Q: Aperture 3.4.5 Won't Remember to Open my Camera
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Dec 18, 2013 6:03 AMby Frank Caggiano,First reboot the system to start out fresh and make sure Aperture is not running.
Then I would create a Preferences folder on the Desktop then go to the Library/Preferences select everything and drag it all to the Folder you made on the Desktop. As this point the Preferences folder in the Library will be empty.
Now start Aperture set it to be the app that opens when a camera is attached and test out that it works. Now do what you need to do to trigger the error, either log out and back in or reboot. Now test that Aperture opens when a camera is attached.
As you are starting with a clean Preference folder Aperture should open, the same as when you tried a new user.
If it doesn't then I'm really at a loss but assuming that it does open as it should at this point you have two choices. You can continue to use the system recreating preferences as you need them, things like your Finder window defaults, Safari behavior etc. or you can try narrowing the problem down a specific preference or preferences.
And also, do I need to do a restart after I remove each section of preferences, go to Aperture set the camera pref and restart again to see if it sticks?
Lets say you decide to try and narrow it down so you go to the Desktop Preference folder and select the bottom half of the files in there. I suggest while the files are selected you label (tag) them with a unique color label or make a new tag indicating that these files were moved back.
Now do what you need to do to trigger the error, log out or reboot and try Aperture. Two possibilities, works or doesn't. Quit Aperture. Now select all the files in the Preference folder, the ones you just moved in and move then out again. Now select the other half from the Desktop label them with a different color or tag and move those in. Repeat the test.
Hopefully one of the tests worked and the other failed. With the files labeled or tagged it is easy to see which group worked and which didn't. Again with the Library/Preference folder empty select half of the files in the failing group, and label or tag to those (keep the original tag on the files) and repast the above procedure.
What you are trying to do is narrow it down, by dividing the files in half each time will make the job quicker. You can continue to do this all the way down to a single file or group of files (it is possible that more then one file is causing the problem) or at some point you can say I have the majority of my preferences back, it will be take less time to recreate what I need as I need them rather then continuing with the test.
On paper and in most real life situations this will work. However there is the possibility of some strange interaction causing the problem and you could see something like, put in first half it works, put it second half it still works, put both halves in it fails! Or the opposire both halves by themsleves cause it to fail. Hopefully you won;t see that.
And again these is one of those procedures that is more complicated to write about then to do. Once you're setup and doing this it goes fairly quickly.
Hope this helps and clears up any questions
good luck
regards
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Dec 18, 2013 9:22 AMby Sweejak,Very helpful!
I'm going to try this when I have the time to spend on it. It's not so much the concern about Aperture alone, but also about what else might be going on with my system. I think I'm going to do this on a clone drive and once the problem is isolated copy the correction to my main drive. Many thanks, Frank and léonie. I'll report back if it works but it may be a while till I get to it.
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Dec 18, 2013 4:46 PMby Sweejak,Well, I decided that I should get Disk Warrior and I have downloaded it but have yet to receive the DVD. Anyway in running it here is what I have that relates to Aperture. Most of this seems to be related to my main library Database/History/Changes.
I can run Disk Warrior from a cloned startup drive ( I think). Should I attempt a repair from there or try something else.
Disk: "Mac HD"!
The Property List data was checked in 16,100 files.!
The Resource Data was checked in 18,913 files.!
The maximum Folder Depth on this disk is 21. This does not exceed the maximum recommended depth.!
The System Symbolic Link Files were checked and no problems were found.!
Location: "Desktop"!
File: "0000000036.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Premature end of file after <integer> on line 1323!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-Furniture.aplibrary/Database/History/Change s/"!
!
File: "0000000001.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Close tag on line 813077 does not match open tag string!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000054.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Close tag on line 45178 does not match open tag key!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000165.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Close tag on line 548 does not match open tag key!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000216.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected EOF!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000222.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected EOF!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000255.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected EOF!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000258.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected EOF!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "config.plist"!
File: "0000000281.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected character < on line 161293!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
File: "0000000282.plist"!
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.!
Encountered unexpected character d on line 81726!
Location: "Mac HD/Users/juerisvj/Pictures/Aperture-MAIN.aplibrary/Database/History/Changes/"!
!
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Dec 18, 2013 5:27 PMby Frank Caggiano,Those 'errors' are not really anyting to be concerned with. It is an artifact of how Aperture does these plist files.
To be truthful its not clear just what they are for and if you were to delete them from the library Aperture would run just fine.
But this does bring up a good point, while it is highly unlikely that the problem is related to the library at this point anything is possible. So two additional things you can try doing, one is to run a library repair, start Aperture while holding down the option and command keys and select Repair from the menu.
The other is to make a new empty library and see if that makes any difference with what you are seeing.
regards
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Dec 18, 2013 6:31 PMby Sweejak,I booted from a clone and when I opened Aperture it said that the database had problems and Aperture proceeded to rebuild the database. I don't know if it solved all the problems or not. The cloned version did have the camera pref properly set, not surprising I guess. I hadn't tested after a logout though.
Using Disk Warrior I rebuilt the Directory (Optimizing, 35% out of order it says), on the Main drive.
Checking files and folders and repair permissions on the Main drive via Disk Warrior reports what looks like the exact same "errors".
Restarting from the Main drive after replacing the directory and after using Command/Option key to start up Aperture I selected to repair the Aperture database, went to Aperture to set the camera preference, loggoed out and logged back in and still the same problem. So I will try building a new library instead, when I have some more time.... thanks for hanging with me.
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Dec 19, 2013 12:04 PMby Sweejak,I created a new test library, logged out and back in and the camera setting stuck as it should. I tested it twice.
So now my question is how can I import my old main library into the new library? Will it retain stars, keywords, album organization, preferences like short cuts etc.?
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Dec 19, 2013 12:28 PMby léonie,So now my question is how can I import my old main library into the new library? Will it retain stars, keywords, album organization, preferences like short cuts etc.?
If you use the command "File > Import > Library" while browsing your new library and select your old main library to import, Aperture should import it with all your ratings and other metadata intact. Only you will need plenty of free disk space, for the merging of the libraries will need temporarily more working space than the added sizes of the two libraries.
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May 26, 2014 2:10 PMby Sweejak,I've left this question alone for months, but in case anyone is still watching I've selected in Aperture preferences: "Open with Image Capture". Instead of open with Aperture, now when I hook up my camera it is Aperture that opens. So, call it work around... I guess. I only hope it sticks.
