manage referenced files

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manage referenced files

Hi - this is one I still can't wrap my head around.

Hard Drives are finite space (large amounts of space, yes, but still finite).

So I had been using a particular external drive (I prefer to work 'referenced' and keep files on external drives rather than fill an 'aperture library' internally), and then when the drive filled, I simply hooked up another drive and kept going.

Of course, anything on the old drive is no longer there if I wish to revisit anything, thumbnails for viewing and searching yes. Images no.

So here's the question now:

I have the files from the old drive on another drive and I tried to 'Manage Referenced Files' and was able to find the few I needed to work on, but it seemed that I had to do them individually. My system is that images go into a month/day folder (or recently into a 'project name' folder). In any case---

Is there not a way that allows me to use the 'reconnect all' and find all 'missing/offline' images?

ie: of course, everything in my main photo library is on various drives for the actual images, so if I wanted to highlight all the photos up to the point I know I switched drives, can't I just "have it search and locate" the various files???

The problem is, the drive I originally used was damaged and I'm having to use a copy which is, of course, on another physical drive. Because I have a larger main drive now I was thinking about moving the files from the 'backup drive' onto the current work drive so everything is in one place.

Help/thoughts?

Intel Core Duo 2.4 MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 256 nVidia

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 2:16 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2011 2:33 PM in response to Jfriah

Well ... my first thought is that this is a nice set of notes for a clear post asking questions you want answered. As is, it's a bit of a ramble.

Images are created on Import and kept in an Aperture Library. Every Image has a Master. The Master is an image-format file. Aperture never changes this file. Aperture keeps alongside every Image a pointer to the Image's Master. The Master can be in the Aperture Library (in which case the Image has a Managed Master) or elsewhere on your system (in which case the Image has a Referenced Master). When Aperture has access to the Master, it is said to be on-line, and you can use any of Aperture's tools. When Aperture does not have access to the Master, it is either off-line or missing. If it is off-line or missing, you still have access to the Image's Preview, and you can do any adminstrative tasks involving metadata, but you can neither make adjustments or print or export a Version (you can export the Preview). "Missing" means that Aperture can locate the volume to which the pointer points, but can't find the file. This happens most often because the user moved the Master, or renamed the volume. In each case, you can have Aperture reconnect the Images and their Masters by running the command "File→Locate Referenced Files". (When you run that command, you select one Image in the upper part of the dialog, and one file in the lower part, and then tell Aperture to "Reconnect All".)

That should give you the information you need to solve your problems. It seems that you will want to select the Images with missing Masters (you can filter for these), and then reconnect the Images to the Masters on the copy of the hard drive that went bad.

HTH. Ask more if it does not.

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