Can't Play,Move, or Export Videos in iPhoto

My iPhoto library became unwieldy and I moved it to an external hard drive. Since doing that, when running iPhoto I can see my photos as well as my videos. I can move, copy, and export my photos. However, videos are a different matter. Videos don't do anything when clicked. They don't play and they don't prompt Quicktime to open. I tried to export them using "original" in the "kind" designation and receive an "unable to create..." message each time. The videos are listed in the information section of iPhoto as Quicktime videos and show the running time. I can't click and drag the video to another location.

I am running OS 10.6.8; iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2, I have Quicktime player 7 and 10.0.

I have recently run a software update, but haven't recently looked at the videos prior to the update, so I'm not sure when I stopped being able to see them.

I've searched this site for a solution, (which is why I downloaded Quicktime 7), but haven't found one that allows the videos to play.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. -A

Well because you moved the library file onto an external HD, iphoto wont be sure they are your photots. Do you still have the original file?

If you put that file back exactly were it was and then go into iPhoto peferences and ensure that is the file where iPhoto is getting its info, you should be good.


Hopefully this helps!

I'm not sure I understand. The files (photos, videos) were uploaded from the camera using iPhoto, becoming part of the iPhoto library (a single library) stored on the computer's internal hard drive. Eventually the library became too big and I could no longer keep it on my computer's 250 GB hard drive so I moved the library in its entirety to a a My Passport external drive, and wiped what I had on the internal drive so my computer could function again (it was getting bound up with so little remaining HD space). I can't export the video files back to the computer's internal HD because I get the "Unable to create/users/..." message.

I recently took some new video, and uploaded/ saved it to an alternate iPhoto library. Those videos played.

I would do almost anything to access those files. They are of my son (only child) as a baby. I backed them up on two separate passports as a redundancy because they are so precious to me and it kills me that I've somehow lost them.

Thanks- A

Yes and it is the removal of your Photo Library which is what I'm believing to cause the problem.
Do you have that external drive plugged into your Mac when you try to look at one of those movies? The only reason I can think of Quicktime not playing those files are QT not locating them.

Could you connect the passport then try to open the video and let me know if that works

I can't access the pictures or the videos without having the passport connected so it has been connected every single time I've attempted to move, view, or export the videos.

Are you able to drag those non-working video's onto your desktop? Do those files end in a .m4v?

They only have a reference number in iPhoto, though they are listed as a "QuickTime Movie" by "kind" in the information section. It can't be dragged anywhere- just shows the circle with a diagonal line through it.

I have found some old videos listed as "MPEG1 Movie" by "kind" in the Information section. They will play! With Quicktime strangely. Can I somehow change the the quicktime movies as an MPEG?

Sorry im really unsure what would be causing that. :/

I sugest dowloading VLC player. It may solve your problems.
VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!