Incomplete Aperture library restored from vault onto new Mac; all managed files; many random photos missing. Why?

Just to be sure - your vault is current and has recently been updated?

Can you tell something about the images that are missing from the vault? Look at the originals in the original library. Are there any special characters in the filenames? Have you checked, if these photos really are managed? Have they been imported from the Photo Stream?

Any suggestions on how to transfer my entire vault to my new computer, or, at the least, to efficiently load those missing photos?

I would not bother to copy a vault to the new computer but copy directly the Aperture library over. The amount of data is nearly the same, and you save the trouble of having to restore the vault.

Only make sure, that the disk you are using to transfer the library is formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). An Aperture library or a vault will not work on a drive with a different formatting.

If you are just trying to migrate your library from the old computer to the new then copying it over is the best way.

However once you have the library copied over you should investigate the vault issue you are having. Vaults do not arbitrarily throw away images so my two best guesses are one the vault is not current and the missing images were imported into Aperture after the last vault update or two some of your images are referenced without you knowing it.

If you are using photo streams that could also account for the difference in the number of images. In any case having a backup that you can't use is the same as having no backup at all.

regards

Last year we noticed (with Aperture 3.4), that occasionally Aperture would not include the images imported from the Photo Stream in the vault. That was, when I gave up on vaults altogether, because I have so many imports from Photo Straem and wanted to besure, they are backed up.

All are managed, jpegs, in one library, none referenced, all named with letters and numbers only.

Can you check, if for these images the original master files are really still there in your original library? Try to export or to edit one of these images. If the originals are missing, you will get an error message.

You could also

How do I "copy directly the Aperture library over," as you suggest? I would like to try that next.

As a precaution repair the permissions and repair the library before trying to copy it. Then you have two possibilities:

• Either connect your Macs with a firewire or thunderbolt cable and boot your mac with the library in Target Mode. Then your other mac will see the mac as disk and you can drag the library over in the Finder. See: Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode
• Or use your external drive as a sneaker drive to transfer the library.
  Set the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag in the "Get Info" panel of the drive. Copy the library to the external drive and connect this drive to your new Mac. Then copy it from this drive over to the new mac.

Regards

Léonie

I am certain there are images that did not come from Photo Stream (I have very few of these and am missing 6000!).

That is, why I would like you to check, if these images are still referencing their originals correctly by trying to export the original or editing some of them. Try to find a sample that has not been imported from the photo stream.

A smart album with a smart rule

File status is referenced

or

File status is missing

File status is offline

could also help to make sure, that no images have missing originals.

The sad truth is,that we are occasionally seeing Aperture losing the connection to managed originals.

I am certainly not as knowledgable as Ieonie, but like the OP, I just transfered 5 years worth of images from an old Mac Pro to a new iMac. From what I can gather the difference was that all my managed Libraries and Vaults are kept on external hard drives.

Just plugged the EHDs into the new computer, opened Aperture, directed it to the Libraries and all was ready to go.

It would take more time, but if all else fails, wouldn't that be an option? (Transfer library on the old system to an EHD, plug that in to the new computer and go from there. Could then make a new vault on the new system.)

Bingo! I checked that all photos were managed, I repaired permissions and repaired library on old Mac's original library, then I copied that library to an external drive, and finally I imported that to a new library on my new Mac. Whew, ready to play!

Great! 🙂 You are welcome.

Finally, it sounds as though I might be wise to reference my library from now on?

No, that is not what I wanted to imply. While your internal drive has still plenty of space and the library fits on the drive, it is safer and less trouble to have a managed library. I recommended to check for broken references, to be sure, that there are no referenced images by accident.

No that you are all set to go, what are your plans for a backup of the library - as Frank Caggiano pointed out above, you cannot rely on your vault. Will you keep the drive with the copy of the library as a backup or try again to create a new vault?

Two backups is always a good idea- I make time machine backups and bootable clones.

Good Luck! And a Happy New Year!