Problem opening Aperture library

I have an aperture library on an external HDD that I used to use on my macbook running Aperture. I want to open this library on my imac running aperture 3 but I get this message
There was an error opening the database for the library "/Volumes/WD HDD/WDHDD/Pictures/Aperture Library.applibrary".
The library could not be opened because the library's volume is unsupported.
Any ideas please. There are images in this library that I really want.

Do you see this HDD volume on your iMac in the Finder? Can you read the files and write to the volume? Do other applications also have problems to access the volume?
How is it formatted?
Aperture needs the drive to be formatted MacOS X extended.
Have you enabled the "Ignor Ownership on this Volume" flag? When you select the drive in the Finder and select "File > Get Info" from the main menu bar, you find this flag in the "Permissions" brick of the "Get Info" panel for the drive.
Regards
Léonie
P.S. What are your MacOS and Aperture versions?

Similar Messages

Problem opening Aperture in Mountain Lion

I'm running Aperture 3.3.2 and upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. Since the upgrade Aperture is hanging on the "Opening Aperture Library" window. I've repaired and rebuilt my library with all referenced files on externals attached. No help. I've also deletedt the "ProAppsSystemID" file and reentered my registration numbers and still had no success.
Oddly with the "Opening" window open Aperture's toolbar funcuions normally as if the program were open.
I have figured out a work around. I made a new, empty library. I can open Option-click and open Aperture and select that empty library. From that empty library I can then switch to my normal library and use it as normal. Upon closing Aperture however things go back to being locked up when I try to open it.
Anyone else seen this problem? I'm open for suggestions. Thanks.

MikeSwe wrote:
I used to launch a sparsebundle file to mount it on the desktop (in the form of a normal h.d. partition) and so reach to open the files directly from applications.
Don't do that; files in Time Machine backups are protected, and should not (usually cannot) be used directly with applications. The should be restored somewhere to be used.
Use the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display) instead.
To see the backups for a different Mac, use the Browse Other Backup Disks option, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17/

Cannot open aperture library in iPhoto

I recently opened an old iPhoto library in Aperture. This changed the file extension, and presumably the file structure. Libraries are supposed to be interchangeable between the two apps, but now I get the following message when I try to open the libary in iPhoto: "To open this Aperture library in iPhoto, it first needs to be upgraded with Aperture 3.3 or later. Quit iPhoto and then open your library in Aperture to upgrade it." I'm running Aperture 3.4.5 and iPhoto 9.4.3. I've repaired permissions and rebuilt the database (and whatever the third option was when Aperture is launched with Command-Option). Any suggestions?

Stephen,
the problem is probably an inconsistent DateModelVersion.plist file in the Aperture Library.
If the library cannot be repaired, try to restore this file from your backup, from a time when the library could be opened in iPhoto. If you have Code installed, you can try to edit the file manually.
see joeholmes post: Re: Help! Can't Open Aperture Library (Requires iPhoto 9.4?)
or the manual fix by jashman: Re: Help! Can't Open Aperture Library (Requires iPhoto 9.4?)

Opening Aperture Library from my Drobo (Very Slow)

I have a Firewire Drobo, which I love, and I use Aperture on my Mac. I currently have my primary Aperture Library (~125GB) on my Drobo. I have been experiencing an issue with slowness when opening my Aperture library from my Drobo. It takes several minutes (5-6) to open my library from the Drobo and am wondering if 1) others are experiencing excessive slowness when opening their Aperture Library from a Drobo and/or 2) if I would be better off just using a regular firewire drive for my Aperture library and using the Drobo just for my Aperture Vault and not my primary library?
It seems that this issue has gradually gotten worse as my library has increased in size. When the library was 50GB it seemed to open pretty quickly, but the bigger it gets the longer it takes to open. Once it is open it is fairly snappy, although if I am reading and writing a lot of data to the Drobo simultaneously I will see some slowness sometimes. This machine is the current generation of 24" iMac with 4GB of RAM. My Drobo is filled with 3 - 1TB Western Digital Green drives and 1 500GB WD Green drive.
Would love to hear if others are having a similar experience and any ideas for better performance.
Thanks!
Guy

I don't think the FW is the problem, although it might be
I was keeping my Aperture library on a Drobo and ALL of the images were referenced and not managed.
And like you, it became progressively slower (5-10-15-20 minutes to open) and then became corrupted on more than one occasion. After the last episode and after substantial heroic efforts (48 hours of rebuilding), I was able to recover the library. Once recovered, I moved the library to my internal drive and left all of my images as referenced on the Drobo. The library since the move has been fine. I have occasional images which appear to become corrupted on the Drobo (not recognizable by Aperture or Photoshop or Preview), that fortunately, I simply replace the RAW file in the appropriate location from a back up copy of the RAW file and everything is fine.
This has been discussed with Data Robotics and after several weeks I still don't have an answer from an email I sent providing all the requested information.
Bottom Line. Place your referenced your images on Drobo, but make sure you have at least two other additional backup of your original datafiles. Move your library to some other drive immediately!!
My suspicion is Aperture and Drobo RAID system do not work well together and Data Robotics has been disappointing in terms of technical response to inquiries.
I have two Drobo boxes and they are used daily, but at this point I always, always always have at least two back ups on whatever is on the Drobo. My dream was it would be a highly or super reliable copy of my data, but at this point, I really do not consider them to be even a reliable copy, given the random corruption issues and Data Robotics poor support.
I am investigating alternative large data systems and the most interesting thus far is the WD Share gigabit system. Data Robotics says that they only certify one other FW drive and it HAS to be a Data Robotic drive and not another vendors. FW is supposed to support up to 16 devices according to Apple so there is a huge disconnect. I do use several drives downstream from my 2nd Gen Drobo units, I mount/unmount religiously and have not had obvious problems with other drives.
Having said that, I have not had another corruption problem since December 26 or so, but I also have not looked at every RAW file of the 40,000 stored on the Drobo. I figure I will find more, but will replace them as I find them.
Regards, Steven

Can't open aperture library in iPhoto

When I try to open my Aperture library (v3.4.4) with iPhoto (v9.4.3), I get the following message and the application quits:
Aperture library needs to be upgraded.
To open this Aperture library in iPhoto, it first needs to be upgraded with Aperture 3.3...
Both iPhoto and Aperture worked properly with a shared library prior to installing the 3.4.4 Aperture update in mid-April 2013. Upon first launch of Aperture after the update, there was a message stating that the library needed to be upgraded. The upgrade completed succesfully, and Aperture has been running properly.
To remedy the problem, I have tried the following:
1) Repair Permissions of the Aperture library
2) Repair Database of the library
3) Rebuild Database of the library
4) Opening the iPhoto library with the menu command <Open Library in iPhoto> in Aperture (Same notice to upgrade the library appears)
My setup is:
- Latest 27" iMac w/ 3.2GHz Core i5, 16GB RAM
- OSX 10.8.3
- Aperture v3.4.4
- iPhoto v.9.4.3
- Aperture library is stored in the local hard drive in the Pictures folder
- iPhoto used to make print products only availble in iPhoto
I have searched the boards and have noticed people with similar symptoms but not the same circumstances.
Does anyone have a suggestion or solution?
Thank you.

Added:
Just in case you cannot find a backup of the Aperture Library that has been created with AP 3.4.4, make a current backup of your Aperture library and trash the file "DataModelVersion.plist". Then open your library in Aperture 3.4.4. Aperture creates a new version of this file, at least my experiments showed, that the file can be restored this way.

Unable to open Aperture library in Photos

Hi,
I am unable to open my Aperture library in Photos.
In the attempt to get this fixed, I carried out from within Aperture (by pressing alt-cmd during Aperture startup) in 'Photo library first aid' all three options that are offered: Repair permissions, repair database, rebuild database - nothing helped. I also had corrected before some dangling references to pictures that are not managed in the library; there are no offline or unreferenced pictures in the library.
In 'Photos' I am getting a pop-up windows with the message at stage "Preparing library ... 69% completed": "The library could not be opened. Photos has attempted to repair the library xxxx, but is unable to open it."
However, that same library opens fine in Aperture, and also in iPhoto.
What is the problem?
Thanks
Wolfgang

I talked to apple support. They recommended doing a basic level permissions repair using the following procedure:
The advice is a little outdated, and you just have to run the disk utility program to repair the permissions on your main drive and the drive upon which you store the databases. I have tried the following procedure and have re-run the importation procedure. Just at 1% now - so I hope that it will work this time. If it doesn't, I will report back after talking to a Level 2 person at Photos support.
JF
In the newest versions of OS X, there is an additional Repair Permissions application utility hidden away. This tool is located inside boot Repair Utilities. Here’s how to access it.
Restart OS X and hold down the Command and R keys.
You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen. On top, in the Menu Bar click the Utilities item then select Terminal.
In the Terminal window, type “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and hit Return.
The Password reset utility launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are having issues.
At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.
The reset process takes a couple of minutes. When it’s done, quit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac. Notice that ‘Spotlight’ starts re-indexing immediately.
Great tip, thanks for sending this in Tony R!
Update: This works in OS X 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, and newer.

Unable to open Aperture Library

I am once again experiencing problems with my Aperture Library which is stored in an external hard disk.
Keep getting an error "1712" and message saying that application can not be opened.
Have tried to repair by holding down the command and option key while double clicking in the library but still no success! :-(

Have tried to move my Aperture Library from the other ext drive by dragging it across, but unable to do so. Can you point me at the right direction for this?
What happens when you try? Do you you get an error message "Some items cannot be copied" or similar? Then you new drive is probably not formatted correctly as MacOS Extended (Journaled). Backup any items you moved to the drive and reformat it:
See Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

Problems with Aperture Library

My iMac crashed as I was importing some pictures. When I restarted it said there was a problem with the library and it needed to be repaired. After the repair I find that when I open Aperture I get an error message:There was an error opening the database for the library “/Users/samswallow/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary”. I quit that and Aperture closes. I have reinstalled Aperture and it makes no difference. All my photos are still there in Aperture Library Masters and can be seen in Preview. I would value any help on this.

Did you do a repair or a rebuild? And did the action complete normally?
I would do the permissions repair then the library repair again and if you still get the errors do the rebuild. Note before doing the rebuild you should have a backup of your library. While it rarely happens rebuilds can make things worst.

"To open this iPhoto library in Aperture, it first needs to be upgraded". Aperture already up to date. still cant open aperture library. please advice

When I try to open my aperture library, this is the message pop out " TO OPEN THIS iPHOTO LIBRARY IN APERTURE, IT FIRST NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED. "
My apperture application is already up to date. no more upgrade available. please advice what to do.

The update refers to the library not the application.
So is this an Aperture library you are trying to open in iPhoto or an iPhoto library you are trying to open in Aperture? You're post is confusing on this point.
In either case make sure the library is up-to-date in the originating application then the other should open it.
BTW what version of iPhoto abnd Aperture are you running?
Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano

Help! Can't Open Aperture Library (Requires iPhoto 9.4?)

"To open this iPhoto library in Aperture, it first needs to be upgraded."
Verify that you have iPhoto 9.4 or later. Then open the library in iPhoto to upgrade it."
I don't own iPhoto 9.4.
What the heck do I do??
-=-Joe

First if you look at the library in the Finder what is the full name including the extension?
Aperture Library.aplibrary
Second if highlight the library in the finder, right click and select Show Package Contents.
In the Finder window that opens select the file Info.plist and delete it.
Now try opening Aperture on the library.
Okay, just tried that -- no help....

Insufficient disk space when opening Aperture library in iPhoto

I just created a fresh library with 3000 photos (6GB) in Aperture. I then tried to open that library using iPhoto by holding down the Option key on launch but got an alert: "Insufficient Disk Space: There is not enough free space on the disk that contains this library to upgrade it. It is estimated that you need at least 6GB of free space."
OK, I only have 4GB of free space on my HD. But why would iPhoto need to upgrade the library to begin with? I'm using the latest version of both Aperture (3.5.1) and iPhoto (9.5.1) and I thought they use the exact same library. And even if iPhoto needs to upgrade the library, why would it need an extra 6GB when the Aperture library is only 6GB? If opening the library in iPhoto results in increasing the library size from 6GB to 12GB, I'd rather not do it. Am I missing something?

OK, I only have 4GB of free space on my HD. But why would iPhoto need to upgrade the library to begin with? I'm using the latest version of both Aperture (3.5.1) and iPhoto (9.5.1) and I thought they use the exact same library. And even if iPhoto needs to upgrade the library, why would it need an extra 6GB when the Aperture library is only 6GB?
iPhoto and Aperture are using the same library, but Aperture has preference settings, that prevent previews or faces from being created. If you open an Aperture library in iPhoto, the library size may increase, since iPhoto may be creating files, that Aperture did not create. Probably iPhoto's estimated was too pessimistic, but opening an Aperture library can increase the library size.
But photograhis is right. You should not be running any applications at all, if you do not have at least 20GBof free disk space.

Cannot open Aperture library

I have multiple Aperture 3 libraries. I have the most current version of Aperture (3.5.1) and OS10.9.1. I can open all my libraries except one - the one I need for Christmas! I have tried all threee repair steps multiple times. Sometimes it gets as far a showing me albums, but that is as far as it gets before it locks up. I also moved it from a remote HD to my main iMac HD with still no luck. What other steps can I use?

Léonie,
Wow, I so appreciate your input!
To summarize:
You tried all three First Aid Tools - repair database, repair permissions, rebuild, right?
You can open other Aperture libraries, right?
Your Aperture library is on your system drive?
Deferring the generation of previews did not help
All true
Does your christmas library contain other media types than the other libraries that work well? Videos, raw files?
Most images are RAW files and there is also some video
Do you have enough free disk space?
Yes, plenty
It worked for a couple hours this moring and when it woke up, it was locked up again...
What are you trying to do? Printing a photo book? Rendering a slideshow?
Organizing images into a photo book, printing, all of the above.
So Aperture does not immediately hang? Try to start Aperture's Activity window right after startup: Window > Show Activity. Watch it, so you can tell what Aperture is doing, when the "Hang" starts.
Also watch the Console, so you can see what immediately befor the hang will happen, perhaps what it causing it.
I am not able to really start anything in that library immedniatly after start-up, but will try again to watch.
When did this hang start? After you imported new images, or after you installed or upgraded software?
Software is updated automatically now. It started about 3 weeks ago.

I see this problem with Aperture Library

Well, as you know, we have an Aperture Library. In my case about 60GBs and it will be growing about 35GBs per year. This Library is made of files imported from folders in another external HD (they are the originals imported from the camera). I have a Vault and consequently another file with 60GB. Then I have photos that really are triplicated.
I would love that Aperture import my files and not duplicate them. As iView works.
Please, let me know if there´s another way of doing these things.
Regards.
Guillermo

If you are importing your photos into the Aperture library -- making them Managed, rather than Referenced -- then you can delete the folders you imported them from.
(If you move back and forth between Managed and Referenced, you have a number of choices of moving vs copying, duplicating or not duplicating.)
It always feels strange to delete a lot of images. Many people seem to solve this by archiving the images on DVD. Then you can keep just the images in the Aperture library, and the vault (on separate hard disks), and feel relatively safe. I find I also keep one spare, more-or-less up-to-date copy of the whole library on yet another disk, from a well-founded superstition about hard drives.

Problems opening Aperture onto new iMac

I had to replace a malfunctioning iMac with Aperture installed on it with a new iMac. A data transfer moved everything from the old to new. When try to open Aperture it won't accept the original serial number or 3.0 serial number. I am unable to get into Aperture to access my photos. Thanks for your help.

No. Aperture, like every program I know of, separates program files from data files. Deleting and/or installing the Aperture program should have no effect whatsoever on your Aperture Libraries, wherever they are. Generally, your Aperture program file is in your Applications folder, and your Libraries are stored in your Documents folder. You might want to confirm that the move from old to new brought over your Aperture Libraries intact.

Aperture library suddenly won't open

OK, I've been putting off updating to the latest version of Aperture (3.4.3) because I had a sort of premonition about something bad happening to my library. But I finally got around to doing the upgrade, having felt this version had been around long enough to be stable. Big mistake. It worked OK initially, but suddenly today won't open my library, no matter what I do.
When I launch Aperture, it opens a little window with a spinning marker in it and the message "Opening Aperture Library". This is normal prior to the main window opening, but usually I see it for no more than a second or so. Now, it's all I see; the main window never appears.
Oddly, Apertur's menu structure seems to work OK while this 'loading' window is open. I can, for example, open the Activity window. However, it contains no useful information to say what's going on; the entries are just blank in this window. Also, I can quit Aperture normally (whereupon it says 'updating previews' as usual).
I've tried all three of the database-reparing options that Aperture offers if you hold down Option-Command when starting: repair permissions, repair database, rebuild database. In all three cases, it goes through the repair process and then just reverts to showing the little 'opening library' window and nothing has improved.
The upgrade to version 3.4.3 apparently went OK the other day, and I've opened and quit the software a few times since I upgraded it, and I thought everything was fine. The one thing that wasn't quite right (and I wonder if this has somethnig to do with my problem now) was Photo Stream. It didn't seem to be working properly. If I clicked the Photo Stream entry in the list at the left of the window, what I saw was just the 'welcome' message with buttons below it to sign in or turn off the service ("No, thanks" button). I didn't see any actual Photo Stream content. In this window, however, it *did* say that I was signed in with my usual Apple ID, so it wasn't very clear to me whether it was OK or not.
There's a photo I took on my iPhone which I was expecting Aperture 3.4.3 to download from Photo Stream, but it never did. I.e. just one shot that failed to download; all the previous ones had been downloaded by my previous version of Aperture. I couldn't see why the missing picture was failing to download, so I tried turning Photo Stream off and on again from within Aperture. I'm really not sure whether this worked or not; there didn't seem to be any meaningful feedback from the software.
Anyway, after having tried to launch Aperture today (and failed), I checked System Preferences and found that Photo Stream was turned off. So I turned it on again. Unfortunately it makes no difference: Aperture still won't load its library at all now.
I have tried all of following:
1. Rebooting my Mac
2. Verifying the disk contaning my Aperture library (it was fine)
3. All three of Aperture's database-repair options
4. Turning Photo Stream on in System Preferences
...and nothing makes any difference. Aperture simply will not open my library but just sits there, twiddling its spinner.
NB My library still appears to be OK, in that I can access its contents from other software successfully using the media browser.
What I haven't yet attempted is to create a blank new library and import my existing library into it. Failing any better ideas I'll try that next, but it's going to be a big operation that will take a lot of time and disk space, so I'd like to see if there are any better things to try first.
I must say I'm very disappointed that Aperture can apparently break so easily. I haven't lost any actual pictures because I'm paranoid and keep a separate copy of all my shots just in the Finder, external to any management software. But I've lost access to lots of photo books I've created over the years and various other resources, not to mention all the editing work I've done on thousands of shots within Aperture (which I haven't retained separately).
This is supposed to be professional level software. How can it seriously (a) break this easily and (b) not be able to retrieve itself via its database repair options?I'm very disappointed.

Thanks for that very helpful reply. I've followed your instructions and done some further digging too.
To answer your three points, first of all:
1. No, I haven't imported any images since upgrading my Aperture library for version 4.3.4; I did move photos between projects a couple of times, but mostly I just checked that everything appeared OK after the upgrade and tried to work out why PhotoStream didn't seem to be working properly.
2. I've attempted to create a new Aperture library. This didn't work! A library gets created on disk, but attempting to open it produces the same endless spinner as the main library.
3. I switched to a spare user account (a blank one called 'test', just as the system created it) and tried to launch Aperture and create a new library there. Same result: library is created but won't load in.
This is very strange, because I'm not aware of having changed anything substantial on my system recently. No new software that installed anything as a login item, system service or background process etc. that I'm aware of. (I'm actually quite wary of such software, and don't have much of it on my system.) The only substantial thing that I know has changed since I last successfully launched Aperture is the year, to 2013! And I hardly think that's the cause...!
I'm wondering if Aperture itself has become corrupted somehow, and whether I should trash it and reinstall it. But that's rather a pain because I've got the DVD version, not the one from the Mac App Store. Besides, I'm not sure what remnants it leaves on the system (sandbox files etc.).
I've verified my startup disk, on which Aperture resides, and repaired permissions, and no error was reported (nor did many permissions need to be fixed).
Now, the only other possible explanation I can come up with is that startup is being prevented by a misbehaving PhotoStream process, as I've just discovered that I'm having endless crashes from PhotoStreamAgent, as reported in Console. I'm getting the same series of messages popping up every few seconds:
01/01/2013 21:58:51.649 xpcd[4676]: PhotoStreamAgent[5540]: registration request failed: (0x11, 0x0) The file “com.apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist” couldn’t be saved in the folder “Preferences” because a file with the same name already exists.
01/01/2013 21:58:52.431 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[473]: (com.apple.photostream-agent[5540]) Job appears to have crashed: Illegal instruction: 4
01/01/2013 21:58:52.431 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[473]: (com.apple.photostream-agent) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
01/01/2013 21:58:52.615 ReportCrash[5531]: Saved crash report for PhotoStreamAgent[5540] version 2.7 (40.34) to /Users/rghallas/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/PhotoStreamAgent_2013-01-01-2158 52_Richard-Hallass-Mac-Pro.crash
01/01/2013 21:58:52.620 ReportCrash[5531]: Removing excessive log: file://localhost/Users/rghallas/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/PhotoStreamAgent _2013-01-01-215516_Richard-Hallass-Mac-Pro.crash
This is just repeating every 10 seconds, as suggested by the 'Will start in 10 seconds' message. Starts; crashes; loop.
Now, I've searched for a file called "com.apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist" and have found three instances: one each in the following places:
Aperture:
/Users/rghallas/Library/Containers/com.apple.Aperture/Data/Library/Preferences/c om.apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist
PhotoStream Agent:
/Users/rghallas/Library/Containers/com.apple.photostream-agent/Data/Library/Pref erences/com.apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist
iPhoto:
/Users/rghallas/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/Data/Library/Preferences/com .apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist
In all three cases, the file appears to be an alias that points to itself (i.e. original path is the same as the alias's path in each case). That seems weird but I hope it's right, given that it applies to all three (and the files alongside these plists in the folders in which they reside).
Anyway, the logs unfortunately don't make it clear exactly *which* Preferences folder is being referred to, and hence which com.apple.iLifeAssetManagement.agent.plist file is causing a problem. I imagine it's the one associated with PhotoStream Agent, since it's the Agent that's producing the ongoing crash reports. But either way I don't know what to do about it. I suppose I could try trashing this particular plist file, but I'm reluctant to do so as I don't want to break anything further.
NB Aperture itself doesn't appear to output any log messages to say what's happening while it's failing to load its library.

Problem opening Aperture library

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