EcoTexan
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: Weirdness Consolidating a Photos Library with Referenced Files

Well, I have a confounding issue involving with my Photos library.

 

First, a bit of context...

 

  • I'm using Photos with a library that was converted from an Aperture library
  • About 16,000 of my 35,000 photos are referenced files, stored on an external HD
  • I use iCloud Photo Library

 

On my primary Mac, I can see all my photos, and open the full size originals. However, I also see "15,934 Items on This Mac Only" at the bottom, because of all the referenced files.

 

I would like to Consolidate my library so everything uploads to iCloud Photo Library. However, when I choose "File > Consolidate" I immediately get series of error boxes asking me to locate each referenced file one at a time.

 

Why? I think because of how the files are named.

 

You see, back when I was using Aperture, when importing the photos I would sometimes use the function to automatically rename what Aperture called the "Version" (but not the original file) in the format of the photo's EXIF Time Stamp. For instance...

 

2006_0506_172455AA.JPG would be renamed to "2006-05-06 17-24-55"

 

Aperture would create a reference and leave the original file (with its original name) on my external hard drive. And everything worked just fine. Aperture knew the Referenced Files by their Version name and their original filename.

 

Fast forward now to my Photos Library. Apparently photos can still find the referenced files, because when I open the older photos that were imported this way, they appear at full resolution with no errors.

 

However, when I right-click and choose "Show Referenced File in Finder" ...nothing happens.

 

And, when I use "File > Consolidate", Photos asks me to locate a file with the Version name instead of the original name. If I manually rename the original file, choose Consolidate, and point Photos to it, then Photos finds the file and uploads it.

 

Weird, right?!

 

I had considered batch renaming all my original files, but I'm really hesitant to do this — I'm unsure it would work in every case, because sometimes the EXIF Time Stamp differs from the filename by a few seconds (given file saving times, I suppose). How many discrepancies are there as a percentage of my 16,000 photos? No idea...

 

Has anyone else encountered something like this?

Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Is there some weird back way of tweaking the Photos library to "fix" the references?

 

Thanks so much in advance!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 15, 2016 6:26 AM

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EcoTexan

Q: Weirdness Consolidating a Photos Library with Referenced Files

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  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 15, 2016 7:07 AM in response to EcoTexan
    Level 10 (84,857 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 15, 2016 7:07 AM in response to EcoTexan

    referenced libraries are not well supported in Photos and therefore they are strongly not recommended - your best path would be  to use Aperture which does handle them to consolidate your library and then migrate the managed library to Photos

     

    I do not believe ta tPhotos is going to work with your setup

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 15, 2016 7:32 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 10 (107,629 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 15, 2016 7:32 AM in response to LarryHN

    When Photos first came out, I migrated a few Aperture  test libraries with referenced files and it worked well.

    Something seems to have changed with the recent upgrades.

     

    When I now import photos as referenced into a new Aperture library or relocate them, and then migrate the resulting library to Photos, the command "Show Referenced File in Finder" does not work at all.

    Even if the originals have very simple names.  Consolidating worked however in Photos.

     

    Aperture can still handle referenced files well.

  • by EcoTexan,

    EcoTexan EcoTexan Sep 15, 2016 7:33 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 15, 2016 7:33 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks, Larry. I see that as the "nuclear option" in this case.

     

    I have begun running the "Consolidate" command on chunks of my photos, and it seems to be doing a fairly good job of locating and repairing the references. However, I'm still having to skip many files, and I have no easy way to tell what's working and what's not. So maybe I'll just have to bite off small chunks and work through it that way...

     

    Any more suggestions?