Moved all content via Time Machine to a new Mac - Aperture library corrupt?

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Moved all content via Time Machine to a new Mac - Aperture library corrupt?

I recently purchased a new iMac and moved all of the content from my 3 year old iMac via Time Machine. It all worked flawlessly ... until I opened Aperture. Almost none of the photos have thumbnails, and most of the projects show no main image nor any images inside the project folder (just outlines and names of images, but not the real thing), and even when I open a photo there's nothing on the screen. Many of the Faces are blank as well.

Is it advisable to delete the library and re-import from iPhoto? Not sure how to do that safely - and I sure don't want this to screw around with the original pics in iPhoto.

Suggestions?

27" iMac (new as of 3/20/11), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 21, 2011 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 22, 2011 3:54 PM in response to Chappsnet

I had the same problem when setting up a new laptop that I wanted to be identical to my iMac... it seems that the Aperture is tied to some kind of hard drive identifier that is different in the new machine. And, I was unable to point it at the right data. Hopefully, you get an answer on this because I finally gave up and just don't use Aperture on my laptop. But, considering I too would like to eventually upgrade my desktop I need a solution on this.

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2011 4:04 PM in response to Chappsnet

Do you have any other backups such as a vault? Or can you copy from the previous Mac again?

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Answer 3

Mar 22, 2011 5:42 PM in response to Chappsnet

How did you install Aperture the app (not the libraries) on the new system? Aperture doesn't like being installed from a time machine backup.

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Answer 4

Chappsnet Author

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Mar 22, 2011 5:54 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

I actually just used the image on Time Machine when I set up the new iMac - and everything copied over just fine. Aperture is the only thing I've found so far that has a problem.

How can I reinstall? Should I delete the old libraries?

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Answer 5

Mar 22, 2011 6:02 PM in response to Chappsnet

Keep the libraries.

See [Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805] especially at the end for instructions on reinstalling Aperture.

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Answer 6

Chappsnet Author

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32 points

Mar 22, 2011 6:10 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Actually, that may not be wise. I attempted to reprocess the masters, but got an error message telling me that versions with unavailable master images cannot be reprocessed. 'One or more of the selected versions has a master image which is either offline or missing'. Did this while viewing all photos - all of which have their file name, but 90% of them just have the dotted outline and no thumbnail, and no image when opened.

If I remove Aperture and delete the libraries, can I just reinstall and reimport the photos from iPhoto? I'd only lose a few photos which are just in Aperture and not in iPhoto - and I have backups of those images. Would that work?

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Answer 7

Mar 22, 2011 6:12 PM in response to Chappsnet

You could do that but again the library should be OK coming from TM only the app doesn't like being installed that way. Why not install Aperture and see what that gets you. If you have to then you could go back to iPhoto.

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Answer 8

Chappsnet Author

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Mar 22, 2011 6:44 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Well, you're definitely correct about it not liking a Time Machine install. Yes, it apparently looks at the hard disk name to find its database. In my case, if I try to locate a pic in Aperture in the finder, it gives me this message: The file DSC01504.JPG could not be found because the volume on which it resides is currently offline. Volume [old volume name].'

I think I'll just rename my hard drive and see if that helps. If not, then I guess I'll reinstall Aperture.

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Answer 9

Chappsnet Author

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32 points

Mar 22, 2011 6:55 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Interesting. In the Library/Preferences folder, my com.apple.Aperture.plist file doesn't exist. It doesn't exist anywhere on my hard drive and Aperture 3 isn't recreating it.

Just noticed that there's a 3.1.2 version available for download that specifically highlights 'Reconnecting referenced master images'. Will try that and see what happens.

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Answer 10

Chappsnet Author

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Mar 22, 2011 6:59 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Great. Even though I have version 3.1.1 and version 3.1.2 can be downloaded (which addresses the problem I'm having) - I have to go through the Mac App Store to do the update. And it's not available via the App Store yet.

So frustrating.

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Answer 11

Chappsnet Author

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Mar 23, 2011 8:09 AM in response to Chappsnet

OK, so I found out the problem. When I went down to a single image and select Locate Referenced Files, it must be having problems reading the whole path to the Master image. If I simply manually select the image via that tool ... voila!

But that's a lot of manual work, trying to reconnect each image. It doesn't seem to work so well to try to reconnect whole events at a time - it requires that I do each image separately.

Not quite sure how to proceed - whether I should delete the app and find a way to reinstall (I wonder if App Store will even switch from Installed to Purchase).

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Answer 12

Mar 23, 2011 8:28 AM in response to Chappsnet

Not sure from you're posts since last night, were you ever able to install Aperture from some media other than the TM BU?

As for your referenced files problems. If you select all your images in your library then go to *Locate Referenced Files* and then in that window select one of the images listed as missing (in red) and in the bottom half of the window locate that file on your HD doesn't the *reconnect all* button become available? Thats the normal course of things.

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Answer 13

Chappsnet Author

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32 points

Mar 23, 2011 9:14 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Yes, after installing the new 10.6.7 OS X update and rebooting, I was able to update Aperture via the App Store (FaceTime still shows the 'null' account).

However the issues with the pics still exist. I tried selecting multiple pics, then finding the first pic in the series manually, and selecting reconnect all ... but it put all the pics into the first pic. Weird! I had to redo that.

So I'm kind of stuck, unless I re-import. Not sure how to do that without screwing everything up - but could it get any crazier?

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Answer 14

Chappsnet Author

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32 points

Mar 24, 2011 8:25 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

So I've now re-imported my iPhoto library ... and have dupes of everything. I hope there's an easy way to remove the originals, which still aren't connected to the masters, and keep the newly imported photos.

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Answer 15

Mar 24, 2011 10:28 AM in response to Chappsnet

Sorry to see that the reconnect didn't work for you. I'm confused by your statement:

I tried selecting multiple pics, then finding the first pic in the series manually, and selecting reconnect all ... but it put all the pics into the first pic.

Not sure what the +all pics into the first pic+ means.

Anyway as for your current situation *re: dupes of everything*, you could have done the iPhoto import into a new Aperture library and not have the duplicate situation. That still might be a better option for you as removing duplicates tends to be a messy process.

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