A Generic error occurs at GDI+ at Bitmap.Save() after using SaveFileDialog

Question

I use the following code block with some more code inside the using block:

using (System.Drawing.Bitmap tempImg =
       (System.Drawing.Bitmap)tempObj.GetData(System.Windows.Forms.DataFormats.Bitmap))
{
    // ...
    tempImg.Save("..\\..\\testdata\\tempImg.bmp", ImageFormat.Bmp);                            
    // ...
}

But I still get the error:

A Generic Error occured at GDI+

only after I make some action which is not related to the code inside the using block. In other times this works well. Also the tempImg.bmp is a temporary file, so I delete the tempImg.bmp within the using block itself.

Since the tempImg is inside the using and this it's disposed, I think the locking problem should be solved.

Can someone please let me know what is the mistake in this code?

Edit: System.Drawing.Image to System.Drawing.Bitmap as the type of tempImg.

Edit: I have identified I get this error only after SaveFileDialog is created and user clicks on 'Save'.

Sorry, it should be corrected as SYstem.Drawing.Bitmap... thanks for comment — Dulini Atapattu, Apr 28 '11 at 04:51
**only after I make some action which is not related to the code** does this involve reading/saving some other image ? — V4Vendetta, Apr 28 '11 at 05:44
No, it only create an avi file using the Bitmap objects obtained from tempImg though a stream within the using block itselft and tempImg.bmp is deleted each time after obtaining the bitmap object. — Dulini Atapattu, Apr 28 '11 at 06:31
So that might be the problem since its already in use by the process, post that code so it would be more relevant — V4Vendetta, Apr 28 '11 at 06:36

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered May 05 '11 at 09:30

43

Finally I could find what was wrong in my code and would like to mention it here as I think it may be useful to someone....

As I have given a relative path in tempImg.Save, and after the user clicks 'Save' in SaveFileDialog, the actual path for tempImg.Save become :

Path specified by SaveFileDialog + the relative path

automatically.

Thus if the path does not exist, this error occurs.

Thanks every one for the answers.

answered May 05 '11 at 09:30

Dulini Atapattu

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4

I forgot to ensure that my directory existed, and got this same error. Thanks for sharing! – kayleeFrye_onDeck Mar 09 '15 at 21:06
1

Thanks for this useful tip. I am checked directory exists. It's ok. ;) – Sedat Kumcu Apr 02 '15 at 17:07
yep, i had this issue, my problem was that I was creating dynamic file path and had to Trim() my variables – Saad A Sep 29 '17 at 19:44

Eli Braginskiy · Answer 2 · 2011-04-28T09:26:49.383

21

I also had once this problem- it happens because the bitmap locks and you can't save it( if you want I can find the exact explanation) so anyway a fix around is this: Create a new bitmap the size of the original bitmap you have- copy the original bitmap to the new created bitmap and then dispose the original bitmap and save the new one.

Bitmap bm3 = new Bitmap(bm2);

And then save.

edited Apr 28 '11 at 09:26

answered Apr 28 '11 at 08:55

Eli Braginskiy

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thanks! I don't know about the author, but your solution worked for me! – Alex Mar 23 '12 at 14:28
Thanks, this definitely helped. however, I had to add a thread.sleep so it would give some time to the OS to free up any resources. I don't know why. – agarcian Apr 04 '12 at 20:59

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 15 '12 at 20:48

5

Tried all the solutions given here, but in vain. Found the solution eventually.

Dispose any Graphics applied on image: g.dispose();
Make sure save path exists: System.IO.Directory.Exists(dir);

edited Aug 15 '12 at 20:48

nhahtdh

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answered Aug 15 '12 at 01:26

Umar Hassan

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 28 '11 at 05:01

5

This is usually an indicator that something else, potentially some other thread in your own application, already has the target file that you're trying to save locked at the file system level. If you look at the inner exception I believe it should mention this. If it's not directly in the InnerException Another way to confirm this (or discover what it might really be instead) is to turn on first chance exceptions in the debugger and watch for what exception is being thrown "underneath" Save and then being turned into this generic exception.

answered Apr 28 '11 at 05:01

Drew Marsh

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the tempImg is not used anywhere in the code and the inner exception says: A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll – Dulini Atapattu Apr 28 '11 at 05:22
This is most likely the case, take a look at Microsoft common practice of working with GDI+ – v00d00 Apr 28 '11 at 06:34
ExternalException has an HResult/ErrorCode property. Can you tell us what the value of that property is? That should lead us to the exact native problem GDI+ is having. – Drew Marsh Apr 28 '11 at 20:16
Yes, GDI+ seems single-threaded, I had an error on trying to save System.Drawing.Image loaded in another thread. Fix is saving `new Bitmap(originalImage)` – STO Mar 16 '16 at 14:04

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 19 '16 at 07:15

1

In my case it was an ASP.NET application in which I replaced a single DLL, and I had to simply re-start the application pool after deployment. Then it worked fine.

answered Aug 19 '16 at 07:15

Fabian

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This drove me mad, tried everything that other posts where saying code was working fine one day and then all of a sudden it stopped leaving us with this gdi+ error. IIS was restarted the day before the issue but the application pool was not. after restarting the app pool all is good Thanks Fabian. – lmac34 Oct 19 '16 at 16:15

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 28 '11 at 05:28

1

Is this an ASP.NET application?

A Generic Error occured at GDI+ in asp.net mostly because of missing target folder / access permissions.

Also your code could be simplified to :

       using (Image image= dataObject.GetImage())
       {
            if (image != null)
            {
                image.Save("test.bmp");
            }
        }

answered Apr 28 '11 at 05:28

Vijay Sirigiri

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There is no problem with permissions, as the procedure goes well in all the cases except one case as I have mentioned. Thanks – Dulini Atapattu Apr 28 '11 at 05:32

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 30 '13 at 19:53

I am trying to save image from resource and it gives me too GDI error when I directly use the method Bitmap.Save(filepath). I think We can use the same below code for any other bitmap image by cloning it.

Private void SaveResourceImage() {
    object resBmpObject = Resource.Image1.Clone();//Bitmap Image from resource file
    //object resBmpObject = anyBmpImage.clone(); //for image other than resource image
    Bitmap resBmpImage = (Bitmap)resBmpObject;
    resBmpImage.Save(destFilePath, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
    resBmpImage.dispose();
}

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited May 19 '15 at 09:41

0

Dispose your bitMap object after save image:

 bitMap.Dispose()
 oimg.Dispose()

 bitMap = Nothing
 oimg = Nothing

edited May 19 '15 at 09:41

Ḟḹáḿíṅḡ Ⱬỏḿƀíé

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answered May 19 '15 at 09:15

Lokesh Yadav

1

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 21 '17 at 20:42

0

In my case, i was saving the bitmap file on the same location as the source, So that's the problem. I save the bitmap to the new location and all fine now.

answered Jan 21 '17 at 20:42

saurabh_hcl

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 27 '17 at 03:33

0

I was facing the same issue, by changing image type ".bmp" to ".png" its work form me

answered Jun 27 '17 at 03:33

Niraj Trivedi

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 28 '11 at 06:37

This is code sample from Microsoft Forums.

// new image with transparent Alpha layer
using (var bitmap = new Bitmap(330, 18, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb))
{
    using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
    {
        // add some anti-aliasing
        graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;

        using (var font = new Font("Arial", 14.0f, GraphicsUnit.Pixel))
        {
            using (var brush = new SolidBrush(Color.White))
            {
                // draw it
                graphics.DrawString(user.Email, font, brush, 0, 0);
            }
        }
    }

    // setup the response
    Response.Clear();
    Response.ContentType = "image/png";
    Response.BufferOutput = true;

    // write it to the output stream
    bitmap.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Png);
    Response.Flush();
}

A Generic error occurs at GDI+ at Bitmap.Save() after using SaveFileDialog

11 Answers11

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