Master Files Offline, cannot reconnect.

Hello I made the switch to Aperture from iPhoto.
Imported my iPhoto library making sure files would be stored in the 'Aperture Library' and not 'Current Location'. Deleted the iPhoto Library since I was running out of disk space but now I've got a warning the Master Files are offline or can't be found.
I managed to drag-and-drop the previews to the desktop and it made a total of 1.6 gb of data. The main Aperture file in the Pictures folder has 13gb of data. Seems like my masters are there still but all I have now is a 'ghost in the machine' of preview jpegs.
Please don't tell me I just deleted every single photo I've ever taken -- ever....

Would love to still have the original iPhoto libraries but didn't have the space for them (living in Thailand) with limited resources so they were deleted. Dutifully made two backups of the Aperture libraries though -- not doing me any good.
Trusted Aperture to not have 'loaded pistols' laying around for children to play with, couldn't couldn't have imagined even being able to make this terrible of an error.
My resson for restoring the OS is the fact things are not 'making sense'. The original library is still the same size as it was before -- 13gb for 2000 photos. Sounds about right, adn I think the masters are still there.
As well the question of why the lower panel of the Restoration Feature doesn't work when I CAN find the Aperture library by navigating to it in the finder. As well theres the dialog that says my main hard drive is offline....
What do you think of erasing again, installing the OS without restoration, performing an update to 10.6.6, then dragging Aperture from a external disk to install -- and see if it can then see the Library in total ?
Seems to me something major is corrupted. I can't get Filemaker Pro to work either after a recent install unless in Safe Mode or through a new user. This may have been the start of all my troubles.....
What about trying Safe Mode to try to re-reference the Masters ?
A new user cannot solve the Aperture trouble, I tried.

Similar Messages

Master Files Offline??

I am using aperture 3 and OSX 10.7.2 When I got aperture, I imported my iPhoto Library.
I noticed any pictures taken before that time, there is a icon in each picture - which means the Master Files is offline.
When i try to delete those pictures - I get the error - Master Files Offline - Some master files are stored on volumes that are offline: *My Mac
"My Mac" is my internal drive and is online. When I right click one of the photos, click locate referenced file - The path that aperture think it is - is indeed the actual path. So I navigate through the tree and locate the file (same exact path) and click Reconnect or Reconnect All - and then that one photo is now linked and all is well.
The problem is - I am guessing I have at least 1000 if not more photos with this condition. Anyone know how to fix this on a larger scale? Any new photos taken are fine -
THank you anyone who knows this in advance!
My Mac is online .... its like there is some old pointer that is gone so the software thinks its offline - until i relink it

The easiest way to reconnect many masters at once would be to create a smart album that contains only the images that need reconnecting:
File -> New -> Smart Album
then add a rule:
File status -> Offline (or Missing)
Then select all image in that album and select File -> reconnect master
Regards
Léonie

Missing files "Unavailable master files cannot be relocated."

Please help
I have missing masters -
I had 25,000 referenced masters in a directory next to the aperture library and ran consolidate (thought it was successful) but now I see 1012 "Missing" Masters. When I do "Locate Referenced Files" Aperture says I do not have any referenced files. But if I go do a Finder search for files in the old referenced location they are all still out there - (and not in the Aperture Library Masters) (They all have the "Arrow/Triangle/exclamation mark" badge)
So my question is - can I connect the "Missing" to the existing file? Or do I have to delete all the "missing masters" and loose all the aperture metadata I have on them?
I have read all the treads I can find and have not seen the same issue -
"Locate Referenced Files" is not an option.
and if I run relocate on the files I get this error:
"Unavailable master files cannot be relocated.
The selected master image is either offline or not found. Please reconnect it and try again."
Any advice or help from the community would be very appreciated - this is my first post - hope it was intelligible
(living in a cave like you do)
John P.

Hi Frank,
Yes my aperture library and the "master" directory are right next to each other in ~/Pictures/. The history of this is as follows:
1. I copied my entire library and masters from my laptop to my iMac ( was out of room )
2. I verified everything was good - looked fine
3. Deleted my MacBook libraries.
4. Consolidated my library - in prep to clean up
5. Did a bunch of heavy cleaning efforts like merging projects within the library.
6. Ran a program to find duplicates - all it does is add keywords to suspect images.
7. Then I tried to relocate masters to a new directory and it errored out
8. Did a search for all "missing" (1000)
9. Started reading all the blogs - looking for answers
10. Ran all the repairs I could find
11. Posted this help request.
12 1/2 - now looking at the SQLlite blogs out there - but as you can see my situation is... Odd. I wish I could query the aperture DB directly and see what it is thinking....
* Sorry - everyone. I'll try to get back to the rest of the replies later tonight

Versions with unavailable master files cannot be exported.

Anybody a good idea how to sorting this out?
All the files are in pictures folder, i see the preview in A3. but I have the red line across the symbol in R lower corner on all the pictures.
I have tried the 3 different steps to try fix A3.
The full error message i get if I try to export or do anything with my pictures.
"Versions with unavailable master files cannot be exported.
The selected master image is either offline or not found. Please reconnect it and try again."
I have recently exchanged HD and upgraded to Snow Leopard.
HELP...

Hi, I cannot export some of my photos either as i get a message saying they are offline & i must reconnect them.
So i have followed your instructions however the file status 'missing' option draws a blank.. if i change the rule to 'offline' i do seem to get all the files that I am currently unable to export.
then i do your last instruction:
Run "File→Locate Referenced File". Reconnect all.
I can now see the located files in the top window box but when i click 'done' it doesn't do anything & the options for reconnect all are blank.. see image..
Is there anything else i can do?

Aperture cannot locate master files when upgrading to new OS X Leopard

I have recently upgraded to Leopard from Tiger. The problem I have encountered is that when trying to locate the master files of my pictures, Aperture cannot because it thinks my files are in my hard drive located in my previous OS X and that the volume is not mounted. I cannot 'Relocate Masters for Projects' or bring my masters back online since it is the hard drive I am currently running Leopard. Does anyone else have this problem and possibly a resolution? Thank you very much.

I had a similar problem, and this how I fixed this.
Select all the files, and either select "Manage Referenced Files" from the File menu or from the contextual menu when you right click the selected files. Use the dialogue that appears to navigate to your master files [make sure that "Show only Files Not Found" is NOT selected] and reconnect your files. If you have files in a number of albums/projects/folders this may take some time.
Quit Aperture, and if a dialogue shows up saying that it is updating previews DON'T SELECT CANCEL. When you re-launch Aperture everything should be fine.

The current operations master is offline. The role cannot be transferred (Windows 2008)

The current operations master is offline. The role cannot be transferred (Windows 2008)
Hi,
I had a time sync issue with my primary DC. Now I have shut it down and left 1 over.
I want to transfer roles but it says it cannot because it is not online ...
26 KB
operations master
Note: if I try to sync from a different dc, I get "The target principle name is incorrect", the server holds all the fsmo roles ...

The current operations master is offline. The role cannot be transferred (Windows 2008)
Hi,
I had a time sync issue with my primary DC. Now I have shut it down and left 1 over.
I want to transfer roles but it says it cannot because it is not online ...
26 KB
operations master
Note: if I try to sync from a different dc, I get "The target principle name is incorrect", the server holds all the fsmo roles ...
The current Domain Controller is the Operations Master. To Transfer the Operations Master to a different Domain
Controller, you need to target Active Directory Schema to that Domain Controller.
and when I try using ntdsutils :
ldap_modify_sW error 0x34(52 (Unavailable).
Ldap extended error message is 000020AF: SvcErr: DSID-03210333, problem 5002 (UNAVAILABLE), data 8438
Win32 error returned is 0x20af(The requested FSMO operation failed. The current
FSMO holder could not be contacted.))

Missing photos - cannot reconnect - found in mov file!!

Using Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0 on Windows XP Pro
Everything worked fine for some time, then error message appeared when trying to print or attach photo to email.... "Searching for missing file". There are about 30 photos that are "missing" although they can be viewed in the album. Tried the "Reconnect" feature but it cannot reconnect the missing files. Searched for the names of the JPG photos and they do not appear in the list... cannot be found. After some research discovered that they were all in an MOV file named "Picture054.MOV". Any idea how they got put into MOV format??? Or how to put them back into the album as JPG photos??
Thanks

BOB:
Can you help me with my issue? It is on the FORUM UNDER:
*System Crashed, LOST ALL photo files shows THUMBNAILS only now!*
BGBlake - 04:04am Jun 6, 2007 Pacific
PLEASE help me to get back my pics! HOW can I COPY the THUMBNAILS and NOT loose my photos! If I try to open them or copy them they say "Searching for Missing File Location", then it says "Cannot continue requires at least one connected file"!
These are precious because they are 3 years worth and some family members are no longer with us! PLEASE HELP!
OS:WINDOWS XP SP#2
Photoshop Album Starter 3.0
Basically, I had to do a factory restore and the PICS file was NOT under an "XP User Acct" so the files were not saved during restore and were lost! When I re-installed Adobe 3.0 the THUMBNAILS appeared, but of course the file "location" is missing as is all the actual pics! It says one file must be connected to open. Can you help?

How to reconnect master files in recovered folder to Aperture

Aperture 3 crashed and somehow it spit out all its master files and dumped them in a directory called 'Pictures Recovered Photos'. All files in Aperture show the 'Master Not Found' badge (arrow with yellow exclamation point triangle). How do I tell Aperture that the master file it's looking for sits in the 'Pictures Recovered Photos' folder?
I tried the 'Locate Referenced Files' command but that obviously doesn't work because the pictures are not referenced. The master files were imported before something went wrong.
To make matters worse, the 'Pictures Recovered Photos' folder contains about 56k files, while I only have about 13k masters. Upon further inspection, I noticed that most masters had several copies of themselves:
e.g. here are all the files matching picture DSC00131 in the 'Pictures Recovered Photos' folder:
DSC00131.JPG
DSC00131.JPG.jpg
DSC00131.JPG_2.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_2.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face0.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face0_2.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face1.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face1_2.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face2.jpg
thumb_DSC00131.JPG_face2_2.jpg
Any suggestions on how to get out of this mess?

First wanted to see if someone had seen this situation before
The subject of Aperture completely aside, it is not uncommon for files to sprout in unexpected places when there are disk problems. If you have not already done so you should use Disk Utility to Verify the disk(s) where your masters and Aperture app and library reside before you attempt to do anything else. While you are in Disk Utility check the S.M.A.R.T status as well. If you try to fix things within Aperture you could make things worse if your disks aren't in tip-top shape.
I'm new to Aperture so I will leave advice on how to relocate your masters to experienced users.

Cannot reconnect / specify volume in PSE 8

I just upgraded from an older version of PSE to PSE 8 for windows. I am running PSE in Parallels on a Mac. The older version of PSE worked fine in this configuration. However, when I upgraded to PSE 8, it seems to be looking for the picture volume in a UNC path established by parallels (//.PSF/Home) rather than by mapped drive (P:\). As a result, all my photos (all 11K of them) are offline. I cannot find anywhere that I can tell PSE to look for the volume at P:\. All I have found is an option to try to tell it to reconnect to the UNC volume (which is the correct path btw)... which for some reason it fails to do. Any ideas? HELP!
Thanks,
Kyle

Thanks John.   So here's the latest. Per your suggestion, using PSE5 I moved my photos to the parallels C:\Photos directory. Then converted the catalog with PSE8. Everything seemed to work out fine. All the pictures were online. Then with PSE8 I moved the files to the P: drive, which is mapped to //.psf/Home/Pictures/Library. A couple things. The folder viewer in PSE8 doesn't allow you to drill down on directories outside of where it thinks your photos are. This wasn't an issue for me since I was simply moving my photos directory from root C to root P.
The big bummer however is that with the move, all the files became disconnected and I cannot get them to reconnect. In the file viewer they are shown at //.psf/Home/Photos. When I click on an individual photo, the properties say it is at [//.psf/Home]\\.psf\Home\Photos\<subdir>. The output from the psedb tool is below. Do you have any other suggestions? I'd really like to keep my files on a mapped drive (//.psf/Home/...) so that I can access them from my mac.
psedbtool version 1.08
Opening catalog P:\Catalog\AngieKyle\AngieKyle\catalog.pse8db
Photoshop Elements version:      8
Total files               : 10859
Total files missing       : 10859
Total files offline       :      0
Total files wrong volume :      0
PSE Volume Table
Path used by PSE        : \\.psf\Home
Type                    : network_drive
Status                  : online
Total files             : 10859
Total files missing     : 10859
Total files wrong volume: 0
Description             : //.psf/Home
Serial                  : //.psf/Home
Drive_path_if_builtin   :
Id                      : 174933
Path used by PSE        : P:\Catalog\AngieKyle\AngieKyle
Type                    : database_relative_drive
Status                  : online
Total files             : 0
Total files missing     : 0
Total files wrong volume: 0
Description             : database relative
Serial                  : amoc:database_relative_volume
Drive_path_if_builtin   :
Id                      : 2
Path used by PSE        : C:
Type                    : builtin_drive
Status                  : online
Total files             : 0
Total files missing     : 0
Total files wrong volume: 0
Description             : C:
Serial                  : ACF1-823B
Drive_path_if_builtin   : C:
Id                      : 6207
Windows Drives
Drive Type             Serial     Path
A:     removable_drive 18D7-772B
C:     builtin_drive    ACF1-823B
D:     readonly_drive   0000-0000
E:     removable_drive 0000-0000
F:     removable_drive 0000-0000
G:     removable_drive 0000-0000
H:     removable_drive 0000-0000
P:     network_drive    0000-0000
Y:     network_drive    0000-0000
Z:     network_drive    0000-0000
Also, I repeated the process above by taking a copy of my original PSE5 DB and moving it with PSE5, importing it into PSE8. Here's what the psedb tool looks like before attempting to move the the files to the psf directory with PSE8. Note that I changed some drive mappings prior to doing this. This looks pretty clean (I think) ... I am beginning to believe that PSE8 just can't handle mapped drives. Ugh.
psedbtool version 1.08
Opening catalog W:\Catalog\HarrisonPhotos\catalog.pse8db
Photoshop Elements version:      8
Total files               : 10859
Total files missing       :      0
Total files offline       :      0
Total files wrong volume :      0
PSE Volume Table
Path used by PSE        : W:\Catalog\HarrisonPhotos
Type                    : database_relative_drive
Status                  : online
Total files             : 0
Total files missing     : 0
Total files wrong volume: 0
Description             : database relative
Serial                  : amoc:database_relative_volume
Drive_path_if_builtin   :
Id                      : 2
Path used by PSE        : C:
Type                    : builtin_drive
Status                  : online
Total files             : 10859
Total files missing     : 0
Total files wrong volume: 0
Description             : C:
Serial                  : ACF1-823B
Drive_path_if_builtin   : C:
Id                      : 6207
Windows Drives
Drive Type             Serial     Path
A:     removable_drive 18D7-772B
C:     builtin_drive    ACF1-823B
D:     readonly_drive   0000-0000
E:     removable_drive 0000-0000
F:     removable_drive 0000-0000
G:     removable_drive 0000-0000
H:     removable_drive 0000-0000
W:     network_drive    0000-0000
X:     network_drive    0000-0000
Y:     network_drive    0000-0000
Z:     network_drive    0000-0000

Mail server log says: master[50]: ERROR: Cannot start mail services...

Recently, after a year or more of relatively smooth service, my OS X Server 10.4.11 Mail services has been locking up daily.
I was finally able to get some information from the log files (I am a noob to this) and saw the following right after my most recent reboot of the server:
Oct 5 09:51:11 mm1 master[50]: ERROR: Cannot start mail services, configuration directory does not exist: /Volumes/Data/mail/var/imap
I checked the server and that directory is indeed there on the partition named "DATA", so I am baffled as why the server does not thing the configuration directory exists?
drwxr-xr-x 15 cyrusima mail 510 Oct 5 09:51 imap
drwxr-xr-x 15 root admin 510 Oct 3 20:01 imap.BAK
drwxr-xr-x 15 cyrusima mail 510 Oct 3 20:05 imapold10032009-200707
drwxr-xr-x 4 jkoerber admin 136 Dec 3 2007 spool
mm1:/Volumes/Data/mail/var jkoerber$
Can anyone help me? My customers are yelling for blood because they cannot send/receive emails.
-- Jon
Message was edited by: Jon Koerber

Thanks Alex for the feedback. You are helpful as always!
It's good to know that the message I am getting from the mail server about the configuration files is only a temporary thing. Although I find it strange that the mail service doesn't know where its config files are since it is specified in the mail server setup.
I looked at the log files you mentioned and do not see anything that looks like a specific problem with the mail services themselves.
Recently, however, I have been having recurring problems where my mail server and my Web/Database server have both become unresponsive at nearly the same time even though they are on different class A networks to where I cannot access them via ARD, Server Admin and even SSH. That is usually when my mail server goes offline. I was afraid it was because of that configuration error I was seeing, but think now that the problem could be something else entirely (maybe some kind of network problem or denial of service hacking attack, no idea).
Thanks again.
-- Jon

Missing master files in Aperture 2

I (like a lot of others on here!) am having trouble with my photos in Aperture 2 displaying the yellow exclamation mark and grey arrow badge.
When I go to File > Relocate Master..., I get a message saying they cannot be found.
I searched on one photo's filename through spotlight and found the images in "User"/Pictures/Merged Libray (which is the name of my iPhoto library)/Masters/ then a string of numbered subfolders, 2011/04/12/ etc.
BUT when I go back to Aperture and go to File > Manage Referenced Files in order to reconnect them (is this right??), the folder "Masters" of my iPhoto library does not appear in the bottom navigation pane of the Aperture dialog box. I can navigate to the Masters folder through Finder by asking to "Show package contents" for iPhoto, but this is not an option in the Aperture window.
Does anyone know how I could fix this? Could I perhaps copy the iPhoto "Masters" folder files, create a new folder on the desktop or some such, and ask Aperture to speak with them? That seems a bit convoluted.! :S Hope someone can help!
I am on a 15" MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6.7, Aperture 2.
Cheers

A mistake I used to make that resulted in this is when I import photos, not double checking the option to save them into the Aperture library, or leave them where they already are on the hard drive. Then, I'd delete the originals, and bang, exclamation points.
If Aperture says there's no physical Master file anymore, then there's not. Back track and figure out when/where you moved the originals or if you deleted them. It's always safer to doube check an import is placing the Masters into Aperture's own library.
If they're in iPhoto now, delete them from Aperture, re-import them from iPhoto.

File offline

I'm having trouble with files showing up offline. I'm not sure if this is because I inadvertantly imported photos from my amera to a non-library location and then deleted the originals -- or if when I changed computers over and copied the library over, something happened. I do know that it is looking for my old hard drive to find the master file. But I'm pretty sure that I have always kept my photos in the aperture library file. When I go to reconnect the file using the "manage reference file" option, I can't select the library itself, so I don't know what else to do. Any ideas???

If your missing files are really managed files, they still should be inside the Aperture Library Package.
BTW. what is your Aperture Version and your MacOS Version.
Do you know the approximate date when you imported those files? And how many missing files are we talking about? Is it feasible to track them down individually by searching for them? Inside an Aperture 3 library is a folder "Masters", that contains the master files. You might copy this file to an external drive, or wherever you can find enough space, and then try to locate one of your missing masters inside this folder. Inspect the file and see if it is maybe corrupted.

Missing master files in Aperture

I am missing master files from Aperture 3. I rebuilt the library with no success.
Oddly, I can't even find them in Time Machine even though I know I exported versions of them. The entire month of imports doesn't ever appear in Time Machine even though I have proof that I used the master files to export in July. I haven't used Time Machine a lot so maybe I'm missing something.
What else can I try.

Have you checked, if the missing masters are inside the Aperture Library package?
Sometimes Aperture looses the connection to managed masters.
You need to find out the exact date that you imported your images - you can find that information in the "Import Session" metadata tag - ad this tag to one of the metadata preset that you use to display the metadata in the info panel - set themetadata preset in the info panel to "edit".
Then open the Aperture Library package (ctrl-click the Aperture Library in the Finder window) and select "Show package Contents". Inside the window that opens go to the "Masters" folder, then inside to the year , month, day you imported the images. Are the original master image files still there?
If yes, then make a backup copy of these images, to have a copy just in case, and try to repair the permissions in your library with the library first aid tools:
Aperture 3 User Manual: Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library
If you cannot reconnect the missing originals/masters this way, reimport the masters you found inside the library.
Please post back, once you looked inside the library, if the masters/originals are still there.
Regards
Léonie

Flickr changing Master File name in sync'd albums

Has anyone noticed that when syncing with Flickr from Aperture that the sync'd images get altered Master File names? This doesn't have an effect on the images in the Aperture projects, only on the images in the sync'd folders under Flickr. I just find this odd as the MobileMe sync'd images don't get their Master File names altered. Has anyone else noticed this?
Also, do the sync'd images, say for MobileMe, Flickr, Facebook, etc get stored in the Aperture Library and subsequently in vaults? I was checking in my Aperture Library folder and it seems that they do. I am just wondering why Aperture would store this as it seems redundant to store the same images twice. Maybe I am misunderstanding something. Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Mac

We do a high volume of shooting with weddings, so it really is not feasible to dub tapes or similar to get proper timecode. It is not just this tape but every tape that seems to have problems with working with timecode, and that is from 4 different sony cameras and importing from various devices (but not an actual deck).
If any other ideas pop up, please let me know. Two other odd pieces of information. When I attempt to reconnect, where it should show the names of the media to reconnect, this clip shows up blank, without even an extension. It is there as there is a blank portion that is highlighted blue and it lets you search, but when you try to reconnect it either says operation not allowed, or it goes through and nothing happens. The second thing is that when you get the info on the clip from the browser, it says the drive for the clip is missing. Not sure if that is simply because the clip is offline but the drive is showing up as connected, so I found it odd that it says that the drive is missing...

Missing master files...again.

Well Aperture has lost my master files again.
I keep them on an external HDD and backed up to another external HDD.
How to point Aperture in the right direction? (thousands of images)
thanks

Hello Steve,
are you using Aperture 3.2.3?
Well Aperture has lost my master files again.
What was the reason the first time this happenend?
I keep them on an external HDD and backed up to another external HDD.
Is your external HDD connected and can you see the master image files in the Finder?
How to point Aperture in the right direction? (thousands of images)
Launch Aperture
Select the images with the missing masters in the Browser
In main menu bar select "File -> Locate Referenced Files"
The window that appears has two panels:
In the top panel you select one of the images with missing masters
In the lower panel you select the correct master file on your external volume.
If these two match, then the "reconnect" buttons will become available. Press "Reconnect all" and Aperture should find the masters again.
To be alble to connect all at once you may wish to create a smart album containing all images with missing masters:
File -> New -> Smart album"
and add a rule "File status is missing" or "File status is offline"
Good Luck
Léonie

Master Files Offline, cannot reconnect.

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