When I try to edit with a plugin or photoshop, I get the message ..."Aperture does not support the image format." What is wrong?

I had to be away from the computer, and will shortly go out for a couple of hours.

Let's do a simpler test of one of these Referenced images -- click on the M key, and see if Aperture can display the original? Are there any badges showing on the Preview of these referenced images?

It may be that when writing to the referenced location, something is not being correctly written, but I can't tell that yat.

Ernie

On one of these Referenced Images, use Show in Finder, and then right click on it in the Finder, and choose Open With Photoshop. Don't do anything in Photoshop, and simply close without saving, if allowed to open.

Ernie

This is strange!

How much free space is there on this external drive?

Can you try to open Aperture in another User Account, if create one if needed, and then test this as that New User?

Ernie

This is truly a puzzle! Did you ever try to Consolidate the Masters/Originals for, say, a small Project with Referenced Masters, and then test?

Do you have another external hard drive that you could briefly test this with?

What is the structure of this External drive? Is this a 1.5 TB partition or the total drive? Are the Masters in one or more folders on this drive?

Did you ever say what kind of camera these are from, and the type of RAW?

Ernie

The reason for testing with Consolidate is to see whether there is any lasting impact of having first imported and stored on the external drive vs in the Aperture Library.

Btw, I use a 2 TB partition on a 3 TB internal disk in my Mac Pro to contain my Managed Library. In other words, the library total is on a different drive from my boot volume. Currently this primary Library is using 1.12 TB of space. Need room for growth with the size of RAW files from my Nikon D800.

Since you say the same thing happens with JPEGs, would you be willing to attach one of them from the external to an email addressed to me. You can find an address for me if you clicki on my name to the left, and look in the Bio Line of the resulting Profile. I would examine it with Graphic Converter, among other apps.

Ernie

Mike,

This test was very enlightening, at least to me, a non-Canon user.

The file you sent is a package of both the CR2 file and a JPEG file, yet its extension was simply .jpeg. It was 16.2 MB in size. I saved it to a folder in a folder on an external USB connected hard drive. Then in Aperture 3.2.4 in Snow Leopard, and in Aperture 3.3.1 in Lion, I imported to the library choosing to have it stored in its present location, meaning it is Referenced. This was then verified in Aperture that it was Referenced, and it master was located on the external drive.

In both versions of Aperture, in both versions of OSX, it displayed not only with a badge for Referenced, but also with J & R in two block badges, which means it had both JPEG and RAW components. In both versions of Aperture everything worked, including editing in a plugin and in an External Editor. The quasi-Master (the Tiff) was created without problem. So there is something peculiar to your Mac and installation. The screenshot you sent did not display these badges, which is curious, and may relate my suspicions below.

I think the problem somehow lies in this package that is both RAW and JPEG components, and perhaps with the single extension of .jpeg even though it is both!

One basis for this suspicion is that Graphic Converter could not open it correctly -- instead it produced some Grayscale graphic. Yet the Info on the file said it was CR2. It is very unusual for GC to not be able to open a file correctly. When I duplicated the file, and changed the extension to .cr2, Graphic Converter could correctly open it.

On the other hand, Photoshop could correctly open it as a RAW image from the location on the external drive, as could Preview.

I am unfamiliar with this package file with both cr2 and jpeg files -- perhaps that is standard with Canon, or perhaps only with the format selection you are using? But I think this package and misapplied single extensive is somehow the problem for you. Why Aperture can handle correctly on your internal drive but not on an external, while on my Mac it does not matter that it is referenced on an external, I simply do not know. But I suspect it is some flaw in your installation.

If you test shooting in RAW only, and not in a pair, I suspect things will work, but only you can test that. Maybe Leonie or others can shed light on this.

Ernie

Michael,

I am still puzzled by what might be preventing you from creating quasi masters for referenced files.

Do you see any new diagnostic messages in the Console window, when you try to edit with a plug-in?

And do you by any chance have your files encrypted by file vault? That used to cause similar symptons recently.

Regards

Léonie

Michael,

I made a rather extensive test and post about it. Many things I mentioned have not been addressed in this first post since then. Could you review it please, rather than my repeating it?

I talked to people at my camera store, and could not find a basis for how your cr2 and jpeg files got put into a package that has the extension .jpeg -- do you have an explanation for that? Do you have any program that works between the memory card and Aperture during Import?

Despite the oddity of that package construction, I could use the image file you provided in Aperture, regardless of whether Managed or Referenced.

Did you do a test where you shoot only RAW and imported that without any involvement of JPEG?

Ernie