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Aperture 3 incomplete vault restoration

Background: I just recently had to wipe my hard drive clean. I first backed up my library using Aperture's "vaults" system and put them on two external drives and stupidly the RAW files no where else. I realize now that I lost all of my RAW files, but seeing as how I just started shooting RAW around a year ago, I'm hoping to salvage the JPEGS and move on from there. I have no idea wether my library was referenced or managed (I still don't remember the difference and it makes me mad that I should have to go through all this trouble just to organize my photos!) and this is part of the reason I'm moving away from Aperture (it's so complicated and disorganized!).



Problem: I tried to restore the vaults in Aperture with both drives plugged in. After it was finished, I could see that all (or from what I could tell) the projects seemed to be there, but not all of the images. In the browser viewer, there are many blank spaces and other images that say the image is not available. I've tried restoring a few times and updating the paths, but nothing seems to be working.



I realized I've already lost a lot, I really hope I can save what I KNOW I BACKED UP! Any Aperture experts would greatly be appreciated. I've talked to many people and not a whole lot of headway has been. HELP!

Macbook Pro

Posted on Mar 9, 2012 5:09 PM

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11 replies

Mar 9, 2012 5:51 PM in response to Mr. D90

Mr D,


I'm sorry to say that it sounds like the answer to your question is in your post, that your masters are gone forever. You say:

and stupidly the RAW files no where else. I realize now that I lost all of my RAW files

What makes you say that? I'm a bit confused by your post -- you realize that you lost all of yoru RAW files, but you are also surprised that you cannot find them after restoring the vault?


If you do not have your RAW files in your vault, then they were referenced -- you elected to store your photos in a location of your discretion, and then had Aperture reference them at that location. Part of your responsibility is that, since you opted to take responsibility of the files, you are responsible for backing them up. They are not part of the Aperture library and thus are not backed up in a vault.

After it was finished, I could see that all (or from what I could tell) the projects seemed to be there, but not all of the images. In the browser viewer, there are many blank spaces and other images that say the image is not available.

The proejct structure is stored in a vault, as well as any masters that are managed by Aperture (stored inside the Aperture library). If the image is not available, this is another indication that the photo was referenced. Your restored Aperture library is trying to find the photo in its original location, but that location is gone, formatted away, assumedly.

I'm hoping to salvage the JPEGS and move on from there.

What JPEGs are you hoping to salvage? Did you shoot RAW+JPG? If so, your JPGs are surely right next to your RAW files, assumedly in the bit-bucket that is your formatted drive.


I have no idea wether my library was referenced or managed (I still don't remember the difference and it makes me mad that I should have to go through all this trouble just to organize my photos!)

Please don't take this the wrong way -- I'm not trying to add insult to injury. If you change no settings on Aperture, Aperture will store all of your pictures in its library, much like iPhoto does. When it stores your photos in its library, they are managed -- that is they are managed by Aperture. There is no trouble to go through to have Aperture use the default settings. I am not sure where you went wrong, but you are right, it should be (and is) definitely easier than your experience.


nathan

Mar 9, 2012 6:30 PM in response to Mr Endo

I understand I can't get the RAW files back, since I did back up my entire (managed) library to vaults, I'm assuming that the JPEG copies or whatever I was looking at in the library (not the masters) would be backed up. I did not change any settings in aperture that would warrant it to become referenced. I'm so confused that some images from a project are there, but not all? If a project was managed, shouldn't the whole thing be managed? Why are some blank and other unavailable?

Mar 9, 2012 6:49 PM in response to Mr. D90

Mr D.

I understand I can't get the RAW files back, since I did back up my entire (managed) library to vaults, I'm assuming that the JPEG copies or whatever I was looking at in the library (not the masters) would be backed up.

Ok. You half-answered the question. We should take it to be true that you cannot get the RAWs back?


Aperture does generate thumbnails for use within Aperture. Thumbnails are stored in some proprietary formatted files I think. (Note there is no real documentation for end-users about the topics in this conversation.) It may also generate previews based on your preferences. The previews are in fact small JPG versions of your files. I was quite surprised the other day to find that Aperture does back up some of these items to a vault. I was surprised because, as a software engineer, I saw no benefit to backing up both the photos, and the low-res thumbnails of the photos. After all, in normal circumstances, you will just be wasting backup space, as you can regenerate the thumbnails and previews from the originals in the case of a normal vault restore. Now I see that your non-normal case may be why it works this way. Of course, I do not know if the thumbnails are actually restored. I just know what I saw when I looked in my vault.


So the bad news: you may be able to find the previews and/or thumbnails but it will be difficult to find them, and you will have to do all the work.


Note, that what I am about to tell you is dangerous. If you change anything, you will wreck your Aperture library. Reading (Ie., copying) is ok. Writing (Ie.., deleting, moving, changing) is not ok.


So, if you use Finder to "Show Package Contents" of your Aperture library, you will see a folder called "Previews". If you had previously elected to create Previews (which is a directive that Aperture 3.2.2 is not very good at following, BTW), you will find a hierarchy of folders organized by date. I believe the date is the date of the photo, but it may be the date of the import.


At the end of each folder structure, you will find some JPGs. These are probably what you are hoping to find.


To answer your second question -- individual photos are managed or referenced. It is neither a library nor a project attribute; it is per photo.



nathan

Mar 9, 2012 6:55 PM in response to Mr. D90

If you backed up your library to an external drive then the masters in the library would have been backed up also.


Did you back up your entire drive before wiping it or only the Aperture library? How was the rest of the system placed on the drive, how did you recover your user folder and applications, etc?


So right now you have a working Aperture library except some of the images are blank. There are a few possibilities:

  1. All your masters are gone and what you are seeing are the previews. Some images are blank because no previews were generated for them.
  2. Some of your masters are gone and what you are seeing are the images whose masters are in the Aperture library. The blank images had referenced masters with no previews.


So to figure out where you stand, open the library go to the Photos icon on the Library pane of the Inspector. Select an image that is not blank and then select the Adjustments tab in the Inspector. Does the Histogram appear or is the histogram missing and is there text to the effect that images with missing masters can;t be adjusted?


If the first then the master for that image is in the library if the second then you are seeing the previews and the master is missing.


Before I go farther you need to answer the questions regarding how you backed up the system and how you restored it. Also why you did the wipe might be useful infomation. Finally what was the configuration of the machine before you did the wipe? Specifically were there any external disks hooked up to the machine.


good luck

Mar 9, 2012 7:01 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank, Huzzah! I did checked a recent image and the histogram did appear!


I had to wipe because I inadvertantely turned on file vault and it created encrypted backups on my drive that took up over 200 gb of these encrypted backups. The only way to turn it off was to wipe and start anew. I had just started to use the drives for backup before wiping, but I did not really know what I was doing, so I would say they weren't connected (at least completely).


Where to from here?

Mar 9, 2012 7:40 PM in response to Mr. D90

OK good at least some of the masters are there.


Lets see if you have nay referenced masters. In the Photos tab of the Inspector make sure you're in browser mode and select the filter icon (the magnifying glass in the upper right hand side of the browser window). In the filter window that opens set it like:


User uploaded file

You'll Add Rule File Status and then select Referenced in the box. Any images that show up have referenced masters.


In the same box change Referenced to each of the other values Online, Offline and missing one at a time and make a note of the display.


An important question how did you restore the system?

Mar 11, 2012 8:49 AM in response to Mr. D90

Mr D.

Ok, when I selected "referenced" nothing appeared...

If youwere at the top level of your library when you did that filter, then that means there all of your photos within Aperture are managed. Good news for you. All managed photos are backed up in the vault, and will thus be in your library after restore.


I went to managed and it seemed like a lot more pictures appeared, but they still aren't all there.

All photos in Aperture are either referenced or managed. If Aperture knows about it, it will appear in one of the two File Status rules.


By restoring a library from back-up, Aperture puts together the library from that is in the vault. All items that were there when you performed the last vault update will be there after restore. If there are photos missing from your library now, it unfortunately follows that they were not there when the last backup was performed.


The only other option is the "Rating" filter rule. By default, all Aperture views are filtered to exclude "rejected" photos. If you seem tobe missing photos, make sure they aren't being excluded from view by unchecking the "Rating" rule, as you can see in Frank's sceenshot.


nathan

Mar 11, 2012 9:33 AM in response to Mr. D90

I also wrote that you should check for missing and offline images. That nothing showed up in Referenced is good but you need to check those last two also.


Looking back at your posts I don;t see the OS or Aperture versions mentioned, could you supply that also.


If you wiped your system you must have followed some steps to get it back, how did you do that? Just describe what you did it really would make trying to help a lot easier.


How did you restore from the vault? You wrote that you had two drives plugged in when you restored, is it possible the restored library went to one of the externals? Have you looked on those for the library and masters?


For now try the two other filters (missing and off line) and try and try and describe your setup and steps as best you can.


regards

Sep 6, 2012 9:59 AM in response to Mr. D90

May have a similar issue. I had an Aperture library on a mac I only have intermittent access to now. I saved off two vaults to 2 different external drives, then restored them to my new mac. Both are missing a subset of the managed masters after restore - from both vaults. I had a brief chance to check the original library a couple of weeks ago and the missing masters are all managed. I did a fresh vault, and restored it also to the new mac and once again missing a subset of the masters (file not found message - but preview showing).


My initial guess was the problem was due to permission errors in the library - but I did the fix permissions step on Aperture Launch (holding down option-cmd), and this made no difference.


For me the common characteristic of for all the missing masters is their import dates - a period of several months earlier in the year. Aperture stores masters by import date, so this kinda makes sense - there must have been some problem with the way aperture stored masters during this period.


Not sure if this helps.

Aperture 3 incomplete vault restoration

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