Why can't I import .mov files to Aperture 3.4.3?

Question

Level 2

176 points

Why can't I import .mov files to Aperture 3.4.3?

I have three movies (.mov files) transferred from an iPhone 4 (using Image Capture) to my Mac, where the movies play just fine. Aperture can't even see these files if I navigate to them using the normal Import function, and if I drag them from the Desktop into an album, the cursor shows the 'plus' sign indicating that a copy is to be made, but nothing happens except for an alert informing me that 0 files have been successfully imported. The Aperture manual says that it will import .mov files, so what am I doing wrong?

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iMac 2.8GHz Core i7, OS X 10.8.2

Posted on Dec 12, 2012 4:23 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 12, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Steve Cooper

Steve,

Have you checked your import settings, if they are excluding certain media types?

Make sure," exclude videos" is not enabled, also "Raw+Jpeg pairs" needs to be set to both.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Steve Cooper Author

Level 2

176 points

Dec 12, 2012 2:42 PM in response to léonie

Thanks Léonie, but my settings are exactly as per your screenshot, and I've tried all other options in the RAW+JPEG menu, without success.

I'm sure the movies are not corrupted as they play in QuickTime Player and can be drag-imported to iPhoto with no problem at all. (They cannot, however, be dragged from iPhoto into Apeture, as still images can.)

I have just tried importing a couple of different movies but the same problem occurs. It seems as though some component of Aperture is missing. Is that possible? Should I reinstall Aperture?

Thanks, Steve.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Dec 12, 2012 3:09 PM in response to Steve Cooper

Have you run any cleaner applications, that clean caches? If the file

com.apple.xpchelper.cacheis missing from the directory /System/Library/Caches/

then videos cannot be imported or played. Have a look, if this file is still there. If not, reinstalling Mt. Lion should restore the file; or download it from the post below.

Re: Import video to Aperture library on Mountain Lion

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Answer 4

Steve Cooper Author

Level 2

176 points

Dec 12, 2012 9:53 PM in response to léonie

Fantastic! Problem solved, thankyou so much Léonie.

Yes, I do sometimes run Mt.Lion Cache Cleaner when problems arise, and guess I must have done so on this OS installation.

I didn't need to reinstall Mt.Lion in total -- I decided to see if running the 10.8.2 update would work. It did. And yes, I have made a copy of the cache file in case it's needed in future.

Thanks again,

Steve.

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