Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Aperture Trash in Lion

Forgive any redundancy with this being my third post regarding this issue, but I just cannot believe I'm the only one, or one of just a few people experiencing this issue.


I've been using Aperture since it's launch and have always been working from the latest updates. But since upgrading to Lion, the Aperture libraries on my external drives will not trash images I no longer want in the library. These are all managed images, and not referenced. I delete the images (masters & versions) from my projects. They go into the trash area. I empty the trash. And then they disappear.


The image files remain in the folders, and nothing ever shows up in the computer's trash, and thus, I am not able to free up space on any of my external drives. Everything still works normally with the libraries on my computer.


So, if you are using Lion and Aperture 3.1.3 with a library on an external drive, please do a test and try to delete an image to see what happens. And if you have a solution for me, please let me know. I simply don't have the time to keep researching this issue, and I'm going to run out of money if I have to keep buying new externals.


Thanks.


FYI The guy at the Genius Bar determined that this was a user level problem, and that I would have to rebuild my user account. But I am having this exact same issue on three different Macs with five different users. So it's either an Aperture thing or a Lion thing.

Posted on Oct 9, 2011 9:04 PM

Reply
11 replies

Oct 10, 2011 9:19 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Yes, if I delete a given file from the external disk, the trash works as it should. It's just an Aperture issue since I switched to Lion.


I am a professional photographer, so I have a good number of external hard disks for storage, and the issue appears to be consistent across them. They're all either LaCie or Western Digital, both portable and not.

Oct 15, 2011 5:25 PM in response to Frohmaster

I am also a pro photographer and was having the exact same issue, it all started immediately after upgrading to Lion. I used to be an Apple Genius and know a user level issue when I see one, this is not user-level. I creating a new user account to see if the issue would carry over is the very first thing I tried, it's not related to the use account. The issue does not reside with the system trash, the issue is Aperture not sending the data to the system trash in the first place!


Just a few days ago I upgraded my hard drive and decided to do a clean install to hopefully remedy this issue as well as a few others I had been having since upgrading to Lion. I read somewhere that some people were continuing to have issues after doing an erase and install using the recovery files from their original App Store Lion Installation download, so some people suspected that their Lion Install files were damaged or incomplete in some way. So just to rule that out as a possibility I took my computer to my Apple Store and had them do a fresh Lion install from one of their drives. I migrated data and preferences from my old drive but reinstalled Aperture fresh and the issue appears to be resolved. It definitely wasn't user-level, but reinstalling the app appears to have resolved it.


I'd say if you haven't already tried deleting the Aperture (AND all of it's supporting files) and reinstalling, then you should try that first. If that doesn't work then go the route I did and do an erase and install.


Here's something I discovered that may be helpful in recovering your lost space if you're able to resolve the issue. If I rebuild the Aperture database (by holding down Command + Option while the library is opening then choosing rebuild database) the images I previously tried to empty from the trash will be restored to a new project in the library called "restored items" (or something to that extent, don't remember exactly). So once you've resolve the issue you may want to do this with each of your libraries just to make sure there aren't rogue files sitting around taking up space.

Oct 15, 2011 6:03 PM in response to noafe

It appears I spoke too soon! I was testing this on an internal drive that isn't my boot drive, but I just tried emptying the trash in a library that's stored on an external drive and to my dismay the issue persists! The Aperture trash empties out but nothing is sent to the system trash and the size of the Aperture library never reduces because the data was never sent to the trash.


So thus far I've:

• created a new user - issue persists

• repaired permissions - issue persists

• reinstalled Aperture - issue persists

• installed Lion on a new hard drive and reinstalled Aperture - issue persists


I'm going to try to reset the ACL's on my home folder next but I don't expect that to resolve the issue. If that doesn't work I'm going to contact AppleCare.

Oct 30, 2011 10:03 AM in response to cubbycoltrain

No luck to date. I've only been using libraries on my Macs so I can delete the files. Thus, I'm quickly running out of hard drive space, but am doing okay for a little while longer until Apple finally fixes this problem.


BUT WE NEED EVERYONE experiencing this problem to send feedback to Apple. They fixed the cropping issue in 3.2 pretty fast, but this problem has so far been ignored.

Oct 31, 2011 1:35 PM in response to Frohmaster

so this morning i connected my external drive to my macbook (i had noticed the issue on my imac over the weekend), and as soon as i did, the photos i had deleted in aperture appeared in the desktop trash, which i was then able to delete as normal.


just now, i hooked up the drive to my mac pro, and it too worked fun, dumping trashed files in the desktop trash bin. but on the imac, the deleted files still do no appear in the trash.


so, i guess something about the imac (it's one of the new imacs). all three computers are running Lion and have the same software. weird but an imac only problem for me.

Aperture Trash in Lion

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.