The Library "Aperture ...." is open in (null)

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The Library "Aperture ...." is open in (null)

Some of my Aperture 3.2.4 test libraries on my iMac gave me this message, when I tried to upgrade them to version 3.3.1. Really funny - how to quit process null? So far I have only seen this error message in iPhoto, not in Aperture (only recently, in the context of rebuilding from vaults). Probably this is a consequence of the new, unified iPhoto/Aperture library, that we now see it in Aperture too.

The only thing that worked for me to upgrade the library, was to rebuild it using the Aperture Library First Aid Tools - neither repairing the permissions nor repairing the database did any good. The test libraries in question seemed to have been corrupted in some way, after the upgrade finished, the thumbnails were missing and needed rebuilding.

My question: Has anybody else seen this "open in (null)" error message, when upgrading Aperture Libraries, and if yes, what helped to deal with this problem in your case?

Regards

Léonie

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 3,06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM

Posted on Jul 9, 2012 2:45 AM

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Answer 1

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Kirby Krieger

Level 6

12,592 points

Jul 9, 2012 3:27 AM in response to léonie

Sweet! -- Apple has outsourced their error message writing to Redmond 😝 .

I have not seen that error message. Another fractal upgrade (3.3.0835287643)?

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Answer 2

léonie Author

Level 10

195,019 points

Jul 9, 2012 3:36 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Another fractal upgrade (3.3.0835287643)?

😁

Thanks Kirby!

No, I tried to go all the way to 3.3.1 at once!

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Answer 3

Jul 14, 2012 4:03 AM in response to léonie

I'm getting the same message, none of the rebuild or repair options work for me either, any suggestions?

I really don't want to open the package contents and start saving off all the original media, there's about 60GB's worth 😢

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Answer 4

léonie Author

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195,019 points

Jul 14, 2012 4:12 AM in response to koppernob

Have you tried to reboot the system?

What is your MacOS version and Aperture version?

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Answer 5

Jul 14, 2012 9:01 AM in response to léonie

Yep rebooted,

OS X Lion 10.7.4

Aperture 3.3

Cheers

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Answer 6

léonie Author

Level 10

195,019 points

Jul 14, 2012 9:07 AM in response to koppernob

Have you tried to create a new, empty library and to import your old library into the new one?

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Answer 7

Jul 14, 2012 10:48 AM in response to léonie

Just tried and that didn't work, says the library is out of date and needs updating before it can be imported.

Cheers again

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Answer 8

Jul 14, 2012 10:52 AM in response to léonie

The library it's trying to import/having problems with is v3.2.4

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Answer 9

Jul 15, 2012 5:28 AM in response to koppernob

Just restored a previous version of Aperture from Time Machine and the library opens fine, did a repair, rebuild etc and tried to open again in never version of Aperture and still get the same message 😟

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Answer 10

léonie Author

Level 10

195,019 points

Jul 15, 2012 5:40 AM in response to koppernob

Curiouser and curiouser! Looks like I have been lucky, that a simple rebuild did suffice on my libraries. 😀

Just restored a previous version of Aperture from Time Machine and the library opens fine, did a repair, rebuild etc and tried to open again in never version of Aperture and still get the same message 😟

Do you still have the previous Aperture version installed? Then try to do the "import into empty library" trick in Aperture 3.2.4, and then try to upgrade the resulting library.

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Answer 11

Jul 15, 2012 6:31 AM in response to léonie

Indded it is curious.

I'm on with it now, watch this space.......

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Answer 12

Jul 16, 2012 10:23 AM in response to koppernob

Hmm that didn't work, clearly a problem with that library as it starts to import and chugs away for a while before hanging uncompleted.

Need to think of another plan, maybe split the library into smaller chunks and convert to 3.3 in sections, that way I might be able to identify if a particular folder or image is causing a problem, could take a while.......

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Answer 13

Jul 16, 2012 10:46 AM in response to léonie

Did Aperture crash somehow?

What I think happened is that as of Aperture 3.3, you can share libraries between Aperture and iPhoto. But, because you cannot have the library open in two applications at the same time, there is a "lock file" which is saved to disk when one of the applications has the library open. Normally when you quit Aperture (or iPhoto), it will delete the lock file, and so you won't see this message.

If the library is open in Aperture or iPhoto and one of them crashes, the lock file persists and you can see something like this. If you had issues during migration and force quit Aperture, it's possible this is what's going on. And then in general removing the lock file resolves the issue.

I haven't done enough digging in the Aperture library to know exactly where it stores this lock file, but I'm certain it does so.

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Answer 14

léonie Author

Level 10

195,019 points

Jul 16, 2012 11:17 AM in response to William Lloyd

I don't remember if I had a crash before this happened, but it is possible that I had to use force quit earlier to be able to shut down the system.

Your explanation makes a lot of sense - some sort of lock must be there - maybe a tag in the library package.

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Answer 15

Jul 17, 2012 12:08 AM in response to léonie

Sorted, well done William.

If you open the package contents under the database/apdb if there's a file called lockfile.pid just delete it and away you go 🙂

Thanks for your assistance

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