# Error: Unable to export



## Bob_B (Oct 29, 2012)

I've had a two chronic problems when exporting jpegs from the library module. I select three or four images from a catalog, click on 'export' under the file menu, select a location and file size, in this case 500 K. LR4.2 starts to export the files but stops with the following:

An internal error has occurred: Win32 API error 2 ("The system cannot find the file specified.") when calling ShellExecuteExW from AgWorkspace.shellExecute

All the files in question are available in LR and on my system (as scene in Explorer), so what's going on?

Also, along similar lines, I occasionally get "could not create a jpeg that met your limit of 500K bytes" error. Is this telling me to reduce/increase the file size? If so, what guidelines do I use in selecting the file size?

Thanks for the help,

Bob


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 29, 2012)

The first problem is likely due to a widespread LR4 issue in that initially the Post Processing/After Export box at the bottom of the Export dialog is blank....which is invalid and results in the error you encountered (though note that files are still exported). To correct, simply choose a valid action (e.g. "Do Nothing") from the drop-down list and problem solved (the setting is "sticky" so will remain for subsequent exports).

The other problem means what it says.....Lightroom cannot compress the file small enough to fit into the size limit you have set.....so basically you'd need to increase the size limit. Personally I never use the "size limit" control, as that takes away the ability to retain control over the export quality.


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## Bob_B (Oct 29, 2012)

Thanks Jim. The only reason to use size limit is when I post to the forum (due to file size and attachment limitations). What do you suggest: allow LR to export without reducing size and use some other program for the reduction? If so, what other program (Photoshop?).

Bob


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 29, 2012)

It depends on what you are trying to achieve.....for posting things such as screenshots, these usually fall comfortably inside the forum limits as the actual pixel dimensions will be relatively small. For images, same thing applies.....if it's not important for users to see the actual file a screenshot of the image would suffice. But where it IS important for people to see the actual full-size file, I would tend to ignore the forum attachment method and instead I'd upload the file to a site (such as Dropbox or yousendit), from which other users could download and inspect.

An alternative to setting a finite file size during export would be to reduce the pixel dimensions of the exported file to something like 1024 on the long edge and a quality setting of 80. Most files would get inside the 500kb limit....


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