P: Unknown error when saving GIF

[gabbo1]

Hi I am trying to save my layers as a GIF in Photoshop. The layers are JPEG files I've drawn myself so aren't from an existing video.

I am using "Export save for web" but everytime I try to save the file an error message pops up. It reads "Could not complete this operation. An unknown erro has occured."

I have tried reducing the pixel size so the image is now 566x800px, but that hasn't made a difference. The error message still appears. 

Can anyone please help?

{updated title - PS-72959}

[mchbr]

Having this issue right now with an updated photoshop. anyone, please?

[Nancy OShea]

IMO, nobody should use Legacy Save for Web anymore.  It's too outdated.

If you want animated GIFs, try one of these online services instead.

• https://ezgif.com/maker
• https://gifmaker.me/
• https://giphy.com/create/gifmaker

[WallyWah]

Nancy, no one (at least no professional) should use your links because they don't pass the standards of how I export professional high-fidelity GIF for what I need them for. I will continue to use "Legacy Save for Web" because it passes all tests.

Can GIF be sent via SMS with no phantom-framing?

Can GIF be played in real-time? (Match fps)

Can GIF support alpha channel from uncompressed QuickTime file?
Can GIF play at 1080 or higher with minimal loss in color?

If you fail any of these, then your links are for mediocre folks. (not trying to be mean)

[Nancy OShea]

Sorry but Photoshop GIF is at best acceptable, not great.  With very, very few exceptions, GIF quality sucks.  That's just the nature of the GIF beast that was a CompServe brainchild from 1987 when everyone on the Internet had crappy computers & even crappier 256 color monitors. 🙂

That said, if you want GIF from HD video, look at Kapwing.  It's essentially an online video tool but you can also output your video to GIF.  Their FREE plan has a file upload limit of 250 MB.  But for $17/month you can upload 2 GB files.

https://www.kapwing.com/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-gifs-for-free/

https://www.kapwing.com/gif-maker

https://www.kapwing.com/pricing

[Guest]

I am getting same issue and I have everything updated. 
Is this ever going to be fixed? 

[Nancy OShea]

Is what going to be fixed -- please be a lot more specific:

• Which version # of Photoshop?  Help > About Photoshop.
• Which operating system?
• How many frames does your animated GIF contain?
• What is the height & width in pixels?
• What is the filesize?

[defaultaxtc0ivyligg]

I can throw my hat in the ring, posted earlier but the problem is still there. All my photoshop up to date, had this problem for months

Photoshop version - 22.0.0

My operating system - Big Sur 11.4

Frames - 96 Frames

Height and width - 2000x2000 px

Filesize - 11.4MB

When do you think you guys are going to fix this?

[Nancy OShea]

Frames - 96 Frames

Height and width - 2000x2000 px

Filesize - 11.4MB

===========

@defaultaxtc0ivyligg 

I don't think Photoshop is your problem as much as the file size which is enormous for GIF output.  Try reducing number of frames and canvas size to bring down file size.  Most frames are probably duplicates that you can safely discard.

[defaultaxtc0ivyligg]

Looking at the file on my finder it actually lists its size as 739k, that 11.4MB I got when I had the file open in photoshop in the bottom left corner where it says "Doc:11.4/8.37M", so not actually sure which file size is actually the correct one. 

Thanks for the tip with regards to the frames, the only issue with reducing the size of the canvas is, if thats the size a client needs thats the size it needs to be!

I'm sure you used to be able to export gifs in after effects or media encoder, which I assume would be better suited to this than using photoshop in the first place, but they don't seem to have this option anymore. 

Is there no otherwise to get around this error without reducing the size of the canvas or number of frames? Just concerned that clients will need gifs at a certain size and I'll be stuck with what to do. 

[Nancy OShea]

I'm sure you used to be able to export gifs in after effects or media encoder...

=========

@defaultaxtc0ivyligg 

Sorry I don't remember that.  Back in the old, old days, Photoshop used an internal plugin called ImageReady to create animations.  I don't recall if ImageReady was ever inside After Effects or Media Encoder.

At any rate, 2000 x 2000 GIF is a bit over the top for use on the web.  That's bigger than most web devices can display.  And unlike JPG, GIF is has an inferior compression algorithm.  So this is a case where bigger (over 500px wide) is not better.  😉  

3rd party GIF Generators:

============

• https://www.kapwing.com/gif-maker
• https://support.giphy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019914771-GIF-Creation-Best-Practices
• https://gifmaker.me/
• https://ezgif.com/maker
• https://www.canva.com/create/gif-maker/

Optionally, you can create responsive animations in HTML5 Canvas with Animate CC.  Or you can export 1920 x 1080 (16:9) video from After Effects.

[allison.cruwys]

Hey friends, I just tried replacing the name with a simple title "new gif" ... instead of the long title it had naturally. 

Tried it 10+ times prior then this worked. Could have been a coincidence but worth a shot. This was based on another comment in this thread. 

[reditvideo5EEC]

Thank you so much Mohit for sharing:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-and-macos-catalina.html#AdobeSaveforWebError/image

This article helped me solve my problem within few minutes. 

[Cookiesaregood]

I didn't find a straight up solution to the problem through the program, but I did find a solution.
What I did is export the file through Photoshop as a MP4 file, and then use an external site to convert the MP4 file into a gif. It seems the size of the file determines if it will export as a gif or not through photoshop. 
Abobe should get on this and fix it so we dont have to use external sites if they want to keep their customers, this is ridiculous. 

[HELALmhu]

After trying hard, I had been able to save my gif file by reducing the gif image resolutions. It was 2700x2400 in resolution before and after I turned it into 1920x1400 the file saved perfectly without any trouble.

Regards,

M.Helal

[pablop10707400]

Actually, I pretty much think you were trying to be mean with all this explanation that you did. Nancy's method was way better than using Legace Save for Web and saved my time.

If you appreciate your time, I encourage everyone who's having this annoying trouble to try the recommendation made by Nancy. I'm a professional designer working on my current company new's web page and those sites saved our time 🙂

[defaultjvsc1af37qjy]

Ive had this same problem before and couldnt figure out how i fixed it. While in the save for legacy browser i reduced the width and height from 100% to 40% and it saved as it should, it was fairly lo quality anyway so i cant see the difference.

Its kinda stupid because should require barely any ram but it worked for me.

[Sean5C51]

Same issue here even after updating MacOS to 11.5.2 Big Sur this morning and using PS 22.5 (Both latest versions).  In other words, even PS versions beyond what the versions when this stupid issue started appearing which probably means Adobe didn't even bother fixing this major issue before updating the overall software.  

My iMac is more than compatible to use the latest version of PS:
iMac: 2017 5K iMac

Processor: 4.2 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Graphics: Radeon Pro 580 8 GB

If I'm mistaken, please let me know that this issue has been fixed for PS 22.5. 

[J453]

Does this happen for every file you try to save out of Save for Web? Or just animated GIFs? Do you have a PSD file you can consistently reproduce the problem with? If so, could you please share the file so we can try it? (URL/link to CC files or Dropbox)

[MasonD]

I'm trying to make a .gif from video frames.  I used the import video frames function to load the frames into the PS interface, then the save for web (legacy) export option.  I get this error whenever I attempt to either preview or save.  I've tried the oldest & newest versions of PS available to me through AdobeCC.  I'm using the 128 Dithering preset, and the source clocks in at 478 frames.  The source file name, source folder, export file name, and destination folder are all alphanumerically titled.  I have clear preferences on exit checked, PS is set to utilize my 1080ti, and am running a i7 9700k with 16gb of ram at 3200mhz, so I don't think it is a hardware issue.

Can anyone at all please help me in completing this task?

[MasonD]

Additionally, I've tried increasing the amount of ram available to PS, lowering the output aspect ratio from 1920x to 1280x, moving the destination folder to a different drive (both are NVMe), changing dithering type, interlaced and progressive framing, all to no avail.

[MasonD]

[J453]

This error can be caused by low memory. Engineering is working on a fix to provide a better error if Photoshop is out of memory.

[Kiddy Bai]

I have updated my photoshop to the latest version, and use photoshop in Imac, but the gif exporting still has an unknown error, could anyone help?

[Jo Menhinick]

I have been creating animated gifs for The Royal Life Saving Society over the last couple of months for their social media. They are 1080 x1080px. My problem is that Photoshop seems very unstable to make these. 9 times out of 10 it won't actually complete the export to gif, a red box comes up saying 'can not complete your request, error unknown'. It's extremely frustrating as it's a simple tool that should work. I have gone to the extent of unistalling all old versions of Photoshop (not sure why Adobe have about three versions anyway) and reinstalling the latest version. Restart mac a few times. Quitted out of all other programs, all the usual old things you do which can sometimes free up ram, clean up virtual memory etc. But these are tiny files, only around 3mb when saved, and maybe 20mb when open in layers.

I thought about learning how to use Adobe Animate instead but when I took a look at this it did not seem compatible with Photoshop, messing up text when copying across etc, a long lerning curve, so I just need photoshop to do its job please! What can I or adobe do to fix this isssue please?

Jo

[sotoariasdaniel]

Hi there. I was going through same issue minutes ago and after reading all your answers I try new things up.

This worked for me:

I exported in 1080 x 1920

Selective mode, 64 colors, no dither, wen snap 50%, no transparency, an de weight was 56.6 kb.

Now, I have the latest version today, 16 gb of ram, and I closed all my other programs so photoshop can use most memory available, and also went to preferences panel and set the memory that PS could use to 100%. 

That is how i gotmy weight low hight res GIF.

Thanks. hope it works for you.