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

Woe is me too. Upgraded to very latest release of Aperture yesterday and then installed Lion. My Aperture libraries are on an external Iomega drive. Since the upgrade, Aperture just hangs, telling me it is accessing the libraries. However, nothing happens (longest I've waited is an hour), and Finder tells me Aperture is "not responding" anyway. After using "Force Quit" all other apps on my iMac refuse to open, and restart and shutdown don't work either.

This thread has been a comfort, as it has confirmed the problem isn't mine alone. I still have iPhoto installed, and it won't access the Aperture Libraries either, but at least it opens and gives me some funtionality with newly imported shots, and material stored on the iMac hard drive. Aperture won't even go that far.

Apple, are you listening - you have screwed this up, haven't you?

I have the same or similar problem. Using Aperture 3.1.3.  I have master files stored on a Mac Mini running OSX Server.  When I upgraded my client machine to Lion, Aperture says the referenced file volume is offline even though I am connected to the network drive.

   If I import a new photo and place the master on the server, then the master is visible to Aperture.  I can also locate referenced files and reconnect to them. 

   I thought I had found a bug so I called Apple support. I just got off the phone with an Apply pro app support person. He said that Apertures does NOT support placing master files on a network drive!  The drive should be an attached drive, i.e., plugged into the client machine directly.  So Apple support is not doing anything further to solve this probem.

     I suggest that Aperture should support the use of network master file storage.  The tech said I could submit feedback to www.apple.com/feedback/.

Tom Cooper

I don't want to believe this.

I just submitted the feedback to Apple.

JO

Well, good luck with this. I've submitted feedback, too, but seeing the experiences of all the folks requesting Sigma, Ricoh and proper DNG support (no answer or statement in >5 years), I wouldn't hold my breath.

Be that as it may, I can't put up with a "professional" image management system that doesn't work with images on network drives. Sorry, Apple, but you need to do a reality check about this.

S.

I have found a work around. If I use the Locate Referenced File and reconnect to any file, Aperture then recognizes the network drive and functions normally. 

There is a knowledge base article that says using network drives may be unstable.  It stays "Also, it is strongly recommended that the Aperture library be stored on a locally mounted hard drive. Storing the Aperture library on a network share can also lead to poor performance, data corruption, or data loss."  See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252?viewlocale=en_US

The Aperture 3 manual has no such restriction. In fact, it describes how to use a network drive for storage of referenced files.  See pages 151 to 154 of the manual.

Tom Cooper

That section is primarily concerned with importing from locations, which can certainly include network storage.  I do not see that it specifically says you can use that for referenced images, but only that it is implied in the general comment about importing from other locations.  The other advisories are more focused.

The Package of the Aperture Library is very complicated, if you observe it, and I do not find it surprising that problems can develop with network servers.  As I read about Lightroom, it also cannot support the catalog for one of its databases on a network device, but apparently can use image files stored there.

I understand wanting to share images on a network, but not the willingness to expose Masters which should not be accessed with other software, nor ever be changed.

Ernie

But it says exactly that (emphasis by me):

(quote)

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

(end quote)

Once again:

Yes, the library is complicated and it shouldn't be on a network storage.

What's not complicated at all is this: Reading a file from a network storage.

Trust me, I'm a Mac software developer with 12+ years of Objective-C/Cocoa programming experience, working with one of the world's largest photography and imaging companies. Not being able to read image files from a network drive is simply and utterly preposterous.

Although, of course, given current circumstances, the above paragraph in the manual should read:

(quote)

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. Except, of course, the current location is on a network drive (like in many professional setups), in which case we'd strongly encourage you to buy our competitor's product.

(end quote)

Cheers,

S.

I have no doubt that your stock images should be available on a shared server, but the Masters?  They can be passed between colleagues obviously (and imported) but should they be available to all apps to mess with?

Obviously that question is more philisophical, and not technical, but wondering just the same. 

If you are a Lightroom user also, can you tell me how handy it is to have the images available on a server without a shared Catalog?

Ernie

Well, I can't comment on other people's workflows, but for me, it's simply the benefit of having 50000+ valuable image files securely stored away on a RAID volume, all with automated backups, accessible from anywhere via WLAN (and, in case of emergencies, also accessible from anywhere in the world via DSL).

As I'm one of those who had actually a working Aperture setup with network storage, it was easy to keep the current photos stored locally on the Macbook, and have the not-so-recent images on the RAID, accessible when needed.

After all it's of course a matter of personal preferences. All I can say is this: It worked for me, it worked for others, and I see, from a technical standpoint, no conceivable reason why it shouldn't work. Other than the fact that network volumes no longer have persistant UUIDs under Lion, which seems to be exactly what happens here.

Kind regards

Stephan

Folks,

For those who their referenced files on a NAS prior to Lion and had no problems—you got lucky. No I can't point out where it says this, but having worked on Aperture since it was just a bundle of warm code, I can tell you that Aperture does NOT support masters on an NAS. It has something to do with how NASs change network IDs or addresses for the mounted volume; something that hard drives don't do. A mounted NAS drive can see your images spontaneously pop offline even though the NAS is still mounted.

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

www.ApertureExpert.com

Thanks for this -- matches what I have thought.  Can you opine as to whether an Apple Server with format of OS X Extended would be any different?

Ernie

I understand the issues documented with NAS drives. The problems I'm having are with external drives plugged directly into Firewire 800 and Firewire 400 ports. The brands vary (Iomega, OWC Mercury Elite, etc.) The trashing/delete operation has full functionality on these externals when I return to Snow Leopard, but I lose full functionality when I upgrade again to Lion. I mention this again in case anyone comes to this thread with similar issues on non-NAS drives. I did submit a bug report.

Is this the Library on the external, or only Referenced Masters?  I ask so I can better test at some juncture, although for reasons unrelated to Aperture, I am not on Lion much of the time.  My test with a Mananged Library on drive in my USB connect device seems to work OK.

Ernie

It's with any library that resides on the external. And it affects both referenced files (on externals) and managed files (on externals). I don't think it matters whether the referenced files are on the same drive as the library, but in all of my cases, they are on the same drive. Libraries and images on my internal drive don't appear to be affected by this problem. 

I get a permissions error message (cannot access System Trash) when trying to delete externally-referenced images from an external library. I do not get this message when deleting managed files, but ... the managed files do not get moved to System Trash either. They physically remain in the library despite all efforts to remove them through regular Apeture commands. So,  effectively, there's no way to permanently delete images through Aperture with these permissions issues at play.

I tested it on all external drives and troubleshooted to the best of my ability with various fixes. Couldn't get it to work. The problem goes away entirely when I revert to Snow Leopard.

(I should clarify that I don't have a ton of libraries. I created several test libraries to see if I could replicate the problem.)

Message was edited by: jakk

Ernie,

Ernie Stamper wrote:

 

Can you opine as to whether an Apple Server with format of OS X Extended would be any different?

I doubt it, but I can't say for certain. Unfortuantely I'm not a networking expert (by any stretch!) so what I said above is (loosely) how it was explained to me. If someone here really understands how NAS works, they may be able to offer a better explanation. But I do doubt it would make a difference, or I'd likely have heard otherwise.

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

www.ApertureExpert.com