Aperture 3.3 - The Previews mechanism appears to be entirely broken.

Question

Aperture 3.3 - The Previews mechanism appears to be entirely broken.

TL;DR: In Aperture 3.3 are your Previews in Aperture there when they shouldn't be, and not there when they should?

Try confirming this:

I created a new Library with a couple of small albums for testing. The Previews folder in .aplibrary is empty even when New Projects Automatically Generate Previews is on, Maintain Previews for Project is selected, and when I go to the photos and select "Update Preview" I get a message saying the Preview is already up to date. When holding down the option key and doing a Generate Preview, I still get nothing in the Previews folder, regardless of how many photos I do this with or what resolution/quality I have my previews set to.

On the other hand, if I turn off New Projects Automatically Generate Previews, deselect Maintain Previews for Project, and select photos and then "Delete Previews", I'm still able to drag photos outside of Aperture (and get the plus sign as well as count of photos), and they copy to the Finder as well as other apps in full resolution. Additionally when I go to iTunes, it will sync all of the items in the Project even though I've done all of this to kill off Previews (and there are no previews in the aplibrary/Previews folder).

I should note that I'm not doing anything weird here. For example, I only *looked* in .aplibrary when things weren't working and would never move or mess with anything in there directly.

This is a double problem and pretty serious:

1) Previews functionality is gone

2) Syncing with iOS devices can't be done using just the Previews, meaning it will sync everything, when combined with the Stacks Pick bug, this is a nightmare.

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 3.3

Posted on Jun 20, 2012 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,647 points

Jun 20, 2012 10:47 PM in response to KevinePaloAlto

Hi,

I think your issue is related to the buggy behaviour I described in this thread:

Aperture 3.3 Bug? Dragging to external editor can modify the original

My suspicion: Aperture 3.3 simply, clandestinely does not create previews, if the original image size is smaller than the pixel size for the previews.

What are the sizes of the images in your project compared to the preview settings?

If images do not have previews, because Aperture did not create them, then I found that Aperture passes the mster instead (or a copy of the master, if you drag to the desktop).

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Jun 21, 2012 2:12 AM in response to léonie

That's what I originally suspected, but "I still get nothing in the Previews folder, regardless of how many photos I do this with or what resolution/quality I have my previews set to."

My Previews are set to Fit Within 1280x1280 and my images are 4,368x2912 (12.7MP), and it's still happening. It doesn't matter what resolution I set, it doesn't make a difference. Previews are just *broken*. I've replicated this over and over with entirely new libraries and different sets of source images. I've booted off an archived drive with an old version of Aperture (3.2.3) and everything worked fine. It's definitely an Aperture 3.3 bug.

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2012 2:18 AM in response to léonie

I should mention, these are all JPEGs. Also, just tested something mentioned by another user. This apparently only happens with Landscape photos. I took a photo and rotated it to Portrait (2,912x4,368) and I was able to both delete the Preview, and Generate a new Preview with the resolution being 854x1,280)

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,647 points

Jun 21, 2012 2:31 AM in response to KevinePaloAlto

I observe something different. When the sharing of previews is turned on, and also the automatic generation, then previews ar created for larger images.

My problem is that deleting them and trying to update them does not seem to have any effect.

Have you tested the preview generation for different libraries? e.g. with a new, empty library? Maybe your current library needs repairing or rebuilding; then Aperture may not be able to write to the Previews folder. If you not done so already, try the Aperture Library First Aid Tools on your current library. (To launch into "First Aid" mode hold down the ⌥⌘-key combination while you double click the Aperture icon or the Aperture Library to be repaired.

Sorry, I've just seen your earlier post, you've done that already.

Write a bug-report to Apple from the Aperture man menu bar. Aperture > Provide aperture Feedback.

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Answer 5

AndAnt

Level 1

0 points

Jul 4, 2012 11:27 AM in response to KevinePaloAlto

I seem to have exactly the same problem, and it happens even if I create a new library and import a handful of JPEGs into it. Also, it doesn't seem like it's related to orientation; it's related to the fact that by rotating image you made an adjustment. I figured that previews are correctly generated only for jpegs which were changed/adjusted. So, even if you tick an Exposure checkbox in Adjustments tab, and regenerate previews, they will be generated correctly. Unticking it will again delete previews.

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