Merging libraries does not work

Question

Merging libraries does not work

Hello,

I'm trying to import another library into my main library with File > Import > Library/Project.

I see the file dialog to choose the external library and choose the desired one.

Aperture immediately starts the import process, there is a progress bar, it takes some time, the progress bar ends, but nothing is changed, nothing is imported.

As written in the documentation there should also be a second dialog to choose whether to merge or add the contents prior the import process, but that dialog does not appear.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Johannes

Aperture 3, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 20, 2013 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Dec 20, 2013 12:38 PM in response to Johannes Lietz

Johannes,

As written in the documentation there should also be a second dialog to choose whether to merge or add the contents prior the import process, but that dialog does not appear.

that dialogue will not always appear, only if there are duplicates in the second library and there is a conflict.

You could try to force this dialogue to appear by intentially causing aconflict and adding a duplicate image.

How was the second library created? Has it been derived from a copy of your main library? There is a weird glitch in Aperture that it will not merge libraries that it cnsiders to be duplicates. Also, it has been reported for earlier Aperture versions, that merging libraries did not import the images imported from the Photo Stream. What is your Aperture version, and how did you import the images int the second library?

If adding a duplicate image does not force the import, start by repairing all libraries that are to be merged.

If all fails, import the second library first into an empty, new library, and import this version.

-- Léonie

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Answer 2

Dec 23, 2013 7:11 PM in response to léonie

Thanks! My external libraries were once exported from my main library, and I've upgraded them to the latest 3.5.1 library version.

I've tried many things:

Importing the external libraries into a new created library: works.

Importing that new library into my main library: fails.

Using all repair modes on the main or external libraries: fails.

Add an image from my main library into an external library: no effect.

Sometimes nothing at all would happen, sometimes the project from the external library has been added to my main library, but without any images, sometimes one image was imported.

I've found one workaround now:

Create 'Dummy' project in main library with a single image inside.

Export 'Dummy' as new library.

Import 'Dummy'-library into external library.

Import external library into main library.

This will force Aperture to display the add-or-merge dialog. 'Add' will now do the import, 'merge' would do the non-import as before. Apparently the automatic library 'merge' is broken.

One could think that Aperture 3 is now a mature piece of software with all bugs ironed out, but that really isn't the case. It's a grab bag of new bugs'n'crashes every day. ;-)

Happy holidays!

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