Q: Library Will Not Connect to Images on Remote Drive Since Lion

I thought I was going crazy with the connections constantly breaking - glad I found this thread.  Not happy that 10.7.1 didn't fix this.  ReadyNAS (Netgear/Infrant) has been working very hard to try and deal with all of security and networking updates in Lion, but it appears this is really coming from Lion + Aperture.  Apple needs to fix it.  I filed a bug report via Aperture feedback, not so sure anything will happen soon, considering these things seem to dissapear into a black hole.  Really unhappy Apple is forcing me to evaluate Lightroom due to slow development  and squashing of bugs from their Aperture team.

Really unhappy Apple is forcing me to evaluate Lightroom due to slow development  and squashing of bugs from their Aperture team.

That's exactly how I feel. My spouse was upgrading to CS5 and grabbed the slight discount available on Lightroom through the package deal. But I've been working in Aperture since version 2, and the last thing I wanted to do was switch platforms. Unfortunately, Aperture lost significant functionality for me, owing to this problem. And I don't even have a networked drive. These problems exhibited on my firewire 800 and 400 drives. I also submitted a bug report since it's one I could easily replicate (with Snow Leopard as a comparison).

Just would like to add my frustrations as well. I upgraded to Lion and at the same time got a 5 bay NAS. I spent nearly one week to transfer around 13'000 photo's as well as my movie and Itunes collection to this NAS. Then  I found out all my reference files were "missing". So, I reconnected them and when I started up my IMac again discovered the referenced files were disconnected again. Then I started to read and stumbled on this post and many similar posts as well.

What surprises me is that Apple is not answering to any complaints. We are left in the dark and we do not knwo if they are working on this and when a fix comes out. There is no way I can even consider using a program as Lightroom. We have all 13k pictures in folders by year and by activity dating back to 2000. My wife would kill me if I would ask her to set this up from scratch.

IChat is also giving me trouble since Lion, so it would not surprise me if it is related. If only I could downgrade from Lion, but that requires a complete fresh install as it seems.

Come on Apple, help us out here.

Bought Lightroom and migrated my Library. Now re-applying adjustments to individual images as the need arises. No problems with referenced masters whatsoever.

It's really sad. I really wanted to like Aperture, but this was the last straw. Apple's policy of non-communication and "let the users figure it out for themselves in some weird form of pseudo online therapy" will get them nowhere with professional photographers.

In the meantime, at least on the German Mac App Store, the Aperture section is filling with reviews warning people not to buy this program because of this (and other) issues.

Kind regards

Stephan

I am also tired of this non- communication regarding "professionnal " software.

I went back to Snow leopard and am trying Lightroom to see how it works.

I will probably upgrade to Lion again but will move to LR 3.

Too bad for you Apple!

Dag

Come on Apple, just acknowledge there is a problem and advise that a solution/update is on the way, please.

I'm a "semi-pro", and I found this thread very helpful, because I had just moved all my referenced files from a USB drive that had to be hardwired to my new Time Capsule HD. Same problem. Reconnecting solved it for me, but I am concerned about it as a long-term fix. I use a MBP, and I don't want to have to carry a portable HD with me everywhere.

Until Apple fixes this I am considering going from my 500K drive to a 1TB internal drive. Anyone have any thoughts on this option?

Just a small update.

From a reliable source I was informed today that Apple has a team working on it. They are not able to give a timeline, but an update to Lion is in the making.

Out of respect for this source I can not go into further details.

Regards,

Jan

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but I've had luck importing a dummy image and making sure it's reference is stored on the supposedly offlined volume.  The import goes through and for the rest of the session Aperture seems to be OK with the referenced files.  Unbelievably stupid workaround, and the project I import into has a profane name, but it does get things rolling.

And after you closed and re-opened aperture? Were the referenced files still connected?

@hailunix & @Aroundtheworldin80days:

1) open aperture

2) relocate an image into a project on the NAS drive --> ok relocating

3) importing on NAS drive a new project --> ok importing

4) closing aperture.

when opening aperture again, I have to relocate again just one image to have back everything, including the last project imported correctly into the database. I think this is the behaviour of the software for everybody in this thread!

have you experienced other symptoms?

Sadly I have to do the import every single time I start aperture.  Truly idiotic bug honestly.  I just wish I knew what they were using to decide that the volume is offline. 

Worth noting this flag gets restarted every time you start Aperture.  I've gone in and changed the offline flag in the sqlite3 db and aperture resets it on start.  It's trying to perform some operation on startup on (nfs in my case) and fails.  Naturally we aren't told what this is.

I believe this is what the whole discussion is about. You can reconnect, but after closing the connections get disconnected again.

@SunnyShots:

With the first version of Lion, I had no trouble with Aperture files on my internal drive -- only on my firewire externals. (I wiped my drive and went back to Snow Leopard.) I decided to try Lion again when 10.7.1 came out. With 10.7.1, not only was the external drive issue still there (I could not delete files from externals), the same problems now appeared with files on my internal drive.

I moved to Lightroom, but I wouldn't have switched had Apple just given some indication that they knew this problem existed and that they were working on it. I've been an Apple user since the early 90s, and am accustoned to their methodology of not publicly acknowleding bugs. But this one really irked me. The no-end-in-sight plan just wasn't an option.

I moved to LR as well for just about the same reason you stated.

So much for "professional" treatment for Apple's "professional" software.

Again, I urge others that have switched over to request a refund for Aperture.  It's the only way to send a message to Apple.