When you do a red-eye (or a retouch) fix, Picasa immediately re-writes the photo (while stashing the original, un-edited version safely in a hidden folder in the same folder as the original photo).
The error is saying that when Picasa tries to write to the disk where the photos reside, it is getting an error back from the operating system (or from itself).
The thread Unable to write all files due to a disk error sums up all the known reasons for that error :
- The "Export location" (at the top of the Export to Folder window)
might be set incorrectly. The solution is to click the Browse
button and change it.
- The folder you are trying to export to is set to "Read only".
Again, try another location or change the permissions on that
folder.
- Picasa's internal bookkeeping may not have kept up with you
(especially likely on a slower computer) and you just need to give
it time to catch up.
- You might be using a network file system that does not work
reliability with Picasa.
- A programming bug or some non-optimum code that causes this issue on
some computers (but clearly not on most computers, since most people
do not have the disk error problem)
To which I add another : Some antivirus or disk-indexing product might be locking the file,
so give it time to finish. (If it is Picasa that is locking the file against itself, this
will never finish.)
The thread Picasa 3.8 can't edit JPG saved with Gimp 2.7.1 has more to say :
That "Unable to write all files due to a disk error. The disk may be
full or readonly" error in Picasa seems to be a real "catch all"
error... it is issued when some sort of error happens during an
export... it's not at all specific enough to be helpful.
Here's the workaround I'm using: when exporting a .jpg from GIMP (I'm
in 2.8, Windows 7) use the "advanced options" and un-check the box
"Save XMP Data." The resulting file works ok in Picasa for me.
This seems to say that the error you are seeing may not really be a disk problem,
but only a Picasa general catch-all message. If no other solution works for you,
try to edit the photos in another way, maybe converting them to another format
or stripping out all metadata.
The thread Trying to fix error msg: Unable to write redeye due to a disk error goes further:
I renamed the file to newimage.jpg and everything is good to go. I
think picasa is having issues with the format of the extension "jpeg".
From Red Eye error message :
The red eye removal feature only works on photos stored on my Mac or
another Mac OS Extended formatted drive; on FAT file system external
storage devices (network drives, USB drives), the error message
appears.
From I retouch a picture and a window comes up :
I'm not sure how the Red Eye function works but I suspect it uses a
lot of scratch disk space. How long has it been since you used Disk
Cleanup, defraged, cleared the caches, Recycle Bin, etc.
Try also to update to the latest version of Picasa, as this may simply be some bug that
is causing the problem. If all else fails, you could try to contact the developers through the
Picasa Forums.
I am able to view the picture in Finder and can delete it from there. Somehow Picasa cannot delete or write to the disk. – Paul – 2012-05-10T23:10:00.087
Have you tried repairing disk permissions? Does it happen to all images? – slhck – 2012-06-21T07:48:16.650
I didn't mention that I have about 30k pictures in Picasa. I wonder if I am reaching the limit? – Paul – 2012-06-29T19:28:16.233