Missing files "Unavailable master files cannot be relocated."

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Level 1

8 points

Missing files "Unavailable master files cannot be relocated."

Please help

I have missing masters -

I had 25,000 referenced masters in a directory next to the aperture library and ran consolidate (thought it was successful) but now I see 1012 "Missing" Masters. When I do "Locate Referenced Files" Aperture says I do not have any referenced files. But if I go do a Finder search for files in the old referenced location they are all still out there - (and not in the Aperture Library Masters) (They all have the "Arrow/Triangle/exclamation mark" badge)

So my question is - can I connect the "Missing" to the existing file? Or do I have to delete all the "missing masters" and loose all the aperture metadata I have on them?

I have read all the treads I can find and have not seen the same issue -

"Locate Referenced Files" is not an option.

and if I run relocate on the files I get this error:

"Unavailable master files cannot be relocated.

The selected master image is either offline or not found. Please reconnect it and try again."

Any advice or help from the community would be very appreciated - this is my first post - hope it was intelligible

(living in a cave like you do)

John P.

Multiple, Mac OS X (10.7.2), iMac, MacBook Pro, PowerBook.

Posted on Dec 1, 2011 7:22 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 1, 2011 7:55 AM in response to nikon is

You need to select the 1012 missing images in your library and then run Locate Referenced Files

To do this go to the Photos icon in the Library pane of the Inspector, this will bring up your entire library. Now create a filter to find the missing images like this:

Now select all these images and run File->Locate Referenced Files...

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Answer 2

nikon is Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2011 8:22 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Right - that's the answer I keep reading about - but saddly "Locate Referenced Files" is not an option.

The "Program" thinks the files are local (managed) but missing

My telling of the tale would be that the images are denoted in the database as local but still only exist in the referenced directory - so they are in limbo - but I am not sure my diagnosis is accurate.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 1, 2011 8:38 AM in response to nikon is

With image files in "limbo" status it sometimes helps to repair or rebuild the Aperture Library. The missing files can then be found in an additional project "recovered files". Try the repair as outlined in the Aperture 3: Trouble Shooting Basics.

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Answer 4

nikon is Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2011 8:40 AM in response to léonie

Sorry - I should have mentioned I did all three Aperture repairs before posting the question - multiple times - no change.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 1, 2011 9:18 AM in response to nikon is

The "Program" thinks the files are local (managed) but missing

Are you really sure about this? Local and managed are different things.Earlier you said:

(They all have the "Arrow/Triangle/exclamation mark" badge)

The arrow badge only is used for referenced images, so Aperture knows your images are referenced.

Which of these badges do you see exactly?

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Answer 6

nikon is Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2011 11:15 AM in response to léonie

The last one you show - and yes I am quite sure - here is a very amusing screenshot of a few images - with the error badge and the result of trying to "Locate Referenced Files"

and this is what I get for "Relocate Masters"

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Answer 7

Dec 1, 2011 11:34 AM in response to nikon is

But if I go do a Finder search for files in the old referenced location they are all still out there - (and not in the Aperture Library Masters)

Are all the files there or only the ones Aperture is reporting missing? And when you consolidated did you elect to move or copy the masters into the Aperture library?

Also what disk is the library and masters on? How much free space?

Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano

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Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 1, 2011 11:37 AM in response to nikon is

Well, that is certainly not amusing! So you even no longer have any previews? Your Aperture Library seems to be a mess. Have you looked inside your Aperture Library package by ctrl-clicking it? Are there any of your images inside the Previews folder?

Do you have a recent backup?

And have you tried to reinstall Aperture? It is really weird that you get an error message about "relocating" when you try to reconnect.

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Answer 9

Dec 1, 2011 11:52 AM in response to nikon is

I've never heard of a rebuilt Library showing this kind of behavior (which, since I keep my ear to the 'tubes, indicates it is, well, un-heard of).

I recommend a couple of efforts:

. make sure a new Library works (including Referenced Masters). If it does not, re-install Aperture.

. try to quarantine the problem, and then try to fix it.

To that end, I'd:

- make a back-up

- put all the problem Images in a new Project

- export all but that Project as a new Library

- reboot

- see if the new Library works

- if it does, either:

- - delete everything but the Project-of-problem-Images from the old Library. Empty the Aperture Trash.

- - restart Aperture, close it.

- - rebuild that Library, and see if it is still exhibits the the same erroneous referencing.

- or

- - export the Project-of-problems to a new LIbrary with Masters included and see what you get.

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 1, 2011 12:08 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I've never heard of a rebuilt Library showing this kind of behavior (which, since I keep my ear to the 'tubes, indicates it is, well, un-heard of).

well,the evidence seems to be conclusive, if we can trust our eyes, but I still have probrems to believe it ...

Kirby,

your reconstruction plan seems to be very promising; I'd like to add a detail to it. Perhaps it will be possible to save the Metadata of the corrupted versions, by exporting them.

File -> Export -> Metadata

will create a tab-separated textfile, listing all the Metadata.

@nikon is:

If you know how to program Apple script and Automator, you could try to write a workflow to reassign the Metadata to the masterfiles based on this list. If you have to recontruct your database manually, you at least will have a textfile to cut and paste from.

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Answer 11

nikon is Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2011 2:23 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Frank,

Yes my aperture library and the "master" directory are right next to each other in ~/Pictures/. The history of this is as follows:

1. I copied my entire library and masters from my laptop to my iMac ( was out of room )

2. I verified everything was good - looked fine

3. Deleted my MacBook libraries.

4. Consolidated my library - in prep to clean up

5. Did a bunch of heavy cleaning efforts like merging projects within the library.

6. Ran a program to find duplicates - all it does is add keywords to suspect images.

7. Then I tried to relocate masters to a new directory and it errored out

8. Did a search for all "missing" (1000)

9. Started reading all the blogs - looking for answers

10. Ran all the repairs I could find

11. Posted this help request.

12 1/2 - now looking at the SQLlite blogs out there - but as you can see my situation is... Odd. I wish I could query the aperture DB directly and see what it is thinking....

* Sorry - everyone. I'll try to get back to the rest of the replies later tonight

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Answer 12

Dec 1, 2011 2:27 PM in response to nikon is

nikon is wrote:

6. Ran a program to find duplicates - all it does is add keywords to suspect images.

What program? Is there anything that the problem Images have in common, particular in relation to the program you used?

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Answer 13

nikon is Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2011 2:44 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Hi Kirby

1. The program is

Duplicate Annihilator - Aperture Edition

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/aperture/duplicateannihilatorapertureediti on.html

2. I did try the export project as new library - no joy. (that was a post I had high hopes about)

3. Metadata export I will try that - would be interesting to see what that looks like.

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Answer 14

Jan 14, 2012 4:36 PM in response to nikon is

Last night I messed around with the renaming of Masters and Versions I imported from the iPhone because I forgot to rename them during the initial import. I forgot to select <Custom> <Date> <Time>.

I followed some online directions but it looks like I must have done something wrong in the process.

The photos can still be seen in Finder which describes them as located in the Aperture Library.

Example:

/Users/seamuswarren/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Masters/2012/01/15/20120115-002527

...but I can't see it in Aperture.

Hmmm.... 🙂

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Answer 15

Jan 14, 2012 7:35 PM in response to seamuswarren

Hi,

I'm late to the party, but I think I see what went wrong: the location of the referenced masters relative to the root of the hard disk may be the same, but you now have them on a hard disk with a different unique ID (because you copied the works to a different computer) - and this unique ID is used by Aperture to locate the referenced masters.

I think I got that right?

I suspect you'll need to import them again, but I may be wrong...

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