Relocate Masters results in inconsistent filenames. Fix?

I very much appreciate the help but, unfortunately, the problem persists.

All of the versions have unique names and there is nothing in Aperture other than these few photos. None of the filenames use illegal characters. I also tried trashing Aperture, Aperture preferences, Aperture library and reinstalled Aperture.

Then I deleted all the JPEGs from the RAW JPEG pairs in the camera and reimported using Image Year, Image Month, Image Day, Custom Name (underline character) and Counter.

I added additional unique names (File1, File2, etc.) to each of the photos in Aperture in the Versions field. Three persist in exporting only using the name I used for the import, ignoring what I added in Aperture for the version name. The others use the image name that shows for the version in Aperture.

My goal is to import photos into Aperture's library, append meaningful words to the image date/counter info in the version name once imported, add keywords, do my edits on my SSD where the Aperture library is located and then relocate the masters to referenced masters on my 750GB internal.

It is important to me to have meaningful finder organization of my photos with meaningful names outside of Aperture.

I want to get this working perfectly on this small test batch before importing anything else to Aperture and have to go back to clean up a big mess.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions. Unfortunately, I still have not had success in getting my relocated masters to match their Aperture version names.

I am importing directly from my Canon S95 SD card to my internal 256GB SSD although I have tried copying the files to the internal 750GB internal and importing from there with identical results. Five of the photos are JPEGs and four are RAW. I am not exporting but using the Relocate Masters option to make referenced masters on my 750GB internal.

All drives other than the SD card are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID partitioning and have more than ample free space. Disk Utility says all disks and their partitions are healthy. All permissions are default. I am using an admin account.

I can't find any commonality between the files where appending the Aperture version name is not included when Relocating Masters. Both JPEGs and RAW are affected and I have no difficulty with editing them in Aperture. Photoshop, Preview and iPhoto all happily open and edit the affected files when copied from the SD card to the 750GB internal.

After I deleted the JPEGs for my RAW + JPEG pairs in the camera Aperture changed its mind about which photos it refuses to append the version name to when Relocating Masters. One photo, the first misnamed file, is the same but the latter two are both different files. That doesn't leave me optimistic I will find the answer in file commonality.

I know better than to futz with the internal workings of Aperture's library database so I haven't done anything with it other than to trash the library completely before I reinstalled Aperture. Neither would I contemplate making changes to referenced masters outside of the Aperture interface.

However, I flat-out refuse to allow any software to hold my original files hostage in its database any more than necessary which is why a coherent finder file structure and meaningful filenames are important to me. I've used Filemaker since its introduction and I still make sure I have plain text copies of all important data. It's made for a fairly painless recovery a few times when undetected Filemaker database corruption has made it into my backups.

This is what the files of my last test importsRelocate Masters actually look like in the finder. The two imports are the same files imported to separate projects and just named differently in the Versions field.

This is what the files in the finder should look like to match what is in the Versions field in Aperture.

Thanks so much for stopping by to help. I'm usually good at tricking software to mind its manners when it's being cranky but this has me stumped. I keep thinking I'm doing something quite basic that is incorrect.

A dash should not be an illegal character but I changed it to an underline. I created a new Project. Then copied and pasted from the Version Name field in a previous Project that produced the incorrect filenames to hand rename the files copied to my HD from the Canon S95 SD card.

I imported the renamed files. Relocating Masters and choosing Version Name for Name Format was successful in creating the correct names for the relocated files.

I then imported the renamed files into yet another new Project and appended an X to the Version Name in Aperture. The same files ignored the X when naming files when Relocating Masters as had happened previously.

Also, files that I simply appended the Name Test1, Test2, Test3, etc. with no spaces after the original import name showed the same issue of ignoring what I had appended on some files but not others with Aperture ignoring the appended name in the same files.

However, if I don't import all the files from the same SD card Aperture will choose to ignore appended Version Names for the same files that carried over the correct Version Name when relocating masters in a previous project.

I deeply appreciate the help and your taking the time to to reproduce my issue. It seems as if there might be something internal in Aperture Relocating Masters that is sometimes not recognizing changes in the Version field when it is changed after importing.

I just did another import. The first troublesome file's Version Name field after import is 20110113_04003.JPG.

I completely deleted 20110113_04003.JPG in the Version Name field and then typed in Test. I only selected the single image rather than the entire import group and chose to Relocate Master using Version Name for the Name Format. Aperture used 20110113_04003.JPG for the file name rather than Test.

I tried exporting the same file to see if that might shed any light on the matter. I exported the master choosing Current Version Name for Name Format in the export window. The file was named what I had entered subsequent to import in the Version Name field.

I then exported the same master file choosing Master File Name for the Name Format. Aperture used the file name assigned on import, 20110113_04003.JPG, rather than MasterExportMasterName which was currently entered into the Version Name field in Aperture.

Next I tried exporting a version of the file using Current Version Name for Name Format in the export window. Aperture named the exported file using the changes I had entered into the Version field.

I ended by choosing Version Name rather than Current Version name for Name Format when exporting the same version of the file. Aperture also used the the changes I had entered into the Version field to name the file.

Aperture is correctly distinguishing the difference when exporting masters but gets confused as to whether to use the original import name or the current version name when relocating masters.

Renaming the Version Name when viewing the master as opposed to viewing the version didn't have any effect on what Aperture chose to use for a relocated master or exported filename.

File Name Example in the Relocate Masters window always indicates that it is using the original import Version Name rather than the changed Version Name even when it names the file using the changed Version Name.

I've learned some interesting stuff about Aperture file naming but remain baffled as to why it chooses the original import Version Name to name some files when Relocating Masters and chooses edited Version Names for other files.