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

@jakk

I continued to have problems until I moved all the masters onto my internal HDD. This has my HDD right up at 75% capacity, but it's running better than it was when I had ~100GB of referenced masters on the NAS and/or external HDD. Hopefully my files won't outgrow this solution before Apple fixes the problem.

I have avoided LR on the theory that an integrated Apple solution would ultimately work better. But, apparently not. Time to try it out.

It has been more than 2 months since this issues appeared and Apple still DID NOT came with solution/Aperture update!!!

I'm begining to be really upset and I'm sure I'm not the only one! For me, as a professional photographer, this is really big issues.

Ok Apple, you stared to ignore pro users and rather focus on BFUs, ok, I do not like it, but the only thing I want now, is you to fix this problem with AFP and Aperture!!!

DEAR APPLE SUPPORT TEAM!

IF YOU TREAT US LIKE WINDOWS USERS, WE PROBABLY WILL BECOME WINDOWS USERS AGAIN!

It is unbelievable how Apple fails to manage softwarebugs. Apples arrogance is not to beat.

Remember Mr. Cook, Aperture is not freeware! We have paid a lot for it! Damned!

_very_ angry greetings from Germany

Katte

Katte,

Are you complaining with regard to using a Network storage option?  If so, let me observe that there is no place where it has said this is supposed to work with Aperture -- if fact much to the contrary -- and people using Snow Leopard had similar problems.  If it earlier worked for you, it was a happy accident.

In my view there is no bug to be fixed.  If you can persuade Apple to add the feature, then more power to you!

Ernie

Hi Ernie,

sorry to say this and please don't take this personal but your statment is bu****it

The program supports Networkdrives by it's description,

please rember Apple calls is "Professional Software"

Quote:

* Manage large photo libraries with ease.

* Double-click any thumbnail to instantly see the photo full screen.

There is no note about, please reconnect to your source before you can see the picture

everytime you start the Application. I am sure you doi't consider this browsing with ease...

Keeping or detecting an existing network connecttion  (OS based it is still connected)

within a running application isn't like construcking an atomic bomb.

I conider this a bug and I am sure I am not alone here

cu

*sigh*

Once again: The use of referenced masters on network drives is not encouraged anywhere in the manual, but it's not discouraged either.

Just like drinking coffee while making photo adjustments is not encouraged in the manual, but it's not discouraged either, and a lot of people couldn't live without it.

And once again: This is not a feature request, it's a request for the most natural thing in the world to work right in Aperture.

As it is, it's simply broken, as is Apple's communication policy. Period.

I know all Ernie is trying to do is help...but to respond to Ernie's comments and claims, how do you (Ernie) respond to the to what is stated in the Aperture User Manual on page 153?:

"Importing Image Files Stored on Your Computer or Connected

Servers

You can import image, audio, and video files stored on your computer and other storage

devices. You have a choice of storing the imported files in the Aperture library; importing

the files as referenced images, audio clips, and video clips and then leaving them in their

current location; or importing the files as referenced images, audio clips, and video clips

and then moving or copying them to a different location."

As I have been recommending to all of those who are unhappy with this problem, again, I encourage you to demand a refund.  I was able to get a refund based on this thread even though I purchased the software several months ago.  They are aware of the problem, and will give you your money back.

I have moved on to LR3 and could not be happier.

Taking no offense, but please tell me the source of your confidence?  Especially considering all the following:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252

where it is said:  "Referenced images stored on FAT32 volumes may sporadically go offline."

further:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509

http://www.apple.com/support/aperture/

http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2010/8/3/network-drives-nas-and-aperture.html

and to it being a problem in earlier OS:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/11409238?messageID=11409238#11409238?messa geID=11409238

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2024847?start=0&tstart=0

http://superuser.com/questions/133571/aperture-and-networked-drive-thinks-images -are-offline

http://boardreader.com/thread/Aperture_3_sees_external_drive_different_80lfX1jox j.html

Ernie

Hi again,

my source is the apple web page, when you go to Store and check the Software fpr MAC area,

the other source is the Aperture User Manual as quoted before.

Btw. I don't use a FAT32 drive, the NAS (Syn DS) is good enough to work with all

other Apple Applications eg. TM and 3rd party programms I use and it works flawless.

All your nice collected links abut this or releasted issues lead only one way for me,

there is a bug for a while and the software team is unable or unwilling to fix it.

What ever the reason is, I agree with the others about

the ignoring police of the software provider and I think it is a same...

cu

Applies to importing, and the other advisories trump where to have the masters.

Ernie

Ernie,

In reference to http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252 it does tend toward talking about the Library.  It makes a brief mention of FAT32 not being supported for referenced files, but that's the only spot that really pertains to this.  At least in the case of NFS, it's not nearly as limited as FAT32.  I'd say that knowledge base item gets close to what we're dealing with but not exactly.  My Library is on an HFS+ volume, with masters on a NFS mounted volume. 

Beyond that, this isn't some black and white 'doesn't work' behavior.  In my case merely importing a single image and having it store the master on the same NFS volume makes aperture magically think that the volume is online again and is working fine.  I'd wager that's not a design feature, it's a bug.

Inconsistent behavior, having the ability to detect the 'state' of a volume but not maintaining it accurately are bugs.  The biggest pointer to this being a bug is that the behavior is happening with more than just network drives.  It's happening with external drives local to the machine as well.  If we assume those are HFS formatted volumes, then it's supported by Apple.  So if it's happening on those, it's a bug, and if it's not the SAME bug causing it, it might be closely related.

Finally, you're arguing with people who feel cheated buying a professional product that seemlingy isn't that.  Either it explicitly doesn't support network drives (stupid) or it is a bug.  Either way it's a failure, network volumes have SEVERAL advantages and if their competitor supports it, they should probably think about it too.  In my case, I'll probably just put up with this, my workaround doesn't bug me much.  However most of the people you're debating this with are pretty ******. 

IF you convince them they are wrong, then they bought the wrong product and they'll jump to a competitor.  You're not accomplishing much else by telling people how what used to work and is now busted isn't supposed to work in the first place.

I guess my point is a little different, and I suspect the problem is in the OS, and how Aperture works within it.  Also, I am not sure being a "professional application" communicates to me that garden variety network solutions should work, but I also agree that there probably should be a server based version of Aperture that would.

But something is not easy about this sort of thing.  From what I read, even Lightroom cannot support the full library on a network drive, nor does it support any shared directory of what is on any network drive.  It is not clear to me what is professional about that if the objective is to fully share a repository of images across several work stations?  In my opinion it is not unprofessional for Aperture to require directly mounted drives for a single practitioner.  But again, it would be excellent to have a server based Aperture for a multi-station enterprise.  But correct me if wrong, but I cannot find that Lightroom provides that, either?

Ernie

Well I can see both sides.  In my case my server is a set up for redundancy and automated backup, my iMac is not.  It is not really feasible to do it for the iMac for several reasons, which aren't really important   I'd probably buy in to the fact that they don't really support it if it hadn't ever worked, if there was an obvious reason or definitive note (along the lines of the one you cited for library storage).  The fact is it works pretty well and the only hang-up it seems to have is the weird bug that requires an import before the drive is online.  I guess I'd feel it's a feature request if it never worked and wasn't possible through some stupid workaround.  I haven't researched light-room but it seems like every person on here that had this issue that did in fact jump ship noted that they weren't having issues in LR.  I'm sticking with aperture because LR is more expensive and my workaround is fine for my work-flow ironically.  So much so that I didn't even notice this issue until last week, I almost always start aperture sessions with an import of my latest photos (not a pro).

I'm merely advocating this get fixed, I'm not going to riot about it though   Your distinction of LightRoom server or Aperture Server certainly does seem logical though for sites that need this sort of thing, albeit nickle and dimeish. 

I'm still hung up on the fact that some folks in this group insist that even external disks don't seem to work correctly for them.  That functionality seems like it breaks in a similar fashion to network drives... smells like a bug if only for that.

I haven't tested a FW drive in Lion, but have those connected via USB -- they thus far have worked just fine, although my tests have been with a self-contained (Managed) Aperture Library on the disk connected by USB.

From the beginning with Snow Leopard I have distrusted continuously connected FW drives -- they seem to lose connection, and this is totally away from Aperture.  I do connect them briefly for backup and/or looking for something.

When I get a chance I will test in Lion with a referenced Library where the masters are on an external FW drive.  I took the view that it was very foolhardy to switch my production boot configuration to Lion, and work in Snow Leopard.  But I am testing lots of things with Lion, including use of Aperture.

Ernie

@ hailunix, you said "I'm still hung up on the fact that some folks in this group insist that even external disks don't seem to work correctly for them."

Yeah, I'm one of those. And I tested Aperture with every external drive I have, all connected by either Firewire 400 or 800. All drives are formated properly HFS+. When I reverted to Snow Leopard, the problems went away. When 10.7.1 came out, I upgraded again to see if the problem was fixed, but this time, I lost the delete functionality for images housed on my internal library as well. So, 10.7.1 actually exacerbated the problem for me.

In effect, with Lion, there is no way for me to delete referenced files and, in some cases, managed files, from within Aperture. Culling becomes arduous under the circumstances. So, it became a choice of wiping my drive again and going back to Snow Leopard, or jumping over to Lightroom. Without word from Apple on how long it would take or if they were even working on a fix, I went Lightroom.

I like many functions of Aperture better than Lightroom's, so I'm not entirely resolved to the Lightroom switch, even though the program is obviously no slouch. I miss some of the integration of apps, for sure. But at least I have full functionality right now using Lightroom.