Need help with Aperture library duplicating all 'Albums' under 'Projects' library

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Need help with Aperture library duplicating all 'Albums' under 'Projects' library

Fairly new to Aperture but I've tried to search many times for solutions to this issue.

Scenario: In the Library, I have 3 albums under the 'Albums' view at the bottom that I created. They were never associated with a project so they were always kept down here. This I believe is normal. What is not normal is that this morning the same 3 albums started showing up in an Albums folder under one of my projects in the 'Project' view above it. At first when I clicked on the project it showed the entire library (+20k photos) despite saying only 14 images were in this folder. I fixed this by moving the 14 photos into a different project with a different name. But the Albums folder remains. It is a direct mirror of the albums below (same name, same photos), and when I delete an album from the 'Projects' view it deletes the same album below. Same thing if I remove a picture from the album above, it does it below. I have other albums under specific projects that do not show up under 'Albums' view in the Library. Again I belive this is correct.

Making this more frustrating is that I can't just simply move or delete the duplicate Albums above and it is under a 'Project' that doesn't make any sense (e.g., under a Project named 'Travel' but all albums are related to 'Birthday Parties'). I tried creating new albums and then deleting the old ones, but then it actually removes the 'Album' section of my library and I don't know how to get it back as I'd still like to keep that functionality.

I have also repaired and rebuilt the database twice with no improvement. One other point is that I believe this is officially an iPhoto library, but this version of Aperture and iPhoto supposedly allows for sharing without any issues. I tried repairing via iPhoto as well, but no luck there.

Can anyone help or suggest solutions? Thanks in advance.

Aperture 3, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Jan 5, 2014 2:56 AM

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Answer 1

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Najinsky

Level 3

670 points

Jan 5, 2014 3:25 AM in response to chapdb

Sounds a quite strange, like some internal references have got messed up.

I'd try creating a new empty Aperture library, and then import the old problem Library via 'File->Import->Library..'

Hopefully the process won't duplicate the issue (or if it does, may do it in a way you can easily delete).

Andy

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Jan 5, 2014 4:01 AM in response to chapdb

but then it actually removes the 'Album' section of my library and I don't know how to get it back as I'd still like to keep that functionality.

The sections in the Library Inspector have hidden controls to Hided or Show them. The controls will appear, if you hover the mouse close to the right border of the Inspector panel. There you can toggle the visibility of the different sections on and off.

Just to be better able to understand what is happening in your library:

At first when I clicked on the project it showed the entire library (+20k photos) despite saying only 14 images were in this folder.

This looks to me, like your albums were "Smart Albums" and not regular albums. Regular albums don't change the contents, when you open them for browsing. Or reflect changes in other library items.

What do the icons of your "albums" look like? Is there a "gears" icon on it? Then your album is a smart album, and I'd try to update the smart settings for the album.

What is your Aperture version? Aperture 3.3. had problems with smart albums, that have been created in iPhoto, when you imported an iPhoto library into Aperture. What is the origin of the albums in question?

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Answer 3

chapdb Author

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Jan 5, 2014 10:30 AM in response to Najinsky

I'll try this tonight.

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Answer 4

chapdb Author

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Jan 5, 2014 10:39 AM in response to léonie

léonie wrote:

but then it actually removes the 'Album' section of my library and I don't know how to get it back as I'd still like to keep that functionality.

The sections in the Library Inspector have hidden controls to Hided or Show them. The controls will appear, if you hover the mouse close to the right border of the Inspector panel. There you can toggle the visibility of the different sections on and off.

The whole Subsection (ALBUM in ALL CAPS) is gone, no remant left (so no Hide/Unhide button). I can hide the PROJECTS, SHARED, RECENT, ETC, but ALBUMS is again gone.

Just to be better able to understand what is happening in your library:

At first when I clicked on the project it showed the entire library (+20k photos) despite saying only 14 images were in this folder.

This looks to me, like your albums were "Smart Albums" and not regular albums. Regular albums don't change the contents, when you open them for browsing. Or reflect changes in other library items.

What do the icons of your "albums" look like? Is there a "gears" icon on it? Then your album is a smart album, and I'd try to update the smart settings for the album/

Nope. No gears and I've never used a Smart Album. They were all part of my old iPhoto library but that import was done 2-3 months ago and this issue just started today. Right now the Album is just a folder under PROJECTS, with each individual Album beneath having icons that look like two photos stacked (i.e., normal albums). Also, when I click on the main Album's folder it reads 'TopLevelAlbums' as the header on the top of the main section. When I click on any other project, folder, or individual album it just reads the same name as the header....this was the first clue to me that something was wrong...besides the ALBUM folder having +20k pictures in it.

Aperture 3.5.1 . I'm going to try creating the new library and see if it fixes it. Thanks for the help.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Jan 5, 2014 12:24 PM in response to chapdb

The whole Subsection (ALBUM in ALL CAPS) is gone, no remant left (so no Hide/Unhide button). I can hide the PROJECTS, SHARED, RECENT, ETC, but ALBUMS is again gone.

The "ALBUM" caption will be gone, if all global albums are gone from the library. You need to have at least one album in that section for the caption "ALBUM" to be shown. It really looks like all top level albums had been relocated to a local project.

I experimented a bit with a small library for testing. I can make the ALBUM section completely vanish, by simply dragging all albums and folders at once onto a project, or recreate it by dragging all albums at once to a free space at the bottom of the PROJECTS section.

Have you tried, if dragging the whole album folders out from below the project to the place, where the proper album section should be, will restore the section?

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Answer 6

chapdb Author

Level 1

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Jan 5, 2014 1:47 PM in response to léonie

léonie wrote:

The whole Subsection (ALBUM in ALL CAPS) is gone, no remant left (so no Hide/Unhide button). I can hide the PROJECTS, SHARED, RECENT, ETC, but ALBUMS is again gone.

The "ALBUM" caption will be gone, if all global albums are gone from the library. You need to have at least one album in that section for the caption "ALBUM" to be shown. It really looks like all top level albums had been relocated to a local project.

I experimented a bit with a small library for testing. I can make the ALBUM section completely vanish, by simply dragging all albums and folders at once onto a project, or recreate it by dragging all albums at once to a free space at the bottom of the PROJECTS section.

Have you tried, if dragging the whole album folders out from below the project to the place, where the proper album section should be, will restore the section?

I tried but it wouldn't let me move it anywhere. Creating a new library fixed everything again though.

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Answer 7

chapdb Author

Level 1

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Jan 5, 2014 1:49 PM in response to Najinsky

Najinsky wrote:

Sounds a quite strange, like some internal references have got messed up.

I'd try creating a new empty Aperture library, and then import the old problem Library via 'File->Import->Library..'

Hopefully the process won't duplicate the issue (or if it does, may do it in a way you can easily delete).

Andy

Thanks! This worked, so is it generally safe to delete the old library that was corrupted now?

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Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Jan 5, 2014 3:11 PM in response to chapdb

Creating a new library fixed everything again though.

That is good, that it is working again.

This worked, so is it generally safe to delete the old library that was corrupted now?

I'd recommend a few consistency checks, before you delete the old library. Compare the number of images in both libraries, compare the file sizes of the old and new library, test to edit a few images, to check, if all originals files are referenced correctly.

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Answer 9

chapdb Author

Level 1

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Jan 5, 2014 11:32 PM in response to léonie

léonie wrote:

This worked, so is it generally safe to delete the old library that was corrupted now?

I'd recommend a few consistency checks, before you delete the old library. Compare the number of images in both libraries, compare the file sizes of the old and new library, test to edit a few images, to check, if all originals files are referenced correctly.

Same number of projects, number of photos increased by roughly 40 (not a big deal), but the size of the library increased by 36GB (from 96 to 132). The original libray kind was 'Photo Library' and is now 'Aperture Library'. Do I have a setting in Aperture where I've created larger previews or something? I tried a suggestion to repair the library again to clean out the old previews but that didn't change anything.

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Jan 6, 2014 12:32 AM in response to chapdb

number of photos increased by roughly 40

Check, if you can find a" Recovered" project or album in your library. Rebuilding and repairing will collect any orphaned images, that are not linked to versions, in a "Recovered" project.

The original libray kind was 'Photo Library' and is now 'Aperture Library'.

Because you imported into an Aperture library.

Do I have a setting in Aperture where I've created larger previews or something? I tried a suggestion to repair the library again to clean out the old previews but that didn't change anything.

The Preview size is set in the Aperture preferences - open the "Previews" tab in the Aperture preferences panel. I'd size the previews to match the largest screensize you will be viewing them on.

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