Reconnecting masters an ordeal under OS X 10.8/Aperture 3.4.3

My RAID with my Aperture masters has become a bit dodgy, so I have cloned the drive onto a new RAID box and am trying to reconnect to the files there. The last time I had to reconnect was about three years ago when my primary raid had a hardware failure and I had to switch over to the backup.
This time, things aren't going well.
First, I tried to reconnect the entire library (about 600K images). The process appeared to be going fine (according to the dialog box), but about 8 hours later, when the process was completed, not a single image had been reconnected to the new drive. And when I reopened the Library, I got an "Aperture has detected inconsistencies" message, so I repaired the Library.
So after repairing, I again try to reconnect. Except this time I pick a small project--about 500 images-- and start with that. Reconnection goes smoothly. Then I try a larger project, 20,000 images, and I immediately get the SBBOD. And it doesn't go away, ever. Even so, the progress box does show progress, but it's excruciatingly slow--I did a rough calculation and it will take 45 hours to finish this job. In Activity monitor, Aperture is showing as Not Responding, and it's running at around 100% cpu (I have an 8 core Mac Pro) with 19-20 threads open.
Does anyone have any ideas about what's going on, or how to get around the problem? Is 3.4.3 just buggy with respect to reconnecting?
Thanks in advance
Gordon

OK--I am back from vacation and want to report how this turned out for all who may be interested.
I had copied all of my referenced masters from on old RAID box to a new, higher-capacity RAID (the new RAID will be my working RAID: the old one will become my backup). I had assumed it would be an easy task to reconnect the masters for my entire Library at one time.
As explaned above, that didn't work out, so I picked a single project -- 20,233 Nikon nef raw images -- and tried to reconnect the masters for it alone. This task completed in just over 47 hours.
Then I did a test-- I relocated the masters for the project back to a holding folder on the original drive. This took about an hour and a half.
Now I'm busy relocating all my masters to the new RAID from the original drive.
I don't know whether the unacceptable sluggishness of the reconnect command is a function of my particular set up, but I will be praying that I never have to reconnect to your backup drive. Hopefully this issue will be addressed in Aperture 4 or Aperture X (whenever we see it).
Gordon

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I can't see the adjustments under the Adjustment tab in Aperture. Where is the data?

Several months ago I dragged photos from Aperture into a Burn Folder on my Desktop. Today I dragged the photos from the Burn Folder on my Desktop into Aperture. My photos are all still edited, but I can't see any of the adjustments I made under the Adjustment Tab in Aperture. Where is that data? How do I get it back?

I'll cover most of this because I'm too busy to trim it, but be sure to read Léonie's post.
barbst wrote:
Can you explain to me the difference between a Preview and the Master image? I checked my preferences and they are set "Photo Preview: Half Size" and "Photo Preview quality: 8 Medium".
The Master is now known as the Original. (Apple changed the term. I don't know why.) The "Original" is the term Aperture uses to designate the image-format file you imported into your Library. When you import, Aperture creates a record in its database and creates an Image that you see in the Browser and the Viewer. Every Image has an Original.
Aperture creates additional files that it uses. Among these are a Version, which is a text file containing instructions regarding adjustments and metadata changes you make, some thumbnails, which are image-format files in small dimensions, and a Preview, which is a JPG-format file that is automatically updated to include any adjustments you have made.
The Original is _never_ altered. Aperture is a _non-destructive_ photo developing workshop. "Non-destructive" means that your original files (the ones that Aperture calls "Originals" once you import them) are never altered.
The Preview is _always_ altered. It always is updated to include all the adjustments you have made to any Image.
As you know, you set the JPG parameters (size and quality) for your Previews in Aperture's preferences.
Does this mean that all the photos I have dragged to Burn Folders and burned to DVDs are lesser quality than my Masters in my Aperture Library? I thought I was backing up the Masters!
Sorry for the bad news, but the latter is not correct, and the former is. When you drag an Image from the Browser or the Viewer, Aperture creates a copy of that Image's Preview. (The User Manual should make this clear. Currently it is incorrect.)
Note, too, that your Masters (now "Originals") are never altered. What you might have wanted to back up were the Images in your Library. Now -- get ready for the weird part -- those Images do not exist as image-format files. There is no file that we can access in order to to back-up an Image. You can either create share-able image-format files from your Images, and back those up, or you can back up your Aperture Library, which, when restored, will give you the opportunity to create share-able image-format files from your Images.
Aperture is structured this way -- it saves the imported file, untouched, and text instructions telling it how to create your Images on-the-fly -- specifically to save the space you would need to store full-size files of every Image in your Library. Rather than save "the thing itself", it saves just what it needs to create "the thing itself". The storage savings are enormous.
This is why your workflow is (in general): import, make adjustments and add metadata, sort, group, and organize, and export _only when you need an image-format file to share with another program_. You then share that file, and delete it (because if you need another, you can create it by exporting from Aperture).
How about when I drag photos from my Aperture library to an external hard drive icon on my desktop? Am I dragging the Masters or Previews? If so, are the Previews lesser quality than the Masters in my Aperture Library?
When you drag Images from Aperture, you create copies of those Images' Previews. If you haven't made any adjustments, then they are Previews of your Masters (now called "Originals"). But Previews are JPGs with the dimensions and quality you told Aperture to use, whereas your Originals are whatever format, dimensions, and quality they were when you imported those files. The quality of an Image's Preview is always less than the quality of that Image's Original. (I'm using "quality" to mean "amount of useable data".)
You should test this right now. Create a new Finder folder. In Aperture, select an Image with adjustments applied. Drag it into your newly-created Finder folder. Then export it's Original into the Finder folder (File ▹ Export ▹ Original). Then export the Version with whatever settings you want (File ▹ Export ▹ Version). Compare the three files you just created.
I think I'm going to be sick! Please tell me it isn't so! I have 1000s of beautiful photos from trips on both DVDs and a Western Digital external hard drive, but I dragged them all from my Aperture Library to either a Burn Folder or a Western Digital icon on my desktop, then I deleted the originals from my Aperture Library. I did this to make room on my Mac Book Pro hard drive. This is how Apple One on One taught me to backup my photos!
I'm sorry .
To back up your Originals, back them up. They are files. If they are in your Library, they get backed up when you back up your Library.
To back up your Images, either make files from them, and back up those files, or ... back up your Library with the knowledge that that way you can create new files from your Images after restoring your Library from your back-up.
To shrink the size of your Library so that it leaves more space on your system drive:
- remove un-needed Images
- relocate some Images' Originals to a second drive (almost always external). Aperture makes this easy to do.
Alternative, put your entire Library on a second drive. Libraries on external drives connected via USB-3 or Thunderbolt work fine.
In general, a photographer's commitment to an image-management database system (of which Aperture is one) is complete: it works best when it is all-enclusive. I recommend against removing Images from your Library either to save space or to archive them. My personal Library catalogues all my photographs. Using it I can find, and make available, any photo I've taken and decided to keep. Once I decide to keep it, it stays -- forever -- as a record in my Library.
Note that your "Library Set" (I just made that up, but it should exist) includes your Library package (that shows as a file in Finder) and any Referenced Originals that belong to Images in your Library. You must back up your entire Library Set.
The Geniuses at the Apple Store generally do great jobs in demanding circumstances. They are, by need, generalists who must be reasonably adept with a lot of software. It seems you were (badly) misinformed. Please recommend this post to the one who coached you, so that s/he makes sure that others aren't similarly misled.
HTH,
--Kirby.

Masters in new hard drive... and Aperture can't locate them!

Hello guys,
this is my first message here... I'm from Rome, I'm a photographer and I am - obvioulsy - a Mac enthusiast user!
I use Aperture for a year, this is a great app for my workflow but now I have a "little big" problem.
Today, I've bought a new external hard drive where I've moved the Aperture Library and all my photo archive (referenced files). Now Aperture opens the library from the new location, it shows all previews but can't locate any master because it looks for them in the old path.
I'm trying to set up the new one with "Relocate Masters for Projects..." and "Manage Referenced Files..." commands but I had no success.
Please, could you help me?
What is the right procedure to solve this problem?
I'm going mad...
Thank you in advance!
Alex

I found today that you only really need to "re-refrence" one image...so the post above is correct. You just need to have all of the images you want to reconnect when you go to the "manage referenced files" box.
Assuming that all of them are on the same volume, and relatively in the same location, this should work.
1) Select all of your images...say all of the 2007 images.
2) Right click on one that is showing the offline volume.
3) Select "Managed referenced files..."
4) Find the 1 file in the browser that needs refrencencing, and it should light up the "Reconnect All" button.
5) Click "Reconnect All"
...it'll take a while (depending on # of images, but it should work.
Message was edited by: SuperToph

How do I reconnect my masters from multiples libraries?

Spring must be coming early...I've decided to clean up my Aperture libraries!
I have multiple libraries, none of which are totally unique, and may have photos contained in other libraries (dont ask me why...)
I want to construct one library that has a total set of all the images across all my libraries
Potential issues
1 - Probably need to reconnect masters - what is the best way when I have multiple external drives? (which may have been renamed since they were first created)
2 - Some photos are contained in iPhoto
3 - Some photos were held in 'Nikon Picture Project'
What is the best method of achieving my consolidated image library>?

Consolidate all Masters into each Library first. Then merge the Libraries. The weed out dupes, organize, etc. The relocate Masters wherever you want.
The merged Library doesn't have to be on your system disk. Any FW800 or faster disk will be OK for setting it up and housekeeping. You could then -- just as an example -- relocate your Masters to the same external drive, and then move the (smaller) Library to your system drive.

Inadvertently moved my masters-how can I move them back?

I'm hoping someone here can help me. I'm very new to Aperture, and somehow managed to move my masters for a bunch of my files out of the Aperture library. At least, I'm assuming that's what happened and caused the little red slash in the bottom right of the image previews. How can I move them back? I can locate the folder that I assume was created from the move. I'd be really grateful for any assistance.

These were referenced or managed images? The only way to move them out of the library, and have Aperture not track the move, is to open the library package by right clicking and choosing "show package contents." This isn't easy to do accidentally.
If they weren't managed, they wouldn't have been in the library. In this case, if you moved them around in the finder, then Aperture can loose track and you'll get the missing image icon. If that's the case, you'll need to right click on the image in Aperture and choose "Manage Referenced Files..". From there you can reconnect to your images. Once they are reconnected, and if you want them contained in your Aperture library as managed images, you can choose to "Consolidate Master..." from the "File" menu. This will move them into the Aperture library.

I have changed my main computer and now i have no masters for many of my photo's, i still have the old machine. How can i move the masters over?

I recently upgrade my old G5 to a new iMac. I bought this as a refurb however so it came half set up. I did the usual swap of data files, but now many photo's say they do not have the original master so i can do nothing with them. How can i transfer the old Masters from my old machine to the new one?
I must admit i find the whole aperture filing system very difficult to get my head around.
I simply want to make files and store photo's in them! Any help on the masters would be appreciated

Hallo,
what is your current MacOS on your new machine? MacOS 10.7.3? And your Apeture version 3.2.3?
How did you import your images into Aperture on your G5? Did you store them in the Aperture Library as managed masters or as referenced masters outside the Aperture Library?
If they are referenced, then you need to locate the folder with the master image files on your old mac and to tranfer them to your new mac, and then to reconnect masters and versions.
If they are managed, then probably some permissions got corrupted, when you transfererd the library and you should use the Aperture Library First Aid Tools to repair the permissions and to repair the library. See this on how to repair permissions and library:
Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805
If you do not remember, if your library is referenced or managed, open Aperture on your old Mac and select one of the images in the browser. If the Badge-Overlays show arrows in the lower right corner, then the imaster image files are referenced, also if on Ctrl-clicking the image you see the option "SHow in Finder" in the pop-up menu. Select this option, and it will open a Finder window with the folder containing your master images. Transfer these images to your new mac.
To reconnect the version to the masters on your new mac:
open Aperture, then select the images that need reconnecting in the browser,
then select "File -> Locate referenced files" from the Aperture menu.
In the window that pops up select an image to reconnect in the upper part of the window and select the corresponding master image file in the lower part of the window. If both images do match, the reconenct button will become available. Click "reconnect all".
Good Luck
Post back if you have more questions.
Regards
Léonie

Reconnecting raw images in aperture

If my main image hard-drive gets erased, and I re-import all the cards, how does aperture know where to find the images? I see all the information, but the images aren't there. When I connect the new drive, it only finds half the images.

You may need to select "reconnect masters."

The Best Method To Backup Referenced Masters?

I cannot find in Aperture help any mention of backing up the referenced masters which seems odd that Apple would consider backing up managed photos on the internal Aperture Library while not considering the very common (and supported by Apple) method of working with referenced masters on external hard drives.
This is what I am doing: I am using super duper to clone the HDD with the referenced masters to another external drive. If the HDD with the referenced masters dies I just hope that I can somehow reconnect the masters on the other HDD.
Is there a better way to back up those referenced masters? Perhaps a method I am not aware of from within Aperture to make it easy to use or reconnect the back up images?
Aperture 3, MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard

It makes me wonder. Since Aperture places the backups and therefore "knows" the location, does it in the event of losing the originals, have a dialog box or other means for "finding" and reconnecting to the file backups?
afaik, no. Kirby, do you know differently?
But there is of cause the "File > locate referenced files" window, that will allow you to reconnect the versions with their masters. But you will have to point Aperture to the location of the masters.
I am a fanatic with keeping at least two but preferrably 3 copies of everything in at least two different formats.
and preferably in two different places, see Kirby Krieger's post - "offsite location".
And if you are very concerned about the safety of your images, you will create the first backup of your masters directly from the card - before the images enter any image editing software.

Aperture Lost Masters after Time Machine restore

Hello, everybody.
I have such problem. I experience some problems with mouse freeze after 10.6.3 update and tried to solve this problem by restoring my backup copy of system from Time Machine. I restored full hdd. All working ok, but Aperture lost links to Masters. I did not save pictures in Aperture library all of them imported to library as linked to original files (save in current location). I see files using Finder, I could find each file through check reference files in Aperture. But it almost impossible to do it for each file in Aperture Library (more than 20000+ files) manually. How i could fix this problem? OS 10.6.5, Aperture 3.1.1

If I'm reading your post correctly these are *referenced masters*, correct? And Aperture has lost the connection to them but you still can see them on the drive. Now you want to reconnect them.
# Select all the images in Aperture that Aperture has lost its link to. You can use a *Smart Album* to so this. In the *Smart Album* select *Add Rule* then in the rule select missing. This will give you an album of all missing files. Select them all.
# Goto *File->Locate Referenced Files*. All the missing files will be listed. You can reconnect them from here. It can be a bit tricky so it would be best if you read the section on this in the Aperture Users manual.
Good luck

Referenced masters both in Ap3 and Ap2

I have referenced masters on an external HD that I access through our wireless network. Even though I have specified where the master images are, Aperture seems to forget or not have the correct drive name available. This is inconvenient bc now I have to locate external masters and reconnect them again. It's getting pretty annoying. Is there any way to stop this behavior? Also, tonight on Aperture 3 I tried to reconnect masters but it kept selecting a PSD file and when I clicked on the associated master file, it would not ungrey the Reconnect All button and eventually Aperture crashed.

To convert managed masters to referenced masters gp to File->Relocate Masters..
To have imported images made referenced in the Import Window chhose the location you want the masters stored:
Seelct a location or create a new one.

What happened to my masters? Please help!!!

I have worked so far with aperture on my MacBookPro 17 storing the masters and library on an external 500 Gb Lacie drive with no problems. I recently purchased a MacPro and decided to copy the entire folder with all of my photos from the Lacie to an internal disk on my MacPro.
So I plugged the Lacie on the MacPro and copy/paste the entire folder (library included).
I then installed aperture on the MacPro and assigned the library located on the new drive. At first when opening aperture it said masters were offline so I had to RELOCATE all the masters in all projects.
What happened next: I reconnected the Lacie on my MacBook Pro and opened aperture. All masters are unavailable! Opened the folder on the Lacie that I previously copied from and found that almost all images are missing. Reopened the folder on the MacPro drive and discovered that almost all of my images are duplicated! eg. image001 and image001 (1).
Anyone experienced something similar or just have an idea please help!
Thank you in advance for your support
Regards
Guido

I'm not sure I can help but I will ask a few questions to get it started.
1. You do have your masters, right?
2. When you say you are looking at the "folder" with all of your masters on the Lacie drive, do you mean you are looking at the contents of the Aperture library on that drive, using "show package contents", or are your images actually in a folder. If they are in a folder, they are referenced. That is an important distinction.
Sounds like Aperture wasn't aware of the images you copied to the Mac Pro and "relocated" the ones from the Lacie drive to the new location on the Mac Pro then deleted them from the Lacie drive. The deletion surprises me but that's what it looks like it did.
I think I'd try to start over. I would:
1) Back up that new folder on your Mac Pro just to be sure you don't lose your masters. Truly, don't skip this step.
2) Assuming that the masters are referenced (i.e., in a folder, not in the library), copy all of the masters (the originals, not the copies) back to where they were on the Lacie drive then make sure it works with your MacBook.
3) Delete everything from the folder on the Mac Pro.
4) I'll drop out from here because I have never moved a library with referenced images and someone else could probably give you better advice on how to do it right.

Upgrade to 3.4.5 - Referenced Masters Library

hi guys-
I just finally upgraded to Mtn Lion. Therefore, the new Aperture upgrade also downloaded. When I went to open it, I got that message about it needing to upgrade my library for version 3, etc.
So...my library masters are mostly referenced/relocated (not kept in Aperture Library) to a portable HD.
Do I have to do anything special??
I am not sure if I am different b/c I've saved my masters NOT in the APerture library?
Thanks so much!
Lisa

That's how Jedi Masters talk, seems perfectly clear to me
Just put a babelfish in the ear

How to launch photoshop plug-ins under Lightroom?

Do Somebody know a way how to launch Adobe Photoshop plug-ins under Lightroom?
Especially the case is interesting when there is only Lightroom and there is not an installed copy of Photoshop.
There are some 3th party favorite Photoshop's plug-ins (some may be commercial) which I would like to apply on picture into Lightroom. But Photoshop arent more used. And even arent installed. How is possible to use photoshop's plug-ins into Lightroom?

Thank Misterretro! You are bet! This tool is indeed the answer on my needs.
Jim, fortunately, you were wrong. As I can see now there is a way how to launch Photoshop plug-ins under Lightroom, (and also iPhoto, Aperture and etc). At last, the link above promises it, To say it exactly it needs to try.
PS. As I can see, not all Photoshop plug-ins are supported. (But my favorite it should be hosted) This tool "LaunchBox" can integrate into Lightroom only 3th party filter (like AlienSkin, AutoFX, Topaz and etc..) plug-ins but not standard Photoshop filters because obviously what standard Photoshop filters arent plug-ins but these are a part of Photoshop binary code.

Versions and Masters, size and trying to save space

I am looking at my Library and trying to get rid of duplicates - In a List view I see an image and then its Version2. The image master is 9.58 mb; the version is also. I thought versions were supposed to be just the tweaks of the masters and not themselves all that large? I'd like to delete the original and keep the version but know I can't do thatt; if you delete a Master it deletes a version so you can't convert the Version into a new Master
BUT - would this work - export the Versions - delete the Masters - reimport the Versions which then become Masters?
Of course the other option is to offload them all anyway but before going that route, I'm trying to come up with another idea. Or a better idea.
Message was edited by: Victoria Herring

What William said +
You can turn off auto preview generation for new projects, you can turn off "maintain previews" for existing or old projects, you can delete all of the previews and then just generate them for your rated images.
You can also take a some of your images either by project or by any other criteria and then use move masters to an external drive.
More here:
[Aperture previews|http://photo.rwboyer.com/2009/01/aperture-2-quick-tip-managing-preview s>
[Aperture file management|http://photo.rwboyer.com/2009/01/aperture-2-file-management>
RB

Reconnect managed files

OK, I am at my wits end. My wife's hard drive died. Before it was gone completely I was able to pull the Aperture library file off the drive to store it on my NAS. Apple replaced the drive as it was under applecare. i dropped the Aperture library and while all the referenced files work fine, any files that were managed with Aperture now have a badge that means "The referenced image’s master has not been found." I don't understand. These files are managed, not referenced. If I open the contents of the Aperture contents and then open the contents of the approject I can see the master in the folder with the preview. I know it's the master because of the size. If I try to use the Manage Referenced files tool, though it just errors out with "The selection doesn't use any referenced files."
I also tried managing the files from a project containing referenced files and it states the Macintosh HD is offline. Shouldn't the drive I'm running the program on be online???
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

I found a, hopefully atm temporary, fix but it's very timeconsuming. The good news is you can keep all of your adjustments but you have to do it one image at a time. Which is a allot of work but atleast you don't lose your work fully.
Open the content of the Aperture library and from there open the contents of the approject of your choice, drill down till you find the masterfile. Drag and drop it back into the project in Aperture. After that, Lift the adjustments from the "previous" master file and Stamp them back on the freshly imported image et voila… adjustments restored. Now you can delete the missing master files.
You can also spotlight the approject for your master images, import them and then lift & stamp the adjustments and delete them afterwards, what suits you the best.
Hope this helps you out a bit, i'm going about this way since i've got the same problem.
It's a pain in the butt but it does the trick for now.
Hopefully someone comes up with a more userfriendly solution.
Good luck!

Reconnecting masters an ordeal under OS X 10.8/Aperture 3.4.3

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