Aperture. Time to quit.

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Aperture. Time to quit.

I've used Aperture since it came out. It's now unusable, needs to be force quit all the time. When I re-open, I'm greeted by a status bar, telling me that it's waiting for Time Machine to finish backing up library. I don't use time machine, it's turned off, and I have no Time Machine enabled Disks.

I think it's time to give up on this pos software, I'm on a new Macbook pro with 8gb ram, and it's rubbish. I've run Onyx, repaired permissions, pulled my hair out, it makes no difference.

Lightroom seems to be the only option, taking 6 libraries with 1TB of images with me.

I'm unhappy about that, but I can't deal with an allegedly pro app that can't deal with the basics.

If it's not the application, then it's the machine. I bought it because it was just supposed to work, but maybe they've given up on that bit of marketing.

Adios.

Macbook Pro

Posted on Apr 30, 2012 4:05 PM

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Answer 1

jb-7 Author

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Apr 30, 2012 4:07 PM in response to jb-7

The only option I have, when being greeted by the message that Aperture is backing up to a non-existent library, is to Quit. Then re-start the computer. Cute the first few times, then you just want to hit the thing with a hammer. 'king useless.

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Answer 2

jb-7 Author

Level 1

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Apr 30, 2012 4:10 PM in response to jb-7

cmd + option keys, select rebuild library, still waiting for Time machine backup. There is no time machine...

Is this basic stuff, or what?

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Answer 3

Apr 30, 2012 4:12 PM in response to jb-7

We voluntarily help people make the most of Aperture. If you are not here to be helped, please don't post.

If you would like help, repost with the specifics of your problem, and everything you've already done to resolve it.

Aperture works well for tens of thousands of users. There is an excellent chance that it could work well for you, too.

Force-quitting any database should only be used as a last resort, and you should repair or rebuild the database afterwards before using it. Have you followed any of the steps detailed on this official trouble-shooting page?

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Answer 4

jb-7 Author

Level 1

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Apr 30, 2012 4:15 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Yes, I have. I'm not a novice. Venting has helped me more than your invitation not to post. Presumably you're uncomfortable with someone having a problem. Please don't offer any more assistance, it's about as useful as this application at the moment.

I hope you understand.

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Answer 5

jb-7 Author

Level 1

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Apr 30, 2012 4:21 PM in response to jb-7

I have searched for answers to this problem, I can't seem to find anything specifically related to the program backing up to a non-existent disk. Kirby, if you don't have this problem, or have no experience of it, then I don't know why you think censuring me is a solution. If you can help, then I would appreciate it, but if not, then perhaps it's you who should resist posting.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 30, 2012 5:00 PM in response to jb-7

jb-7,

surely you are joking, or are you not?

You are posting in a user forum that is there to help people to solve their technical problems with Aperture. And this is what we do volutarily in our spare time.

You went to the trouble to post three messages, and made many of us read thru your messages - 33 reads I see right now. If you ask for help, and make us try to figure out how to help, then please have the courtesy to read and try to understand what we are posting. And to answer the questions that we need to ask, to figure out who of us will be able to help, and how we will be able to help. And your post certainly needs clarification:

You did not tell us the Mac OS X version you are running, or the Aperture version.
We do not know where your Aperture Library is located, and if it is referenced, managed, or mixed, and whether you are shooting raw images or not.
We do not know how you migrated your library to your new MBP.

The only thing we know for certain is that you are constantly risking to corrupt your Aperture library by force quitting Aperture.

The problems you describe indicate serious problems with your system, but not necessarily a problem with Aperture.

Good luck to you for trying to solve this problem on your own. You just rejected - very ungraciously I might add - the competent help of one of the best and most experienced trouble shooters we have on this forum.

Regards

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Answer 7

jb-7 Author

Level 1

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Apr 30, 2012 5:33 PM in response to léonie

Apologies if I seem ungracious, but Kirby invited me to cease posting, which was just a touch proprietorial. And despite your listing of his credentials, unhelpful.

Early 2011 MBP, 2GHz Intel core i7, Latest OS , Latest Aperture, referenced libraries. Exported from previous machine, imported into Aperture as 6 separate libraries, one at a time, of course. Is there any other option to a force quit? Any other option but to shut down the computer when Aperture won't open, but continues to back up to a non existent Time Machine?

It may be perplexing to hear that there's a throwback in the Apple family, but I've been having intermittent serious issues, and it's extremely frustrating. Your admonishment means little to me; I'm sitting in front of three Macs, an iPad3, and an iPhone, and the worst of the lot is the most expensive one, running the program I need most. Perhaps someone out there can help, and can offer more assistance than simply to try to brush the problem under the carpet.

Thanks for all the help, and the etiquette pointers.

Though if there is anyone who has experienced the problem I've outlined, and knows a solution, I'd be pleased to hear it, and I can be genuinely pleasant to those who don't ask me to leave the party as soon as I arrive.

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Answer 8

CorkyO2

Level 4

1,290 points

Apr 30, 2012 6:59 PM in response to jb-7

jb-7,

I have not experienced the issue you are seeing, but I have noticed on my MBP (late 2011) with a Time Capsule; that when I turned off Time Machine, I could not shut-down the machine normally. Something in 10.7.3 connected to Time Machine seems to be hanging after turning it off (Time Machine > Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk > Do Not Backup).

The only ideas I have are as follows:

1 - Look in '/Library/Preferences' and see if there is a 'com.apple.TimeMachine.plst' and 'com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.lockfile'. If so, try deleting and then rebooting.

2 - If that doesn't work and you have an external drive for temporary use, you might go ahead and run a Time Machine backup on it just to get it completed, then disable it and erase the drive. This might allow Aperture to load successfully.

Note - pressing 'Shift' while launching Aperture will bypass Preview creation for a quick check (you may already know this one since you have been using it for a while). Creating a new empty library may also be a good idea to get Aperture to load and prevent to 'Time Machine' issue.

Other than that, I really don't have any ideas since I have not experienced that issue. 😉

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Answer 9

Apr 30, 2012 7:13 PM in response to jb-7

jb-

Sorry that you cannot seem to make it work. I also have a (2011) MBP with 8 GB RAM and Aperture absolutely rocks. Previously I ran v1, v2 and v3 on a 2006 MBP and also on a 2006 MP. The 2006 MBP with its max of 3 GB RAM was slow, but it always worked (in fact still does work).

If you care to try to figure out what you are doing wrong please advise workflow, hardware and exact setup in very much detail and we should be able to help you make your workflow work. It will take back-and-forth troubleshooting with lots of work by you. I would suggest starting a new thread with a title something like "20xx MBP, OS XX.xx, Aperture v.xx crashes" because many folks simply ignore informationless rant thread titles.

HTH

-Allen

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Answer 10

jb-7 Author

Level 1

0 points

May 1, 2012 4:29 AM in response to jb-7

Thanks Corky and Allen- I very much appreciate your constructive suggestions.

Corky, I had a look for those plists, nothing showed up.

I'll have to juggle some drives before I can free one up for a Time Machine backup, so that might take a little time.

However, it does seem like it might be worth the effort.

Allen, I'm using an external Firewire drive to reference all files. That disk is manually backed up to another drive, unconnected to Aperture.

The only thing that I would imagine to be different in my workflow is that I have a few quite large files- stitches, and film scans- which are quite a bit larger than those more commonly used. 650Mb is not unusual, larger are possible, and Aperture was never happy with those.

This problem, as I mentioned in my first post, is intermittent. It doesn't present itself all the time. I've just had a month where it hasn't been a problem, and lately, a few days where I had to force quit every time I opened. Then the Time Machine bug started happening again, which necessitated restarting the computer, which then failed to re-start, and required a hard shutdown. Multiple times.

Whatever the problem is, Aperture is at the centre, either the cause, or the program most affected, of and by the problem.

I'm not near an Apple Store, can't make an appointment to get a genius to plug it into diagnostics.

I'm loath to send the machine away, but might end up having to do that.

Thank you both for your suggestions, I'll be taking your advice on them. Thanks also for not being offended too much by my ranting, believe me, I have searched for this problem, and haven't found it referenced anywhere. Hence my frustration. Being advised to cease posting seemed to be a strange way to be helpful, seemed to be more like a policeman than a problem solver.

Much appreciated.

joseph

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Answer 11

May 1, 2012 4:59 AM in response to jb-7

jb-7 wrote:

Being advised to cease posting seemed to be a strange way to be helpful, seemed to be more like a policeman than a problem solver.

Hi Joseph. Please re-read my response. I did not advise you to cease posting. I advised you to to not whine, and to post information about the problems you have and what you have done to fix them. Here is exactly what I said:

We voluntarily help people make the most of Aperture. If you are not here to be helped, please don't post.

If you would like help, repost with the specifics of your problem, and everything you've already done to resolve it.

That seems to me to be not only the most helpful response you could get, but also seems to have provided the help you needed in order to move forward with making Aperture work well for you.

Cheers.

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Answer 12

May 1, 2012 8:32 AM in response to jb-7

jb-7 wrote:

I've used Aperture since it came out. It's now unusable, needs to be force quit all the time. When I re-open, I'm greeted by a status bar, telling me that it's waiting for Time Machine to finish backing up library. I don't use time machine, it's turned off, and I have no Time Machine enabled Disks.

I think it's time to give up on this pos software, I'm on a new Macbook pro with 8gb ram, and it's rubbish. I've run Onyx, repaired permissions, pulled my hair out, it makes no difference.

Lightroom seems to be the only option, taking 6 libraries with 1TB of images with me.

I'm unhappy about that, but I can't deal with an allegedly pro app that can't deal with the basics.

If it's not the application, then it's the machine. I bought it because it was just supposed to work, but maybe they've given up on that bit of marketing.

Adios.

Gotta decide what you want to do, dude:

-- If you want to yell at Apple, then Aperture>Aperture>Provide Aperture Feed back.

-- If you want to buy Lightroom and learn to use it, start here: http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom?view=discussions (You may want to check the FAQ and note the "Lightroom extremely slow"posts.)

-- If you have been using Aperture since release 1.0 and it has suddenly started to misbehave, and you want some help, then ask for it. Tell people what, if anything, has changed, and what, if anything, is odd about your set up.

There are lots of bright, friendly folks here who will spend insane amounts of time trying to diagnose at a distance. I have never seen the problem you report, but this old thread may be helpful: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2631711

--

DiploStrat 😉

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Answer 13

jb-7 Author

Level 1

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May 1, 2012 8:57 AM in response to DiploStrat

Thank you-

Yes, I had seen that- not exactly like my own situation, since I don't use TIme Machine. It never runs, has no disks associated with it, yet still, Aperture locks me out because it insists on backing up to it. The only way to get back into the program is to shut down the computer, which then hangs instead of restarting, requiring a hard shutdown. There is no other option.

I haven't got rid of Time Machine, because I've thought I might want to use it at some point in the future, but I might just move it out of the Applications folder, if I'm allowed.

Aperture seems to be working ok now, as I said, it's one of those intermittent problems. When it does deside to talk to itself, then I'll be back to cursing at it, doing a cleanup, repairing permissions, clearing caches, and all those things that aren't mentioned in the Apple Advertising.

I appreciate that there are people who do go out of their way to offer help and advice, and I'm grateful for your help, and the others who have offered constructive advice.

Thanks for the link-

joseph

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Answer 14

May 2, 2012 10:21 AM in response to jb-7

What happens with a new Library, a few dozen newly shot images, each image less than 50 MB each?

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Answer 15

jb-7 Author

Level 1

0 points

May 2, 2012 2:25 PM in response to SierraDragon

Well, I'm not sure. I started off, on a new computer, with a new library of about a hundred images, uploaded straight from the card, and I was less than impressed by the responsiveness of the machine/program. I haven't tried it again since, because a library of a few dozen images doesn't accurately reflect my workflow, but I presume your enquiry relates to another issue?

I have a feeling that it might be easier to maintain a snappy library with a small number of small images, but I need a Pro Program, hence my frustration.

Since I posted this, the machine has been behaving properly- as I said earlier, it's an intermittent problem, likely to recur when I need the machine to perform.

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