Aperture Library Window Stuck

I wanted to import some albums from my Aperture library to iPhoto one. So I opened iPhoto and went to "File -> Show Aperture Library", and the problem is that this little window can't finish to load Aperture images, I was waiting for several hours and still "loading". I don't understand is it because my Aperture library is so huge or perhaps I have some other problems on my computer? Yesterday I went to sleep and left my computer on with that "Loading Aperture images..." and at morning there was still no use, still loading. My Aperture library is not that much big actually, around 12'000 of photos. Nu what to do?
Message was edited by: Alexander Maze

Yes, I have the last version of Aperture 3. I don't remember exact number of it, and cannot check out right now (I'm not at home), but for sure the latest version.

Similar Messages

Aperture library to Windows 7

Argh....My wife wants me to move my iMac Aperture library to a Windows 7 laptop and I do not have a clue how to start or whether it is indeed possible,
if that is the case am I a prisoner to Aperture?
I am a new to aperture so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers and TIA.
Mike from Vancouver

There is no Windows version of Aperture. So, all you can move over to a Windows laptop will be the image files. Do you have many adjustments and captions, etc. that you need to save? To transfer your images over, get yourself a drive, that is formatted in a way that both MacOS X and Windows can read and write, for example MS-DOS (FAT)
Select all images in the browser in Aperture and use the command "File > Export > Versions" to export all edited versions.
Also "File > Export > Originals" to export all original image files.
Use Export presets, that will give you the highest quality possible to preserve the quality of your images. Also use a subfolder format, that will allow you to reconstruct your Aperture library in any Windows image library program you will want to use.

I am trying to import aperture library from macbook to new imac the import window sees the external harddrive but does nt see library. I can open library as a refernce library but cannot import onto hardrive as managable files Tried to do as a backeup t

I am trying to import aperture library from macbook to new imac the import window sees the external harddrive but does nt see library. I can open library as a refernce library but cannot import onto hardrive as managable files

I may be misreading what you are trying to do but you don't import libraries via the import window. You use File->Import->Library..
If this doesn't resolve your problem post back with more detail of what you are doing and what is happening.
regards

How to Export Aperture Library for Use by Windows PC

Hello and thanks in advance for your help. I have recently returned to using a Mac after years of PC use. I'm using Parallels for some apps that are PC only, an astronomy program, TheSky6, for example. One of the first things I did was purchase Aperture and move my 40GB photo library into it. "Move" is the operative word; I didn't want to use up too much disk space so my photo library now exists only in Aperture. What I didn't realize, at the time I was happily deleting my Photoshop Album library, was that Aperture creates its own universe, and the actual photo files are no longer easily accessible, buried as they are, so to speak, within Aperture folders containing proprietary tags, etc.
Is there an easy way to recreate the folders with just the jpegs, tiffs, raws photo files and nothing else? I realize of course that I could do this photo-by-photo, but it would take an awfully long time. I have tried exporting the projects, but they just export as aperture projects, so that didn't work. I also tried using Photoshop Album (on the pc side), hoping that it would just import the photo files and ignore all the aperture stuff--that didn't work either. A wonderful Apple Script program called "Aperture iPhoto Sync" did work somewhat, but it kept giving me errors before it was finished, and I couldn't keep track of what had copied and what had not.
Learning from my mistake (the story of my life!), I have realized that I would like to keep the photo files accessible to a PC as well. I keep thinking I am missing something really simple here. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Karen
imac 24" Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2.15 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB ram

May I humbly and quietly suggest to read the manual before doing anything drastic.
It would have been better to import all your images as referenced masters. Images would have stayed in the location they were in and the Aperture library would only have contained links or references to them. This would not have used up extra hard drive space.
A good site for Aperture is the Bagelturf site.
Have a look at this article in which Bagelturf explains "relocate and consolidate" of images.
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/aparticles/ref/refrecon/refrecon.html
Considering your objectives, using referenced masters is the best option for you.
success
Berend

ITunes doesn't see Aperture Library - iMovie doesn't see Aperture Library

Issues:
Nearly all of my videos in the Aperture/iPhoto library do not show up when I select iPhoto library option in iMovie and iMovie is unable to locate them in any other way. Sometimes the option to select the iPhoto library is completely missing.
iTunes does not recognize my Aperture library, and I get the following message:
"Your Aperture Library could not be found. Open the preferences window in Aperture and enable the preference to share previews with other applications." After reading through forums and multiple Genius Bar appointments here is most of what I have done:
Created multiple new Aperture libraries, selected them in Aperture, rebooted, switched back and forth - Note: iTunes DID recognize the new blank libraries
Booted Aperture with the Command + Option keys and run all three options to repair permssions and even rebuilt the database
Booted Aperture with the Option key and selected the library I was using all along (this worked for someone in a forum)
Opened iPhoto (not Aperture) and selected an option to share photos
Run "Verify Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Run "Repair Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Reinstalled OSX
Reinstalled Aperture
Reinstalled iTunes
Reinstalled iMovie
Run a virus and malware scan (no issues)
Verified that Aperture was set to share previews and had a Genius go through all of my options to ensure they were correct in iTunes, Aperture, and iPhoto
Have ran "Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs" from the Command + Option + R recovery partition multiple times. Each time it just hangs for hours, the latest attempt ran for over 24 hours before I finally stopped it.
Oh yes, and I found and deleted the file com.apple.iApps.plist
None of these things fixed either of my issues. According the the Genius at my last appointment, now I have to call Apple Care and pay to get support. I must have misunderstood what the Genius Bar was about when I bought my Mac and why I purchased the One to One training. Before I call Apple Care, I was hoping someone might have run across this and can help me.
I asked the Genius if I now need to just create a new Aperture Library and move all of my content to it (that was the last resort for someone in a forum); however, he was concerned that even if this might work that I probably have deeper permission and/or other issues that need to be addressed and that doing so would not fix the root cause.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this issue.

Understood. I thought perhaps the period meant that I was finished and just needed to call Apple Care and fork out the fee.
The formats are primarily .MOV straight from the iPhone. Since going to a Mac, I have pretty much given up on using my Sony Handycam for family videos due to the pains of having to locate, identify, convert, and export AVCHD video to watch on Apple TV. It is just too easy to take video with my iPhone and import it and immediately watch it, although the quality is nothing close to a dedicated video camera, especially indoors and in lower light. All of the video formats in Aperture are supported and most all of my older home videos and Sony Handycam videos are sitting on an external drive (hoping that one day I will have the time to figure out a decent workflow to access them after I work all of the bugs out of iMovie). Great thought though.
All my content is managed. After a handful of One-to-One sessions at the Apple Store, I finally learned that you could not reference videos in iMovie and had to either have them in the iMovie Events directory or in iPhoto (at least that was what she said). Their solution was to import the videos into iPhoto so they could be easily accessed in iMovie. After I had issues mentioned in this post their solution was for me to purchase Aperture that could handle larger libraries. This was supposed to fix the issue and allow iMovie to see my videos. When that didn't work they said that I needed to purchase Final Cut Pro. I'm just a Dad who wants to make a few memorable home movies for his family and I don't think that I should have to purchase a $300 application, especially after paying a premium for my Mac and the iLife software, which I am deeply regretting. But I digress.
I have repaired permissions again and am in the process of repairing the library and will rebuild it again if that doesn't work. It is taking longer so I won't be able to post the results until a later time. Definitely worth a shot to try this again.
If this doesn't work I will take the time to create a new Aperture library. Like I previously mentioned, this was the last resort for another gentlemen who had a similar issue. After doing this it might explain why the "Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs" from the Command + Option + R recovery partition is getting hung up and not working. I'll post the results at a later date. If I could save just one person the time, gas, and stress I've experienced it would be worth it.
One additional question? I read a gentlemen's post that passionately argued against ever using iPhoto, Aperture, or iMovie to ever manage video files. He suggested using folders and a file naming system similar to what I used when I was on a PC using Adobe Elements. Do you have any thoughts on that?
For my situation, I have two concerns:
I'm afraid this would not allow me to watch the videos on Apple TV as simply as I can now (although I don't know this to be the case for certain). If the videos aren't in my photo library, I'm not sure how I would be able to access them through Apple TV.
Since I'm a proud Dad I have hundreds of video files spanning many years, so I also don't want to lose the ability to quickly peruse my event library and find content that I want to import into a project in iMovie. At one point I imported some video files to edit that weren't stored in iMovie, and I could only see the file name and date and had to guess if there was content on it that I wanted. When you have hundreds of clips like I do that isn't practical.
He argued that these programs were never meant to manage content and worked much more efficiently using this method. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again.

How can I slim down the aperture library?

Hi,
My aperture library grew a lot. Is there any way to slimmed it down, without erasing content? I am talking about recreating previews with less quality or smaller size, deleting old thumbnails (I read that even if you delete a picture from the library, Aperture won't delete the thumbnail).
Does anybody knows any tricks about how to do that?
Thank you very much for your answers!
Gus

Easy. Switch to Referenced-Masters Library with Masters on external drives.
More complete explanation:
First make a Vault to an external drive as backup.
Then from within Aperture:
File Menu--> Relocate Masters. Choose external hard drive(s) and direct Aperture to move the Masters to those drives. Give it plenty of time depending on how many Masters are being moved. The Library remains on an internal drive, only the Masters get moved.
Next back up the drive that the Masters were relocated to, because now you have a Referenced Masters Library so Masters are backed up (once) separately from the Library Vault backups.
In the future back up originals (once) on external drives prior to import into Aperture or any other images app. I cannot overstate how important that is, and various manuals, texts, etc. present workflows that skip that critical step. Also back up the Aperture Library using Aperture's Vaults, which are designed for that purpose.
A complete Referenced-Masters workflow follows. Note that for image security reasons Aperture is not involved until the end of the process:
• Create a folder ("abc") for the incoming images. Easiest is to create the folder on the external hard drive where the Masters will permanently live, but Referenced Masters can be temporarily on the laptop's internal drive, then moved later as described above. I initially put Masters referenced on my MBP internal drive, then after backup and editing I use File Menu--> Relocate Masters to move the Masters to a permanent external drive location.
• Connect a card reader with the camera card in it. The camera card should show on the desktop. If it does not show, restart the Mac with the reader and card still plugged in. You can of course use the camera directly in this step, but I do not recommend it. Obviously cameras like the iPad2 do require direct camera-to-computer uploading.
• Drag the contents of the card's image folder(s) to the abc folder that you previously created on the hard drive.
• Review the abc folder contents to be sure they all copied properly.
• Software-eject the camera card.
• Physically disconnect the camera card reader from the Mac. This step is important to help avoid all-too-common human error.
• Again review the abc folder contents to be sure they are indeed all there (because stuff happens sometimes...).
• Back up the abc folder contents on to another drive.
• Review the files on the backup to be sure they all copied properly.
• At any time after but not before the previous step you can reformat the camera card in-camera. Do not delete images on the card using the computer.
• Start Aperture.
• Import the images from folder abc into Aperture, selecting "Store Files: In their current location" on the right-hand side of the import window (important!). Note that the Library remains on an internal drive, only the Masters are on externals.
HTH
-Allen Wicks

Aperture Library/Database hacks

After one week playing around with aperture, i want to share my current insights with 'customizing' (my) aperture's way of dealing with my picture files.
Warning:
The following thoughts and arrangements are working for me, they're
undoubtly NOT supported by apple and the programmers of the aperture
application!
Reading a lot of articles in the forum when aperture hit the masses, i've been disappointed about how aperture will fit with me.
Over the years my growing picture collection moved over from one computer to the other, deploying more storage, and will continue to do so in the future. So the technical equipment has to be independent from the treasure's of my data, to follow state of the art hard- and software development.
For me, aperture approved to be of such a kind.
Despite aperture stores away all my digital masters into it's own Library, thus duplicating data during imports, it just brings in some kind of more detailed
directory hierarchies to my way of organizing my picture library. How does it do?
How do i store my Library?
Sorry to be that longish, but to explain my concepts i have to.
Modern operating systems distinguish private/personal and public/common data for their file storage locations. Hopefully they follow the 'FHS' (Filesystem-Hierarchical-Standard) brought up by linux, to name the diverse locations for classified data.
I do run mixed os'es within my networks, as no computer should be isolated from a networked environment anymore. But to be honest it's more a single-user situation in reality, then the multi-user aspects i always keep in mind when designing my infrastructure environment for a network.
My picture library/online-archive is classified 'common' data, so it stores outside my home-directory, and every user allowed to, has access to it. I do not support locales within my filenaming-conventions, users and me are german-spoken, so the 'common' data for my systems is always called
'/Bibliothek'.
Furthermore we're dealing with pictures (Bild), movies (Film), music (Musik) and documents (Dokumente) in all common used operting systems (os x, windows), storing private data to the home-directory within appropiate directories and public/common data to the equivalent directories at a common storage.
/Bibliothek
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv
/Bibliothek/Filmarchiv
/Bibliothek/Musikarchiv
BTW, i customized windows to reflect this filetree within explorer windows, so users click to 'Eigene Bilder' (my pictures) and 'Bildarchiv' (common pictures) there, to change between directories, making it very convenient to work with.
Especially the 'common' picture files are strongly organized by date, which is reflected at the directory-structure, for example:
'/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2004/2004-04-17, make a good description/'
'/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2005/2005-12-00, a bunch for the whole period/'
A descriptive directory name is highly portable between operating systems, applications and last but not least, users!
For now, aperture seems to be pretty much a single-user solution.
But it's library can be 'distributed' to accomodate my needs.
I started to import my data by drag'n'drop, which works best for me. I didn't like the import assistent, which seemed to result in a different structure of my data in aperture's 'all projects' list. By creating a folder in aperture for the year, then drag'n'drop the multi-selected directories from the finder, i got within aperture:
All Projects + * (<-Aperture)
<div class="jive-quote">Library (smart-albums, collapsed)
2005 (folder)
2005-11-00 (folder, nested)
2005-11-17, sample bla (project, from directory)
Images from 2005-11-17, sample bla (album, inherited)
2005-12-08, take a better name (project)
Images from 2005-12-08, take a better name
Using aperture's preferences to switch between libraries i did import to different aperture libraries for the years, resulting in a bunch of directories, each holding an 'Aperture Library.aplibrary' paket there.
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2004/2004.aplibrary
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2005/2005.aplibrary
Yes, the pakets can be renamed, to better reflect whats in there. Aperture has to be restarted to change from one library to another!
The total amount of imported data, yet: 130 GB, ~33164 pics.
I am working with a 15" powerbook, 1,5gb ram, 80 gb hdd on the road and a 200gb external drive at home/office.
to make me feel comfortable with aperture, i switched to (terminal hacking!):
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/2004/ ->
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2004/2004.aplibrary
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/2005/ ->
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2005/2005.aplibrary
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Texturen/ ->
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/Texturen/Texturen.aplibrary
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/...
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2004/2004.aplibrary
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/2005/2005.aplibrary
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/Texturen/Texturen.aplibrary ->
/Volumes/HD39.1/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/Texturen/Texturen Library.aplibrary
Linking folders to where i believe they are right placed in my systems.
Now aperture's settings don't have to be changed each time to switch between libraries. Not connecting the external hdd gives me grayedout
folders within aperture, for data stored on the external drive. Having a folder located on my inetrnal hdd and 'linked' to aperture:
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/local ->
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/working.local.aplibrary
i can work with aperture normally, even if the external drive is not available.
the grayedout folders/subfolders/projects are browsable, but all thumbnails are just gray rectangles with its 'version name' underneath. same with smart-albums. available pics have colored thumbnails, unavailable pics are gray, naturally.
And aperture's database? well, i am very happy with it, really. Compared to my pre-aperture structure all the above mentioned tweaking gave me:
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Aperture.aplib/Library.apdb
This file is actually the sqlite3 database file. it's size is 111 MB now.
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Local ->
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/Working.local.aplibrary
I can store pictures there into folders and projects when i am on the road, filling up my local harddisk. Inspecting the paket shows up how aperture differenciated my pre-aperture filestructure:
/Bibliothek/Bildarchiv/Working.local.aplibrary/2005-12-08, take a better name.approject/2005-12-08 @ 01/49/06 PM - 1.apimportgroup/DSC0168/dsc0168.nef
All nicely packed into a single unit from the finder, easily browsable from aperture, and searchable by sql queries. Every Master enclosed in its own folder box, hm. Every import of files seperated to one folder, which makes clearly apparent that we will import redundant(duplicate) files for ever.
Adding two/three levels to my previous filestructure, strange namings all inclusive. As i sort my files with aperture into projects, the files accordingly move around at the filesystem-level. I'll let them go. They are there if i need access to them in case of failure.
T H E G L I T C H E S
within my setup the most current sql database is stored at:
~me/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Aperture.aplib/Library.apdb
importing the way i did results in a sqlite3-database file for each library i switched to before linking them together. Right after linking one of those aplibrary pakets as a new folder, aperture will rebuild the current database at startup, which can indepently be invoked with 'option command aperture' anytime the program is started.
Changes to the metadata of a picture are written to the current database aperture is running on, but can be transfered to any other database file
when rebuilding the library at startup (which can be a time-consuming thing!)
Even if the external hd is reconnected before startup, some thumbnails are not properly generated all the time. At the current state i don't have any glue what's the cause for this. All Versions are properly accessable anyway.
Once again,
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK,
if you try some of the suggestions i've made. Better you know how to handle a terminal before you even think about what i told here. Don't bother me, if something does not work for you - it works for me.
I can do this because it's my data, i am the only one affected by failure and i still do have my data on my windows system as a backup, for now.
Do the same before you trash your treasures.
Why i did made this post? Aperture really lacks support for team-working now. I cannot see how aperture can be really employed to its potential for an environment with more than a single user?. The sqlite3 database is said to handle concurrent users, i read on its homepage. So i still hope, there will be a group-worked aperture someday.

my reports, just for the logs.
drwxr-xr-x 2 fo03c fo03c 68 Dec 19 20:15 ArchiveInfo
-rw-r--r-- 1 fo03c fo03c 362 Dec 19 20:17 DataModelVersion.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 fo03c fo03c 173107200 Dec 20 00:26 Library.apdb
comparing the timestamps, the time needed to recreate 'my' library, is:
4h 11 min.
The sql database contains 972 projects with 57952 picture items, as the startup overlay tells me. not that bad, i think. depends on the situation, and how much zen you learned, if you can wait for the 'recreate'.
but i didn't stop to mature aperture!
i switched to one of my 'old' libraries (choosing from preferences panel) and set some new
a) ratings
b) keywords
c) deleted a master from that 'old' library.
after changing back to the 'linked' aperture database file (within my home-directory, as described previously), and restart aperture -
yes, it crashed! oops.
yet another try - crash. i realized, i deleted the first pic from the 'current view' aperture tries to load after relaunch. ?! =:-(
if the database is corrupted again, i would have to reinvest ~4 hours to recreate the database? but how about the preferences?
apple this is a bug! when i made the preferences file
~me/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Aperture.plist
UNAVAILABLE (delete or rename as you like), aperture starts with the import assistent, as at its first time.
Since then i can start aperture and navigate to the project i deleted the file from (very unpolitly). The corresponding thumbnail shows up with a new 'icon' to lower right corner of the thumbnail. It clearly means: this file is UNAVAILABLE.
YES =:-) i deleted it!
the rating and keywording on the 'old' database is gone -
thus making the precedence of the database against the sidecars obvious, doensn't it?
selecting the 'orphaned' thumbnail, now leaves aperture with the message 'loading', but it does not crash. Changes in ratings or keywording to the current library (the 'recreated' new one) on different files are persitent across restarts of aperture. btw, aperture restarts with the focus on the orphaned first thumbnail, now marked with the icon 'i am NOT available', but it does not crash anymore, when starting.
my conclusion:
someone in the forums pointed towards the difficulties maintaining a database of pictures and the separation of their storage, as users will delete or move files seperated from that database, breaking everything.
NO, aperture does widely tolerate such doing.
But why should we do so? =:-)f
For me: its fun, i will not complain about failure, when i do mature an application like this.

I just noticed that I can no longer select photos out of my finder that are located in my Aperture/Iphoto Library. I used to be able to attach photos to my gmail out of the aperture library in the finder and for some reason, no longer can.

I just noticed that I can no longer select photos out of my finder that are located in my Aperture/Iphoto Library. I used to be able to attach photos to my gmail out of the aperture library in the finder and for some reason, no longer can.
I can't access these images except to go into the applications.
Also, I'd like to import my iphoto library into aperture, and move aperture library to an external drive. I tried the import first, but there wasn't enough space. Then I tried copying over the aperture library onto the external drive but it failed bc it said file was in use.
As it is, I only have 50gb left on my imac, and the aperture library is 150gb. Also, I have over 10k images in both libraries combined and there are tons of duplicates that need to be sorted, and hopefully not messed up because I've organized most of them.
So in short, I need to know how to do the following:
-select photos in finder in aperture/iphoto libraries
-move aperture library to live on external drive
-import iphoto library into aperture library
-eliminate dups but maintain organization
-moving forward i need a better workflow so that I import images from camera, and can organize right away into albums rather than creating projects by default and then creating albums so essentially the photos are in 2 different places, even tho they are referenced
-live happily ever after
Thanks in advance for any support you can offer!!

If you're using apps like iPhoto or Aperture then they replace the Finder for managing your photos. The point is that you use the (many) options available via these apps for the things you want and need to do with the Photos.
So, simply, you don't select the photos in the Finder. I'll append the supported ways to do this - which are faster and will yield the current version of your Photos - to the end of this post.
-move aperture library to live on external drive
Managed or Referenced Library? Managed -
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit Aperture
2. Copy the Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching Aperture. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Referenced - relocate your Masters first.
These issues are covered in the Manual and on this forum hundreds of times.
-import iphoto library into aperture library
FIle -> Import -> iPhoto Library? Have you done this already? If so are you trying to move the Masters to Aperture from an iPhoto Library? Or Consolidate them?
-moving forward i need a better workflow so that I import images from camera, and can organize right away into albums rather than creating projects by default and then creating albums so essentially the photos are in 2 different places, even tho they are referenced
You can't. Every photo is in a Project. They’re the basic building blocks of the Library.
You might want to spend a little time with the manual or the video tutorials. I'm not sure you've grasped the app you've purchased.
The following is written for iPhoto, but about 97% works for Aperture too.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto/ APerture: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics. This is what you use to attach your shot to your GMail
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto/ Aperture.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto/ Aperture not running:
For users of 10.6 and later: You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the Library from your Services Menu.
Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser

ITunes can't see Aperture Library - iMovie can't see most videos in Aperture Library

Issues:
Nearly all of my videos in the Aperture/iPhoto library do not show up when I select iPhoto library option in iMovie and iMovie is unable to locate them in any other way.
iTunes does not recognize my Aperture library, and I get the following message:
"Your Aperture Library could not be found. Open the preferences window in Aperture and enable the preference to share previews with other applications."
After reading through forums and multiple Genius Bar appointments here is most of what I have done:
Created multiple new Aperture libraries, selected them in Aperture, rebooted, switched back and forth - Note: iTunes DID recognize the new blank libraries
Booted Aperture with the Command + Option keys and run all three options to repair permssions and even rebuilt the database
Booted Aperture with the Option key and selectedthe library I was using all along (this worked for someone in a forum)
Opened iPhoto (not Aperture) and selected an option to share photos
Run "Verify Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Run "Repair Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Reinstalled OSX
Reinstalled Aperture
Reinstalled iTunes
Run a virus and malware scan (no issues)
Verified that Aperture was set to share previews and had a Genius go through all of my options to ensure they were correct in iTunes, Aperture, and iPhoto
Have ran "Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs" from the Command + Option + R recovery partition multiple times. Each time it just hangs for hours, the latest attempt ran for over 24 hours before I finally stopped it.
Oh yes, and I found and deleted the file com.apple.iApps.plist
None of these things fixed either of my issues. According the the Genius at my last appointment, now I have to call Apple Care and pay to get support. I must have misunderstood what the Genius Bar was about when I bought my Mac and why I purchased the One to One training. Before I call Apple Care, I was hoping someone might have run across this and can help me.
I asked the Genius if I now need to just create a new Aperture Library and move all of my content to it (that was the last resort for someone in a forum); however, he was concerned that even if this might work that I probably have deeper permission and/or other issues that need to be addressed and that doing so would not fix the root cause.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this issue.

It was suggested that I post this in the Aperture forum, so I did. I didn't know that you couldn't delete or edit your own posts on this site. I apologize for the duplicate post and this can be deleted if an admin is so inclined.

Ipad won't sync with photos from Aperture - library cannot be found

Ok I give up. When trying to sync my photos onto my new ipad from Aperture in iTunes I keep getting the message "iTunes cannot sync photos to the ipad because your Aperture Library could not be found. Open the preferences window in Aperture and enable the preference to share previews with other applications. Well the library is where it should be in the Home folder and then pictures. I have the latest version of iTunes and Aperture. The only similar setting I can find in Aperture preferences is under Previews and Share Previews with ilife and iwork, no mention of itunes?
I've gone into my Aperture show contents and deleted the cache folder ipod photo cache (I previously synced to my iphone 3GS). It works syncing to iphoto, as I have tested it and the iphoto is in the same folder as the Aperture library so they are in the right location.
I am now at a loss as to what to try next......PLEASE HELP ME....
I don't want to have to have a Aperture library and an iphoto library on the go!

Hi,
iTunes cannot sync photos to the ipad because your Aperture Library could not be found.
If you have an external drive connected to your Mac, disconnect that, restart your Mac, restart your iPad and try syncing photos from Aperture.
Carolyn

Can I slim down the size of the Aperture Library by moving the Preview files elsewhere?

Hi all,
I have an Aperture library of almost 20,000 photos, dating back to around 2007. Almost all the master images are stored on an external drive (backed up of course), with only my recent and 'in progress' masters being stored in the library itself. Previously I have had my library split up into one library for each year, with the older years libraries being stored on the external drive where the masters are, in order to keep the size of my 'current' library down. So my current library, stored on my internal SSD, contained only photos from this year and last year, and only a few of the masters for these images. Confusing? Sorry!
Now, I recently decided to consolidate the libraries into one huge library, because it was annoying to have to switch between libraries to find older photos when I wanted them. I did this, leaving all but the recent masters on the external drives (referenced). I thought that the size of the main library would remain reasonably sized, since there were no extra masters being moved into it. However, the library has grown massively - up to over 70GB, which is huge when you consider it's on a 128GB SSD which is also my startup drive.
I'm pretty certain the reason for the huge size increase is that the Previews for all the older images are stored in the Library file, rather than anywhere else. This makes sense - they are previews, they're supposed to be able to be viewed with the external drives disconnected. So my question is this. Am I able to change the location of the preview files to be on my OTHER internal hard drive (non-SSD, much larger), so that they're still available without the external drives, but are not cluttering up my startup drive. And, if not, what should I do!?
Thanks a lot

Glad it worked, but permit, if you will, some observations:
-- Bloated Previews are a known Aperture bug, which came and went within a few updates in Aperture 3. Getting them back to the proper size is simply a elegant step to take.
-- A Preview set to your largest screen size and a quality of 6-8 should be all but indistinguishable from the Master at 72-100 dpi screen image. (Not print resolution.) I REALLY doubt you are going to loose any quality.
-- While using a symlink to stick the Previews on a HD is clever, it may also defeat the whole purpose of using your SSD. Previews are read a lot and are, I suspect, used for all adjustments at less than full resolution. (N.B. I could be VERY wrong on this.) Thus, depending on the amount of RAM on your Mac, you could end up reading and rereading your Previews over a slower link and doing this a lot. You own use will quickly determine if this is an issue or not.
I have blathered on, at length, about what I think matters for size and speed here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/17959625#17959625. Some of this may be of use.
I went through a lot of these issues when I tried to fit everything on a 128 GB SSD, so I know some of the issues you are facing. As I noted before, you really only need a Library (minus most Masters) of about 30 GB and that is with large, high quality Previews.
I actually took the SSD out and stuck it in an ancient MacBookPro (in preparation for a trip to Blighty this summer) and have not noticed a huge drop in Aperture speed. (I do miss the speed of applications launch, restart, however.) One thing that I did find that made a small, but nice difference, was keeping all of the Masters on a separate, dedicated drive. Once defragged, etc. that was very fast. Don't know if you could achieve the same results by partitioning a larger drive, but it might well be fun to find out.
DiploStrat

Aperture Library not available in iMovie

I want to add some photos from my Aperture Library into an iMovie project. However, when I click on Aperture Library, it says "Loading", but the wheel keeps spinning forever and nothing happens. I have iMovie version 10.0.1 and Aperture 3.5.1. Aperture is also set up to automatically generate previews.
Does anyone recognize this problem and know about a solution?

I am not sure (I don't use Aperture )but if you have a very large number of photos in your Aperture library it may be struggling to list them all in the iMovie window . You can also use the Finder to navigate your Aperture library and locate the photos you want. You can drag them singly or in groups directly to Events or even into the timeline.
Geoff.

No opening of Aperture Library.aplibrary any more: HOW TO GET ACCESS?

It took me a long time till I decided to write this topic- I tried ALL the tips and hints described in this forum before.
This is the situation: APERTURE (1.5.2) does not open its library any more.
After having read about similar problems described in this forum, and after not beeing able to resolve the problem, I finally...
- backed up the whole machine
- reinstalled system (10.4.9) including all system updates (clean install, formatting HD)
- re-installed APERTURE from original DVD
- ran updater to arrive to APERTURE 1.5.2
- re-installed new Prokit File in System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProKit.framework/Versions/A/Prokit, got the file here: http://www.itsadirtyword.com/downloads/ProKit.zip, from thread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=892893&tstart=30
- opened Aperture.
Till here all OK. Aperture opens and shows a vergin project, asking if I wish to import sample project.
Now I wish to get my photographs back from the backup file.
I give the command "rebuild from backup" (maybe in english it's different, I do have a german version of APERTURE installed, there it is called "Bibliothek wiederherstellen").
Now APERTURE starts (and shows me) the import process, counting down around 80.000 files (there are not THAT many photographs, I guess it includes all the preview-files). This takes quite a while. When finished, it says: "Import was OK, now you have to re-start the program". No choice is given, I just push the restart button, APERTURE quits, launches again- but it does not open the project file. Just the startup screen is seen, and then the menu- but no window.
If I check for the Aperture Library.aplibrary file, it is there, in the correct folder, now 42 GB, which corresponds to the size of the backup file.
I do not have a chance to open it, however.
Even if I Quit the program, throw away com.apple.Aperture.plist (from >Library>Preferences) and re-start it again, it won't open the Library File. Just nothing comes.
Throwing the Aperture Library.aplibrary file, it causes APERTURE to create a new one upon start-up. If I then re-import the backup file, the same thing will happen again: Once the re-import finished, it will not open the project window any more.
I absolutely NEED to access these photographs. Please help.
Thank you,
Markus
Mac Book Pro 17'' Dual Core, 200GB, 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mac Book Pro 17'' Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mac Book Pro 17'' Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thank you so much, David, for your efforts!
I had tried this, but no result.
As APERTURE worked as soon as I had thrown the BIG library (the program just created a virgin library, which worked when importing pictures), I presumed the problem was the library file.
Even if I get upset that this kind of data base file is not bullet-proof, storing thousands of pictures which have enormous value (and where even the BACKUP file seemed to be corrupted, as the problem came up restoring the backup file!), I started from the idea that the problem was this library file.
So, I...
- made APERTURE create a virgin library.
- opened the old (corrupted?) library file by option-clicking on the file and clicking onto "Show Packet Content".
- I IMPORTED the different "xxx.approject"-files by hand into the new library.
This took me a quite while, but now it seems the system is up again.
Some photographs (shot in Nikon RAW format) show as "not supported file", I have to see how to deal with this, and if for example by exporting them I can save something.
I now made a backup, creating a new vault, and it worked with no error messages. Also controlling the vault file, everything seems to be there.
So, "somehow" all is saved, even if the real problem has not been found. This is why I will not set the flag on "Answered question".
As I mentioned before, I think that this data base handling of APERTURE has to be (nearly) 100% safe, as Mac OSX is.
It just HAS to work, no chance to arrive to "corrupted files" or something like this.
Apple: Build in automatic database repairings, make sure the backup files ARE ok (mine was not, it seems), do whatever is necessary for not leaving any possibility for "inconsistent files" or stuff like that.
If these things just CAN (and do) happen, the software is not worth a penny.
The photographs just HAVE to be in a secure place, like money brought to bank just HAS to be safe there. If even the BACKUP file is corrupted, WHERE is the security for my photographs?
Apple, if you wish to play in the "professional filed", this just HAS to work. No other choice.
Thanks again David for your efforts!
Markus
Mac Book Pro 17'' Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mac Book Pro 17'' Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Aperture Library Issues on NAS - Advice Needed

List-
Need some practical advice here. I've got a 90GB Aperture library that resides on a NAS (QNAP 419P II) that is experiencing major issues. Understood that having the library live on a non-HFS+, non-local drive is not advised by Apple, but it's been there for two years with no issues to speak of.
I had a power failure occur that seems to have done some damage to the library in some way. Upon opening the library, I got an error that said that there were inconsistencies with the file and that it needed to be repaired. I repaired it, and noticed something strange. In almost all files, the picture resolution was poor and both the camera and lens information was gone--in addition to the fact that the Adjustments capability was disabled.
I ran the Aperture first aid and ran all three processes--concluding with the full library rebuild. It looked to be successful and resolution, previews, and picture info returned--but halfway through the preview reprocessing the process just stopped and the beach ball of death ensued. I let it run overnight and it never recovered. I had to force quit and now if I reopen the file it say that there are inconsistencies and that the library needs to be repaired, which won't help.
I also tried to move the library off of the NAS an onto the local drive, but encountered an Error - 50 message--something that apparently is well known in the NAS world where Mac permissions get screwy when dealing with non HFS+ drives.
I have a backup of the original library, but it is sitting in a cloud repository (CrashPlan) that will take time and money to restore.
All of the masters are intact in the Aperture directory, and I have very few major adjustments made to any photos. Aperture is really just a repository for me.
So any practical advice would be appreciated as to how I can create a new local Aperture library and get all of the existing photo files there. I am pretty much giving up on the idea of getting the existing NAS-based library to work properly, so this is more of a real-world question on how to create a new library and eliminate whatever issues there are with the other Aperture files. It looks like everything in the Aperture package is in place, but the library itself is just malfunctioning.
I am also considering moving everything into iPhoto as well, as Aperture may simply be more than I need for my usage. If is is faster and a but simpler to manage, that could be the right answer as well.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or guidance.

The problem is most likely with the library itself being located on the NAS.
But you can have a hybrid solution where the library is located on your internal drive while the actual image files are located externally, eg on your NAS. Image files stored within the Apeture library are called "managed" while image files stored externally are called "referenced". Whichever approach you take, the process is the same:
If you try to make a new Library from your masters, you will lose your project structure. The resulting mess will be in accordance to how you created your projects. Basically, if you look at your Masters folder, that's what you'll end up with when you import your masters. If that isn't a problem, the process is simple
Step 1: Prep.
Move or copy your masters out of the library bundle to a folder (to make them more accesible in finder).
Step 2: Create new library.
Within Aperture, from the File menu "Switch to Library -> Other/New..." to create a new Library on your internal drive.
Set the preferences to indicate previews/faces etc. I'd turn these off for now as they will slow you down.
Step 3: Import your images.
Within your new library, File -> Import - Folders as Projects. This gives you a dialog where you specifiy what and where to import.
If you choose "Import folders as: Folders and Projects" you will get a folder structure that matches the Masters folder, with projects at the end of the chain with names like 20120213-200100.
If you choose "Import folders as: Projects and Albums" you will get a single Project called "Masters" with a folder and Album structure that matches the Masters folder.
Neither of these will look particularly great. If you want to avoid this mess, here's what I'd try.
Fix your library again like you did before. After the rebuild, go to the Aperture activity window (SHIFT + CMD + 0) and cancel the preview generation process before it has chance to hang. This should give you a sem-functional library, hopefully functional enough for the next step:
Select all images and use File -> Relocate Original to move your original files out of the library. During this process you can specify that the originals are stored in sub-folders that match the project name, within a parent folder if required.
This gives you a much neater structure for importing into your new library where the projects will get the folder names (which will be your existing project names). It may not be perfect, for example if you have the same project name in different folders and don't/can't segregate them, but it's a lot cleaner than just importing your masters folder.
Andy

Is it possible to Aperture Library by copying over the Contents?

Hi,
My new Drobo 5D is having issues, and i'm not able to copy the Aperture File Directly over directly as its 530GB and the hard drive keeps failing in the last 30GB or so.
so I was wondering is it possible to copy over the contents bit by bit by using the show contents folder and then somehow recreating the Aperture file from the folder of Contents copied over?
Otherwise, is there any other solution?
thanks!
Derrick

Read all this before doing anything.
You select the library in the Finder and right click it and do Show Package Contents. That will revel the inside of the library You would then copy the files/folders out to the other drive MAKING SURE you copy them so that they are in the same relation to each other as they are in the original.
On the destination drive create a new empty Aperture library. You'll probably have the easiest time of it if you have two finder windows open, one on the original library and on on the destination. Revel Package contents on both libraries and then copy from the source to the destination replacing the items in the destination library with items from the source. Make sure you go from source (old) to destination (new). It sounds silly to emphasis this but once you start copying it will be easy to get disoriented and go in the wrong direction. Do something to make sure the source Finder window stands out from the destination Finder window.
I wouldn't worry about copying the previews or thumbnails those will be recreated when Aperture opens the new library BUT don't do anything with the Dobro or previews until you are sure the new library opens. In a worst case scenario you could retrieve the previews and still salvage something from your library.
Of course the possibility exists that you will hit the file(s) that are causing the error that is keeping you from doing this in a normal fashion. If so mark the file(s) that are having problems (color label will work well) and continue with the rest of the library. It is possible that the file(s) that won't copy are not of major importance to Aperture and the new library will open anyway. If not then there may be some other way to work around it. By labeling the files you'll at least know what didn;t copy.
That should do it if you're unsure of anything post back before starting.
good luck
Ps. Read this post Re: New iMac, Pegasus & Aperture? from a recent thread on backups and RAID. In it I explain why RAID is not a backup replacement. Once you recover from this you will need to put a true backup procedure in place.
regards
BTW here is OS X's definiiton of an Error -36
Type -36 error (I/O Errors (bummers)
This file is having difficulty while either reading from the drive or writing to the drive. The file
may have been improperly written data to the drive or the hard drive or disk may be damaged.
This is almost always indicative of a media error (hard error on the disk). Sometimes (rarely) it is transient.
Solutions: Try copying the file to another drive. Use a disk recovery software, such as Disk First Aid to examine the disk. You can try rebooting with all extensions off. Once in a while this will allow you to read the data. The file in question should be restored from a backup that was stored on a different disk. Regular backups can reduce the time to recover from this error.
Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano

Aperture Library Window Stuck

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