Aperture constantly generating previews and thumbnails and detecting faces

After starting Aperture or scrolling in the browser part of the Split View Aperture starts to generat previews and thumbnails and detecting faces, staling all my work in Aperture for a long time. After a while it is done, but start again if I start scrolling a lot in the browser or restarting Aperture. Aperture does not crash but it is it takes forever to work since it stalls everything. I can also se that after working for about ten minutes in Aperture almost all of my memory is gone. After a freshly restarted Mac I have about 13 GB of memory and after about ten minutes of work it is down to a few hundred MB. After closing Aperture I only get back about 8 GB of memory.
I have tried the following:
* Rebuilding thumbnails for all picture
* Force rebuilding previews for all pictures (Holding down the Option key)
* Reprocessed Originals for all pictures
* Repaired permissions
* Repaired database
* Rebuilt database
* Deleted aperture.plist file
All of the above completed without errors, but I still have the same problem. I also tried to un-check “Maintain Previews For Project” and “New projects automatically generate previews” but with no luck (This is off course not a solution but a workaround).
What else can I do?
I hav the following:
- iMac, late 2009
- 16 GB memory
- Aperture 3.5.1 (Had the same problem in Aperture 3.4.5 and possibly even before)

Is Aperture more responsive, if you defer the generation of previews by holding down the Shift-key when launching Aperture?
Feels a bit better but still regenerating previews.
Also, have you checked, if Aperture is more responsive, when you are working with a different Aperture library?
I tried creating a new library in two different ways using all pictures from my project "2010" which I know contains pictures that Aperture keeps regenerating previews from. First I exported the project as a new aperture library, but when I opened that new library it also kept regenerating pictures. Next I exported all originals from that project and imported them in a new aperture library and success. No more regeneration of previews. But I don't think it is a solution because I have over 23 000 pictures in my library and I will loose all adjustments, stacks and faces doing this to the rest of the pictures.
As to running out of memory - there have been reports, that "On Screen Proofing" might be causing this, disable it (from the View menu), if it is turned on, see this post: Re: Aperture 3.5 repeatedly crashes as 'memory full' despite 32GB RAM
"On Screen Proofing" was not on. But to be sure I tried to toggle the menu item but it did not get checked, until I understood that I had to select a Proofing Profile first. After that I selected and unselected "On Screen Proofing", but it did not help.
Do you use any Aperture plug-ins?
I had an old plug-in for exporting to Picasa which I don't think works anymore so I removed it, but it did not help.
Is your Aperture library referenced or managed?
I have a managed library.
And where is it stored?
The Aperture library is stored on my local hard drive in the shared directory. I hade plans to share it with other users on my computer but because of these problems I have not gone forward with those plans yet.

Similar Messages

Aperture Stuck Generating Preview

Every time I open Aperture I get the "Processing..." spinner indefinitely. When I open the Activity console I see that it is stuck generating a preview. I deleted the offending photo and restarted (I have to Force Quit every time) and I find that it is stuck on a new photo. I've deleted about 15 photos now and I feel like I'm just playing whack a mole. Some of these photos have been in my library for 3+ years, so I don't think there's anything actually wrong with them.
I have done the double-click+cmd+option trick to repair permissions, repair library and rebuild library, none of which seem to help. I've removed my Facebook account in case it was pulling a bad photo from there. I also attempted to open the library in iPhoto, but that app just starts beach-balling.
I'm using Aperture 3.4.3 on OS X 10.8.2. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I solved the problem by using Time Machine to pull up a slightly older version of my Aperture Library before the issues started.

Can't open iPhoto. I don't get an error message. When I launch the application it just hangs and the pointer just spins. I pressed option apple and rebuilt the library and thumbnails and it's still not working. Do I need to re-install?

If I do need to re-install how do I do this? I saved a back up of my iphoto library. Does this mean my photos are safe if I re-install. Help is much appreciated!

If you're getting a hang like this at opening
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Aperture constantly rebuilds same thumbnails and preview images.

What is behind Aperture 2's pathological obsession with constantly rebuilding the same thumbnails and preview images, and is there any way to stop it? I can't link this performance killing problem to any specific action on my part; I see it in many different circumstances. For example:
(1) Putting the system to sleep while Aperture is open then resuming later
(2) Hiding the Aperture app, working on other memory consuming apps for a while (e.g. Photoshop), then returning to Aperture
(3) Switching from one project to another via the "Projects" tab.
(4) Quitting Aperture then restarting it.
I can say with 100% certainty that this is not the result of some previous thumbnailing/preview generation operation that was interrupted. The # of images in the project doesn't seem to have a bearing. Nor does the type of camera or image type I've imported from the camera.
I can be happily working in Aperture, working with a project created months ago, when all of a sudden the "generating thumbnails" message and the dreaded Wait Cursor appear and my speedy, well-apportioned iMac grinds to a total halt while Aperture does the same ** thing it's already completed before.
The only hit I get when searching Apple's support site mentions a known bug for those who upgraded from Aperture 1 to version 2 but definitely does not apply to me here.

Thank you for the reply Tony. I've followed your suggestion but Aperture continues to (apparently) randomly decide to regenerate thumbnails and previews.
The problem has become bad enough that I've had to stop using Aperture completely.
Doesn't anybody from Apple read these forums? I can't possibly be the only Aperture user in the world to experience this problem...

Best place to store THUMBNAIL AND WAVEFORM CACHE?

I was taught that when creating a new project, it's best to create a folder
on a seperate media drive, and direct your scratch discs, thumbnail & waveform cache as well as the autosave vault to that drive & folder. This way,
everything associated with that one project resides in that one folder on
your media drive, seperate from the computers hard drive and if you have
to move the project to another computer or delete everything associated
with the project, you just move or delete that one folder.
This has served me well in the past,...but,
I was recently working with (6) different G4 1.2 laptops running FCP 4.5.
It was a training class and the machines were working 8 hours a day for
6 days straight. They were not networked together in anyway.
Periodically, everyone of them would "lose" the waveform cache and thumbnail cache pictures while editing. I don't mean the folders would
disappear, I just mean they'd stop generating the little thumbnails and
waveform pics on the timeline. The temporary fix was to just save the
project, close FCP, and reopen the project. They'd all pop back in and be
there again for a while.
#1 - Anybody know why this would happen?
#2 - It was suggested to me that to avoid this happening in the future,
that you should should direct the thumbnail and waveform cache folders
to live on the HARD DRIVE of the computer, the same one with the app,
and NOT in the same folder as the seperate media drive where you capture
and store your video.
This goes against everything I originally learned, but was wondering what
others might have to say or have experienced on this point.
I'd appreciate any input. Thanks.

gulp ... jumps right in with both feet ...
I think you were taught wrong.
this is not the official path as laid down by the gods of fcp
conventional wisdom suggest that you should set your scratch disk location once and then let fcp organise everything else.
re your questions:
1. no idea ... not the end of the world but certainly a weird glitch tho.
2. some do, some don't ... tiny files w. very low overhead, location shouldn't be a factor in the problem you noted

Aperture Reprocessing Images, Previews, and Thumbnails

Came across a bug the otherday while working with metadata. After attempting to use Metadata->Batch Change->Time Adjustment I noticed that after applying the adjustment the date/time on the images returned back to their original settings. I thought it strange but simply switched over to Metadata->Adjust Date and Time with the Also Change Original File option checked. This seemed to work.
But - then I began to notice also that the system was slowing. Did a little checking and discovered that Aperture was processing thumbnails and previews in the background. This should not have been happening for a couple reasons:
1) I always allow previews and thumbs to complete follwing an import before doing anything else
2) None of the images were being modified at the time (I was simply scrolling through libraries)
I have spent a couple days on this now and could not find the culprit. It goes something like this:
Open Aperture - everything is fine
Select a library and start looking through it and not soon after the activity window shows it building previews (and/or thumbnails) for the library I am in.
Just tonight that got me thinking. I opened Aperture
I opened a library
From the Inspector I went to the Info tab
I selected the Aperture drop down
Every time I view an image - the "Last Modified Date:" time stamp gets updated to the current date/time - even though I am not modifing the image in any way.
I am guessing this is what reset by DTG values (paragraph 1) and why thumbnails and previews are being regenerated.
I repaired permissions
I repaired the library
I rebuilt the database
I deleted all previews and rebuilt them
Permissions are R&W to the folder the library is in
Permissions are R&W to the library itself
What I cannot figure out is why Aperture is "Updating" every image I view.
I was wondering - if anyone else had come across a similar issue.
System Information
Mac OSX dual 2.26Ghz Quad Core
RAM 32GB
DIsk Size 2TB / 845GB Free
Dual monitor configuration
Aperture v3.4.3
Library Size: 10,189 images / 47GB
Library Type: Managed
Location: my home directory
Faces Enabled (but turning it off has no affect)
Post-Import Processing uses Camera Previews (but using Standard Previews has no affect)
New projects automatically generate previews is OFF
Share previews with iLife and iWork is NEVER
Photo Preview is 1920x1920 (lower size has no affect)
Photo Quality is 12 High (lower setting has no affect)
Photo Stream is OFF (never been ON)

Update
So tonight I tore into the library contents itself and found that all of my images were quarantined with com.apple.quarantine.
I switched to my laptop loaded aperture and viewed the demo library discovering that the masters there are not quarantined. So, it appears that sandbox security flagged all my images for god only know why.
I've spent the night manually removing quarantine from all my files. The I deleted all the thumbnails and am rerunning thumbnail and preview generation. I'm hoping this resolves the issue.
But now the next question - why were the masters flagged in the first place?

Everytime I open Aperture it starts rebuilding previews and thumbnails. Any idea why?

Help please?

Closing and reopening Aperture after it completed its job just started rebuilding previews & thumbnails again and again
If all previews have been generated, and you still see frequent processing of previews, there may be two reasons:
Your Preferences settings do not take, because the preferences file in the user library is corrupted.
You may have imported a corrupted image file or video, for that the generation of previews will never succeed.
The first can be fixed by removing the Aperture preferences apple.com.Aperture.plist from your user library, see the Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics on how to do this.
The second requires to search your last import, and to try to generate previews manually for subsets of these images, to find the one, for which the generation of previews will hang.
Regards
Léonie

How can I retrieve Aperture Previews and Thumbnails directly after a corrupt hard drive corrupted Masters?

I have several old albums where JPG's were apparently corrupted on an old striped RAID.
Aperture still shows the previews (quite large, thankfully) for these old images.
But when Aperture tries to refresh the preview, the previews mimic the corrupt masters. To stop the bleeding, so to speak, I renamed my Master directory so Aperture doesn't update previews for these corrupt JPGs. However, I'd really like to save these previews, even if not at full resolution. Some folders
How can I retrieve Aperture Previews and Thumbnails for these items?
My process so far:
1) Show package contents on Aperture Library.
2) Navigate to Previews
     - some directories are here, some are missing
     - for those that are here, back up elsewhere and mission accomplished
     - for those that are missing, try to recover the thumbnails at least...
3) Navigate to Thumbnails
     - Lots more directories here. Likely the ones I'm looking for. (but they have strange hash names, so it's hard to say)
     - BUT, they only show large "AP.Thumbnails" files, no separate image file
The big answer I'm looking for... How to recover images missing from Preview directory and/or AP.Thumbnails files? (short of taking screenshots)

It would be nice to know your Aperture and OS version, there have been changes over the years.
The big answer I'm looking for... How to recover images missing from Preview directory and/or AP.Thumbnails files? (short of taking screenshots)
If you open the library in Aperture you can drag the preview images out of the browser and place them in a folder on your HD. If you cannot open the library then you will have to resort to going into the library package and rooting around. There was a big change with the library layout from Aperture 2 to 3 so knowing the version would really help here.
regards

Is it possible to exclude thumbnails and previews from a vault?

I think in Aperture 1.5, vaults did not include any preview or thumbnail files, but only the files containing metadata, adjustments etc. (and the masters, unless referenced only)
Somewhere along the way to 3.0 this changed so now previews and thumbnails are backed up each time you update your vault.
This has two BIG drawbacks:
- the vault becomes much larger than necessary (I always generate large previews)
- the update process takes much longer as more files need to be copied.
On the other hand, I do not see any tangible benefit of including the extra files - provided I back up both masters and the adjustments, I should be able to regenerate thumbnails and previews after a restore following, say, a fatal hard drive error.
(If I chose to delete all previews and thumbnails prior to creating a vault, I assume that the vault would be significantly smaller, without losing any information that cannot be recreated by 'generate thumbnail/preview')
Is my understanding correct?
If so, is there a way around it?
If not, can we please have this option in Aperture 3.5 or 4.0?
Thank you!

Hi Matt. You raise an interesting point. What you say makes sense to me.
My general response is: external drives are cheap. Buy what you need and don't spend any time trying to "save" disk space. IME, the administrative overhead is far more costly than the upfront equipment costs.
Here are some specific answers (as I understand how Apeture uses Vaults).
There is no way to exclude Previews from Vaults. Each Vault includes all extant Previews.
Each Vault is a differential back-up. Updating the Vault should update only those files that have been added, changed, or deleted. Unchanged files -- including Previews -- are not backed up anew each time you update a Vault. The amount of time it takes to update a Vault will vary based on the number of changes made, and should have nothing to do with the size of the Library or the number of files in it.
You can test your hypothesis. Delete all your Previews, and create a new Vault. Let us know what you find out.
Suggestions for enhancements should be made directly to Apple via "Aperture→Provide Aperture Feedback". The forum is -- officially -- strictly for user-to-user interaction.

Continual updating of previews and thumbnails. Why and how to stop it?

I am switching over to Aperture after having manually managed my files in order to see if there is any benefit for me as my photo collection is getting a bit out of control.
I have imported as projects all my folders of images. Now Aperture runs very slowly and is continually updating previews and thumbnails. Is there anything I can do to stop this or is this just part of the process of the system going through my files and generating the previews and thumbnails? If so how long can this take? Its been almost a day so far!
I did read a support document TS1360 which mentioned that items need to be migrated to RAW 2 format from version RAW 1. This would be fine but I have no idea how to find the images if this is the case. If its all my images then that could make for a real mass migration!
Any thoughts?

Raw v1 and raw v 2 relate to changes in the raw processing engine between aperture v 1x and 2x there is no need for you to worry about this if your images never resided in an Aperture v1 application.
Regarding previews & thumbnails, it is a good idea to let aperture build the thumbnails and previews. This will take some time depending on the size of the image files and the quantity of images you imported into Aperture.
If you have no plans to use the functionality previews gives you can switch off that function in the preferences and in the Library (cog wheel) settings. But previews may be necessary depending on how you have set you your Library and if the files are referenced or actually reside with the Library file structure. Referenced files without previews need to be physically available to aperture for aperture to display them. Referenced files on an external HD with previews will display in the library even if the drive is off line, however the image displayed is only the preview in this case.
The PPC G5 you have will labour importing large qty's of images for the first time, however given the chance to build everything, it should function reasonably thereafter. But It's (G5) really the absolute minimum and less than ideal platform at this stage.
Hope this helps.

Export - missing MacOS previews and thumbnails on exported JPEGs

When I export from Aperture 2.1.3 and then view the list of files in the Finder, there are no previews or thumbnails of the photos, just the JPEG icon. I can open those files and resave them with Photoshop and get the preview. Is there a setting in Aperture that I have wrong that causes it to not export the thumbnail at the same time as it exports the photo? Is there a MacOS function to regenerate Finder previews for selected JPEG files?

When I export from Aperture 2.1.3 and then view the list of files in the Finder, there are no previews or thumbnails of the photos, just the JPEG icon ... Is there a MacOS function to regenerate Finder previews for selected JPEG files?
The cause of the confusion is the difference between a page description which must be interpreted before it is imaged and a plain picture element pattern which does not need to be interpreted before it is imaged.
The assumption in photography and prepress is that if a page description, or a page description part, is interchanged then the sender supplies a pre-interpreted preview since neither system software nor application software may be able to interpret the page description.
Macintosh system software from version 1 in 1984 to version 9.2 in 1999 did not include interpretation of PostScript page description programs. The workaround was provide a PICT combined with the page description, the PICT at first being called the Parkhurst Picture.
JPEG, TIFF and other formats for interchange of picture element patterns are not programs and do not need to be interpreted before they are imaged. QuarkXPress only relatively recently moved to interpret and image placed page descriptions, though off the cuff I can't recall the version.
/hh

Missing thumbnails and previews Bridge CC x64. Help!

Week ago have missing thumbnails and previews in Bridge CC x64.
Where are no thumbnails cannot preview and open in photoshop.
What can i do? Please help!
Thanks!

Thanks, station_two!
I have surprised there all pictures from OneDrive on Windows 8.1.
When i copy those out of OneDrive thumbnails generated
Then copy all folder with images back and all works good!
Very strange. But good!

Thumbnails and preview wrong size

Has anyone got any ideas on why some of the books we have had made for us in the past now have incorrect thumbnail/preview page dimensions (see screenshots)?
Is it an iBooks bug or a CSS, XHTML problem?
Thanks,
Anthony

Tony
The network drive is a 4TB Raid 5 WDSharespace supporting Mac files - all other family laptops and desktops are Apple.
However in checking yesterday I did find that the network drive is degraded and that 1 of the internal disks appear to have failed - today I will get a replacement and have it rebuild, and will also get a firewire linked drive to connect direct to my computer to house my photo library (WDSharespace will be backup) and will check how Aperture is working after going through this. I do not see how the drive could affect what aperture is doing to the thumbs and Previews but worth being absolutely sure the setup is 100% before returning to the issue.
Tks

Thumbnails and Previews have a green tinge

The thumbnails and previews in my library have suddenly developed a green tinge.
I have tried Update Previews, Generate Thumbnails, and Generate Previews with no success. I have also used Repair database and Rebuild database, again with no positive result.
I am at a loss to know what to do next.
Jerry

I have a similar issue, but it doesn't seem to affect all thumbnails.
Thumbnails have thos unprocessed raw look (bluish, greenish tint):
But they look fine once you open the real pictiure:
What could possibly cause this problem? I have re-generated prebviews and thumbnails but can't seem to solve the problem.

Previews and thumbnails erratic suddenly

I am using Aperture 2. This evening I started it up and noted some very odd behavior. Many thumbnails look like digital distortion of colored dots. Some appear correctly but then may change to something erratic. Others are black. If I click on a thumbnail, the large image often appears correctly for a moment then goes black. Some images appear but have black blocks missing at specific points. The missing blocks are at the same points in all photos. I've tried doing the consistency and rebuild on the library but problem persists. I am totally mystified. Can anybody help? I had installed a demo of Aperture 3 a few days ago but decided not to use it so I did not upgrade the library so I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. Help!

We do not get an option to check consistency when holding down command and option while launching Aperture, all we get is the rebuild library now or later options. Is there another way to get to the consistency check?
We have tried removing the bad apples so to speak, removing the bad thumbnails and rebuilding the thumbnails with the master CD in place. As soon as the CD is removed, then the thmbnails revert to the bad previews. The files are kept on Cds and Aperture is being run on two computers, one for me, the photographer, and one for Starbanter, who is assembling the database for me. So this is happening on two computers.

Aperture constantly generating previews and thumbnails and detecting faces

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