Upgrading aperture library

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Upgrading aperture library

I am having tremendous trouble with this. When I try to open my library it says the library needs to be upgraded. OK, so I let it do that. It then tells me there was an error because it is from an out of date version of aperture and needs to be upgraded. Didn't I just tell it to upgrade? It then creates a microscopic library file and that is that. Nothing in it. Someone suggested option command double click to invoke the tools, at which point it told me time machine was accessing the file. Which it wasn't because for one time machine wasn't running, and for two the disk this library is on is excluded from time machine back ups. For a so-called professional app this thing sure causes a lot of trouble, and seems to have no idea of the concept of version compatibility. Is there ANY WAY I can run SOMETHING on this file to upgrade it, as Aperture certainly doesn't seem to know how to do it. I have about 10 years of photos in this file and backing it up seems to have been a complete waste of time as the original bloody app can't even open it!

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 27, 2019 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,735 points

Mar 28, 2019 8:34 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

When you open your Aperture Library in Photos, the Photos.app will create a new library from your Aperture Library, on the same drive as the Aperture Library. The Aperture Library will remain untouched. Photos will only change the filename extension from .aplibrary to .migratedaplibrary. Change it back to .aplibrary and you can open it again in Aperture.

The additional Photos Library will not need much storage, because its is using hard links to share photos between the libraries. So I would create it even if you are not planning to migrate to Photos - just as a convenient way to browse your Aperture Libraries once Aperture will be deprecated.

How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,735 points

Mar 27, 2019 7:42 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

To repair the library, select the Aperture library in the Finder (not the Aperture application) and then hold down the key combination option-command and double-click the library. Keep holding down the keys firmly until the library chooser panel appears. You should then be seeing this panel:

I'd start with repairing the permissions.

If you start the repair by selecting the Aperture application, you cannot control, which library it is trying to repair. You might end up by repairing a library on a different drive.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,735 points

Mar 27, 2019 12:48 PM in response to seanfromminato-ku

and this disk has NEVER been backed up by time machine.

Is this disk still on the exclude list for Time Machine in the System Preferences > Time Machine > Options? If not, try to add it.

Then restart the Mac to terminate all processes, that might currently be trying to use the library.

I have never seen this particular error for Aperture. So I do not know how to patch the library manually.

You could try, if the Photos.app can convert your library to a new Photos Library. This will give you access to all photos and allow you see the albums, projects, most of the metadata. To create a Photos Library from the Aperture Library, drag it into the Photos icon in the Dock. See:

How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,735 points

Mar 27, 2019 7:07 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

Aperture is still working more or less for me on macOS 10.14 Mojave. But the Aperture 3.6 update is last update for Aperture since early 2015. It has been the compatibility update for macOS 10.10.3 Yosemite. Aperture has not received any RAW support for new cameras in a long time. The next system upgrade may break it completely.

Has the drive, where you are keeping the Aperture Library ever been used for Time Machine backups? If yes, try to move the Aperture Library to a different drive. MAcOS X 10.14 Mojave is protecting Time Machine drives in a special way, and thill cause problems, if a photo library is on such a drive.

Which of Apertures repair tools have you tried? The most important tool to use for a library migrated from a different Mac would be to use the tool to repair the permissions.

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Answer 5

Mar 28, 2019 6:28 AM in response to léonie

léonie

I restored my Mac, and this time the option command took me straight to the repair options without trying to upgrade. I managed to do permissions, and then instigated a rebuild. It is taking forever (but there're over 50,000 images) but it does seem to be managing to get them out and I can see the number left going down gradually. I am hopeful this will now work.

Thanks for the suggestions. One final question, as Terence mentioned this is now basically an obsolete app, what would be the suggested method of safeguarding and future proofing these images. Can I export that entire library in a form that Photos can access? And is this even the recommended approach?

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,074 points

Mar 27, 2019 6:06 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

Aperture was discontinued almost three years ago and is no longer developed or sold. It has no future. There's no guarantee that it will run on newer versions of the OS.
What version of Aperture do you have? Where is the library stored?
Is this library part of a back up? What created the back up?

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Answer 7

Mar 27, 2019 6:12 AM in response to Yer_Man

It was discontinued? Whaaat? What the **** am I supposed to do then? The version I have is 3.6. The library is on an external hard disk. The library is not part of any back up.

Is there any way to retrieve the photos from the library?

The version 3.6 seemed to get installed automatically when I set up my new computer about 3 months ago so I am not sure how that equates to not being sold. I have an older computer at another location that I may try in a few days when I am there, maybe I can jump through some hoops and get things out.

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Answer 8

Mar 27, 2019 6:35 AM in response to Yer_Man

Well I am a registered user, hence it found the updates I guess, but I don't recall any emails. Yes I did have version 3 I suppose. The disk format is, hold on, an APFS volume. Does that help? So I guess I should be using Photos app now?

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Answer 9

Mar 27, 2019 7:09 AM in response to léonie

No that disk has never been used for time machine backups, which makes the time machine messages so bizarre. I haven't been able to use any aperture repair tools yet as I don't know how to invoke them. When I did appear to get to that stage using the option command double click I got the time machine messages.

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Answer 10

Mar 27, 2019 9:53 AM in response to léonie

Unfortunately when I do that it initially informs me that the library needs to be updated. I do that, and it fails, but it does in the interim create new library, and all the repair stuff then runs upon the new file, that actually contains nothing. I have not found a way to run these tools on the original file.

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Answer 11

Mar 27, 2019 10:02 AM in response to léonie

I MAY have had it access the file by, after the "cannot upgrade as its is an old version message", deleting the new library and renaming the old one. I repair permissions, then try again and this time try to repair database, and then I get the "time machine is backing up this library" message. which is mystifying for all manner of reasons. Not least of all that time machine has been disabled for the last 3 hours and this disk has NEVER been backed up by time machine.

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Answer 12

Mar 27, 2019 6:59 PM in response to léonie

It is on the exclude list yes. And time machine is stopped. I have seen other reports of this exact error, the system claiming time machine accessing the file, in cases where there was no time machine disk and time machine had NEVER been run so it seems a peculiar one. I will try a restart and the other options you have suggested though, thanks.

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Answer 13

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,074 points

Mar 27, 2019 6:22 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

Yes it was discontinued, and yes, if you were a registered user you would have got emails about it.
What format is the HD?
v3.6 is the last version of Aperture. If you got 3.6 setting up a new computer then you already owned v3, and it found the last update.
There are various ways of recovering material from the lIbrary. Which is the best/most likely to succeed will depend on the format of the HD.

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Answer 14

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,074 points

Mar 28, 2019 7:58 AM in response to seanfromminato-ku

Can I export that entire library in a form that Photos can access? And is this even the recommended approach?

Photos can open an Aperture library. It's not as comprehensive an app as Aperture but it will preserve the vast majority of the work you've done.

Adobe's Lightroom Classic is a closer feature match (and indeed, exceeds it now having had 3 more years development) and it will migrate an Aperture Library but not as perfectly. See their site for more. Similarly, OnOne Photo Raw may have a similar feature IIRC.

The truth is that any of the non-destructive processors - iPhoto, Aperture, Photos, Lightroom, Mylio, Capture One OnOne Photo Raw - are worlds unto themselves. And while you can migrate between Apple apps, trying to move to another maker is a pain. The problem with Photos is that it's very much a giveaway app, and no feature match for Aperture or any of the other Pro apps.

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Upgrading aperture library

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