1920x1080 and it throwed that error again...

[kalaharibob]

If I may join this discussion...  I loaded up CS6 two days ago and have just completed my first 60 second animation using it.  Like everybody else here, it all went fine until I tried to export it to QuickTime – something that has never been problematic before. 

I ended up exporting it as a swf and opening that in CS4.  Then I could export it, but the resulting QuickTime movie was over 500 MB in size!  Okay, so then I opened it in QuickTime Pro and exported it from there.  This brought the file size down to a far more reasonable 35 MB, but now the soundtrack has gone!  So now I am having to replace the sound in Final Cut Pro. 

This is a real palaver – and not conducive to heaping praise on CS6 when questioned.  I note that there is talk of Adobe rectifying this "bug", but it would be really good to hear from somebody at Adobe with:

a) An apology

b) An estimated time of delivery

c) A best practice work round

But I'm guessing that anybody that works at Adobe will be the last person to read this...

[SteveMerrittGrp]

I can't find a solution for this. Having the same problem, tried everything in this thread.

[lingoes]

Out of memory is the old issue, I just add my MBP

Virtual memory and the notice reduce

[kalaharibob]

Hi Lingoes

Please can you expand upon this answer.  MBP = ?   And do you mean that the notice disappears, or just reduces? 

Thanks for your help.

[SteveMerrittGrp]

I re-installed Flash CS5.5 and was able to export to an .mov fine. No idea why it works in one and not the other. (I wasn't using any actionscript either)

[mari8899]

I had the same issue with CS6, and still months away Adobe hasn't fixed this ?? What the F***? what the heck are those folks doing at Adobe ?

I need this fixed IMMEDIATELY, no more time to waste, when will this be fixed ADOBE ?????????????

[kalaharibob]

Hi Steve – yes, my old version of CS4 does the job too.  But it's a disgrace that Adobe has allowed this situation to go unresolved for so long.  It's like installing InDesign CS6 and finding it won't write to pdf. 

And I find it equally incredible that nobody at Adobe bothers reading this forum.  It's as if it exists only as a channel for pushing all the complainers, so that they can carry on ignoring them in peace.  Is it any wonder Steve Jobs never had any time for them? 

[mari8899]

Hallelujah, Amen to that. wouldn't write it better myself.

[lingoes]

Dear MBP is Apple Macbook Pro, the probelm just reduce not disppears.

[platypusman]

When I got this error I changed it from "In memory (recommended for higher frame rates)" to "On disk (recommended for longer movies)." Tried again, and the export failed because I ran out of disk space. I have 41GB available on my hard drive. The animation is 33 seconds long. Crazy...

[platypusman]

Update: actually even when I set it to "Store temp data : on disk" I'm still getting the "ran out of memory" error. (I have 8GB.)

[AE-FTW]

This bug lives on.

I cannot export useful video of any kind from Flash CS6 on Windows machine.

Memory errors or just "failed for unknown reason" errors occur for Quicktime.

AVIs etc are all mush.

So frustrating.

[231212]

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[Avalicious]

I read all the threads and tried them out. In the end I reduced the size of all my work and secondly I went to the preferences of Adobe Flash CS6 and adjusted the Public Caches. I expanded all the limits. Then I was finally able to export a quick time movie. The size of the file was 25 mb.

[bobo9999]

I had this happeing on anything more than a super short movie, and was driving me crazy. I got the latest updates to Flash CS6 and still was giving me the error, not letting me export as a mov. I then downloaded the trial for Flash CC and it is AWESOME. It exports via Media Encoder, making a mov automatically and then you can choose if you want h264 or flv or whatever. I then delete the mov files after the process is done (cuz they're big and I don't need once I have my video). On top of this all working great, I used to have an issue in CS4 where if I had a background image change, or camera movement where my background was moving, it would cause hiccups and wonky transitions in the exported mov file - like a character that was moving would freeze for 1/2 a second just before the background change, etc. It was annoying. All that is gone in CC. It's all beautiful, fast, smooth. Same exact computer with same memory/hd. So, bottom line, if you are doing stuff as a hobby, maybe try to wait for CS6 fixes, but if you're doing work for pay, or you can pay for CC, I would go for it. I'm extremely happy with it and plan to get it when the 30 day trial is up. And I do not work for Adobe, btw.

[SujaiS]

The Export Video feature in Flash Pro CC has most of these issues fixed and also does not result in any loss of frames. You can also export to HD videos using Flash Pro CC.

-Sujai