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Level 1

8 points

Aperture Library unavailable in Desktop Background

I've been transitioning to Aperture for quite some time and have been having recurring trouble, with both 3.0 and 3.1, in using the Aperture Library in my Desktop Backgrounds preference pane.

When loading the Desktop preference pane, the stock images and an unused iPhoto library load up, but the Aperture library waits for a few moments and then it loads nothing. No tiny arrow on the left, no images in the window, nothing. The Aperture library loads into the Screen Saver preference pane, as well as other places for the iLife Media Browser. JUST NOT the Desktop Background pane.

I took the time to look in the Console for some insight and I got that System Preferences sent the message:

** DesktopPref error: DSKApertureRootSource -loaddata TIME OUT!!! There something wrong with iLife Media Browser

Yes, that would be Apple's poor grammar. If anybody has ANY insight into this, I'd welcome it, because I'd love to get this solved.

For those who might already suggest, let me note that I have rebuilt the library twice, repaired permissions, blah blah blah.

MacBook Rev. A, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 2, 2010 11:05 PM

32 replies

Mar 8, 2011 11:12 AM in response to clr81

I created a new user, copied the Aperture library and tried with this new user. I was able to get the desktop preferences to show the Aperture library just fine, so I assumed there was nothing wrong with that. So, I went back to the original user and deleted everything out of ~/Library/Preferences. This actually worked for me. Not sure which of the plist files did it for me, but after some time recovering all of my preferences, I am now able to see my Aperture library from the desktop preferences.

Mar 9, 2011 8:40 PM in response to K.M. - Ken M.

It happened again after I opened iPhoto. If I have iPhoto and Aperture, I ended up getting into some issues. When it occurred this time, I didn't delete all of the plist files this time. I deleted some of the most recently touched ones (since I was able to catch this right after I opened iPhoto).
Anyway, I was able to fix it, but I think the one that fixed it this time was com.apple.iApps.plist.

Apr 25, 2011 7:54 PM in response to K.M. - Ken M.

I am so glad I found this thread. I have been unable to use my Aperture library for my Desktop Background for most of this past year. I even tried the Apple Store OneToOne Aperture specialists and they couldn't solve it.

But thanks to this thread, and Ken M in particular, I now know that the problem arises after I load up iPhoto. Sure enough, trashing the

com.apple.iApps.plist

file solves the problem for me. Yay!

AGiglio

Level 1

10 points

May 30, 2011 8:07 AM in response to Longwalker

Trashing the iApps plist file didn't solve anything for me. It just removed the iPhoto item from the sidebar.

Jun 11, 2011 10:35 PM in response to AGiglio

AGiglio, did you reopen Aperture first before going back to the Desktop & Screen Saver panel?

Ken M, that fixed the problem. I actually went a bit deeper and opened up the com.apple.iApps.plist file and after deleting a couple of things to figure out which lines in the file were causing the problem, I found it was the following:

<key>iPhotoRecentDatabases</key>

<array>

<string>file://localhost/Users/Scorpio/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/AlbumData.xml< /string>

</array>

I deleted that, saved the changes to the file, and it worked (so far so good). I chose to delete these lines instead of deleting the entire file and getting Aperture to recreate it as there was stuff in it about iMovie and iTunes and wasn't sure what they were so I didn't want to take any risks there. I'm sure if I open iPhoto again it will add those lines back, but I know what to do now, and there is small chance I'll open iPhoto.

Cheers.

britwi

Level 1

0 points

Jul 17, 2011 2:15 AM in response to Dean Blackketter

mtkgoo's solution still works :-) Aperture's still broken. 😕

Bump.

Jul 18, 2011 1:51 PM in response to Longwalker

This worked for me as well. The problem I was having was that the iTunes could not see the Aperture library in order to sync with my mobile devices no matter how much changing of preferences or libraries I did. Deleting the com.apple.iApps.plist files did the trick. I had three .plist files related to iApps in my Preferences folder--all of them pre-dating my installation of Aperture. As soon as they were gone, iTunes was able to see the library perfectly. Thanks, Ken M. and everyone on this thread.

AGiglio

Level 1

10 points

Jul 19, 2011 9:44 AM in response to Scorpio_1989

Scorpio_1989, Yes I did, should I not have? Also, since that didn't work, I went to a backup I had made before I started this, and looked a the iApps file and there was nothing in it. Any ideas?

Jul 20, 2011 2:02 AM in response to AGiglio

AGiglio, opening Aperture first after deleting the iApps file is what I did (or in my case, deleting the iPhoto parts out of it.

Make sure you don't open iPhoto again until the problem is properly fixed by Apple, otherwise you would have to go through the process of deleting the iApps file again.

I don't know any other way of fixing this as this did the trick for me so I didn't try anything else. Perhaps resintalling Mac and then Aperture as a last method?

clr81 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 1:22 AM in response to clr81

Problem still exists, not going away, none of the solutions offered on this thread have been successful, not a single one resolves the issue.

I did a complete, fresh from total scratch brand-new hard drive installation of Lion (not even from a Snow Leopard upgrade, just a pure install), installed nothing else on the computer except Aperture, moved the Aperture Library over from the old drive, and it has the exact same problem. Nothing has changed. I am STILL getting a console message that says:

7/31/11 1:16:39.952 AM System Preferences: **** DesktopPref error: DSKApertureRootSource -loadData TIME OUT!!! There something wrong with iLife Media Browser

This happens over and over and over and over and over. Clearly something is wrong with my library. How do I possibly diagnose a problem like this? The library is 130 GB and has 60,000 pictures spanning 10 years.

clr81 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 1:23 AM in response to clr81

Let me also be clear that not a single personal setting was transferred over from the old drive and installation. Every single thing on the drive was brand new except for the library itself. No .plist files, no config files, nothing. The issue is in the library and is not resolved.

AGiglio

Level 1

10 points

Aug 1, 2011 9:48 PM in response to clr81

I FIXED IT!! This is something really stupid, and I know I kicked myself for a little for not checking this earlier. After doing the instructions laid out earlier here about deleting the preferences and such, GO TO THE PREFERENCES IN APERTURE. Look under the "Preview" tab and make sure that "Share previews with iLife and iWork" is set to "Always".

Aug 5, 2011 7:45 AM in response to clr81

I found a solution that works for me.

While holding down the <Option> key, start Aperture. It will bring up a dialog box asking which library/location you want to use. I selected the one I'd been using all along, and lo and behold, now the photos will sync in iTunes. I had to reprocess my library for some, but at least now it can find my library. Hope this works for others.

Cheers

Aug 30, 2011 12:59 PM in response to clr81

I think i found it. It's working fine for days now!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3195861?answerId=16043541022#16043541022

Dave Sag

Level 1

18 points

Jun 24, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Scorpio_1989

That worked for me. Many thanks.

Aperture Library unavailable in Desktop Background