Copying aperture library from one external disk to another fails with error -36

Error -36 is an input/output error.

It can occur, when a drive is failing, when you have permission problems, or when the drive has the wrong formatting. Why are you copying your library. Is there a problem with the drive?

How are your external drives formatted? Are both of your drives correctly formatted MacOS X Extended?

If not, reformat your new drive. See: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

Before copying your library, it will help to repair the library and to repair the permissions, if you have not done so already, see: Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual

Regards

Léonie

Rahul,

I have also used the Aperture First Aid to repair the perminssions and the library (just the first two options out of three provided).

What else can I do?

Sorry, I overlooked that you already had done the repair options.

To prevent permission issues, I'd enable the "Ignore Ownership" flag on both drives, if you have not already done so.

Your copy-problem may be caused by a bad media file in your library.

You could try to copy in small installments.

• Open the Aperture library package in the Finder by ctrl-clicking (right clicking) the Aperture library.
• You will see a Finder window with folders like Masters, Previews, etc.
• Create an empty folder on your new drive, name it something like ApertureLibraryBackup and drag the items from your current Aperture library on by one to this new folder.
• When the copy fails, e.g. for the Masters folder, check, how much could be copied. The first file, that not could be transferred, is probably the bad image or video.

Delete this file from your Aperture LIbrary (using Aperture) and then try to copy the rest.

Post back, when you discover what cannot be copied.

Regards

Léonie

P.S.

You enable the "Ignore Ownership" flag from the "File > Get Info" panel of the drive.

I followed your directions and have found that the offending file is in the database folder within the aperture library package.

Create a new "Database" folder in the copied library and copy the items from "Database" one by one. Hopefully will be only one item inside that is broken.

Some items can be automatically rebuild, if you delete them, but it would be good to know, which of them is broken.

You are welcome.

Great news! 🙂

Léonie

Hi Leonie, No matter how long ago you posted your missive, your advice regards tooling and fixing a -36 error absolutely helped me find the corrupted file and delete same (which was in the Masters Folder). WOW. Now am transfering my Aperture Library over to a new drive from a failing drive. It's a 1.52 TB Aperture Library File size. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are no further problems.

best,

Jon Levi

Turns out the that solution was actually simpler than I realized. I researched this -36 error issues in other related Apple forums. After using Leonie's solution above, it worked for certain Aperture Libraries when I was transferring to a new external HD (G-Tech 4 TB) using firewire 800 cables. I started getting a cascade of -36 errors transferring more Aperture libraries and dilligently using Leonie's solution and realized something more was at hand causing these errors. I traced it to the way I was daisy chaining my HDs. Other forums faulted cheap USB Hubs and cables. I simply reconfigured the daisy chaining to a more direct route by switching the main drive to the iMac and daisy chaining from there. That seemed to solve the problem. Currently I have 8TB of external drives (G-Tech 2TB, 4TB and 2TB mirrored raid array) and 2TB internal. I hope this solves others problems with -36 Errors.

Other forums faulted cheap USB Hubs and cables. I simply reconfigured the daisy chaining to a more direct route by switching the main drive to the iMac and daisy chaining from there. That seemed to solve the problem. Currently I have 8TB of external drives (G-Tech 2TB, 4TB and 2TB mirrored raid array) and 2TB internal. I hope this solves others problems with -36 Errors.

That is a really good point, jonlevi, to check, how the drive is connected.

I have seen the same problem with GarageBand and Logic, when using daisy chained drives or HUBs.

I did not think of it in relation to Aperture, for you really will want to use the fastests connection for the drive with your Aperture library.