NYY96
Level 1 (9 points)

Q: Captions Aren't Saving

Please excuse me if my question is unclear, I have been banging my head against the wall repeatedly given my recent troubles...

 

We got back from a trip to Paris about 900 photos later. Spent about 3 hours adding captions and organizing the photos in Aperture 3. Closed everything out and felt like I accomplished something.

 

The next time I opened Aperture up, all the metadata was there except the captions were blank. I tried re-adding several captions, checked within Aperture that I could move away from the photo and that when I selected it again the caption was still there. Closed out of Aperture. Re-opened it. Captions gone. All the other metadata, such as keywords, city, etc. are still there.

 

Other than the simple question, "am I going crazy," I'm wondering if somebody could help me try to solve this conundrum. I certainly don't want to go through the painstaking effort to re-add the captions only to find them lost yet again. Additionally, is there any hope that I might recover the old captions and save the time of re-adding them and even trying to re-remember them now that a few weeks have gone by? I have found "some" of the captions are stored in the auto-fill list (proof that I added them!), but it is only a selection.

 

Thank you for your assistance.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jun 24, 2012 3:36 PM

by Frank Caggiano,Solvedanswer
Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano
Level 7 (25,796 points)
A:

I'd hold off adding captions until you can ad a caption to one or two photos quit Aperture and then when you open it again the captions are there,

 

In case of weird behavior such as this it is always a good idea to start with the basics and run the steps shown in Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics  I'd pay particular attention to the library repair and preference file stuff.

 

This may not bring the old captions back, what you 're looking to do is be able to add a caption and have it stick after closing and opening Aperture.

 

If that still doesn't work try making a new library import a few pictures add captions and then see if they stick.

 

If it still ins't working make a new user on your system log in as that user run Aperture on  a new library and try it again.

 

What we're trying to do is narrow down where the problem is occurring

 

Post back the results.

 

good luck

Posted on Jun 24, 2012 4:50 PM

Close
NYY96

Q: Captions Aren't Saving

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by NYY96,

    NYY96 NYY96 Jun 24, 2012 4:18 PM in response to NYY96
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 24, 2012 4:18 PM in response to NYY96

    As I look closer at my photo library, 25000 photos, it looks like every caption in the library is gone. I have added captions to every collection as I have imported them; not really sure how this can happen. I will hold out from getting upset until I hear some feedback, but needless to say I am slightly concerned.

     

    Any ideas?

  • by Frank Caggiano,Solvedanswer

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jun 24, 2012 4:50 PM in response to NYY96
    Level 7 (25,796 points)
    Jun 24, 2012 4:50 PM in response to NYY96

    I'd hold off adding captions until you can ad a caption to one or two photos quit Aperture and then when you open it again the captions are there,

     

    In case of weird behavior such as this it is always a good idea to start with the basics and run the steps shown in Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics  I'd pay particular attention to the library repair and preference file stuff.

     

    This may not bring the old captions back, what you 're looking to do is be able to add a caption and have it stick after closing and opening Aperture.

     

    If that still doesn't work try making a new library import a few pictures add captions and then see if they stick.

     

    If it still ins't working make a new user on your system log in as that user run Aperture on  a new library and try it again.

     

    What we're trying to do is narrow down where the problem is occurring

     

    Post back the results.

     

    good luck

  • by Kirby Krieger,Helpful

    Kirby Krieger Kirby Krieger Jun 24, 2012 5:58 PM in response to NYY96
    Level 6 (12,522 points)
    Jun 24, 2012 5:58 PM in response to NYY96

    In addition to Frank's thorough reply:  How much of your system drive is empty?  Problems somewhat similar sometimes are caused by insufficient disk space.

     

    Do you have a back-up?  Until you confirm that Aperture is NOT stripping the captions out, copy your back-up before opening it in Aperture.  Imho, this is _critical_.

  • by NYY96,

    NYY96 NYY96 Jun 25, 2012 7:23 PM in response to Kirby Krieger
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 25, 2012 7:23 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

    Thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I have just tried a database repair using the Aperture repair dialogue, however this did not seem to restore captions.

     

    I have about 30% of my hard disk free (150GB free of 500GB), so while I appreciate the advice I am not certain if this is the issue.

     

    Currently my Aperture instance is rebuilding 50,000 thumbnails, so I might not be able to try anything else until that is finished.

     

    At this point, should I give-up hope that I will ever get my captions back? As nice as it is to know that my photos are secure, I must admit the idea of losing 10 years of captions meets me with a great deal of dread. I have a cloud backup service which will likely be of no use to me (as the corrupted library is no doubt 'backed up') and a external HDD backup from several months ago that may be of some use.

     

    Any other assistance from the forums would be greatly appreciated.

  • by Kirby Krieger,Helpful

    Kirby Krieger Kirby Krieger Jun 25, 2012 7:36 PM in response to NYY96
    Level 6 (12,522 points)
    Jun 25, 2012 7:36 PM in response to NYY96

    Can't say much at this point -- sorry  .  Let us know what you find after the Library finishes rebuilding.

     

    I would try to get a copy (or several copies) of previous stages of your Library.  Personally, I would buy or borrow some external drives, put masking tape on them, and label each one.  As I see it, it is likely (but not certain) that your current Library has lost all captions.  It is important to find out why.  It is possible that some past version of your Library has your captions intact.  The only way to tell is to look at all the versions you can.  Until you determine the cause of the removal of the data in the caption field, you should copy each Library version prior to opening it in 3.4.

     

    Frank's advice should be followed to the end.  You need to make sure captions work.  Until then, you risk losing anything you restore.

  • by NYY96,

    NYY96 NYY96 Aug 25, 2012 2:08 PM in response to Kirby Krieger
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Aug 25, 2012 2:08 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

    I just wanted to update this thread to again say thanks for your help. I was able to fix the Aperture Library and captions appear to be saving now. I was not able to recover my old captions, however, and am upset about this. But thank you for your steps to get back back up and running.