Q: Delete original ONLY IF not used in a non-reject version

So you shot 30 images edit 12 and want to get rid of the other 18, is that what you are saying?

The 18 have no edits applied so filter for that.

Filter for Rejected.  Select.  Delete.  Empty Trash.  Check "Move Referenced files to System Trash" (wording not exact).

When you delete the last Image based on an Original, Aperture moves (if instructed) the Original to the System Trash.  If there are any other Images based on that Original, Aperture will not move the Original to the System Trash (because the Image being deleted is not the last Image based on the Original).

In short, Aperture defaults to the behavior you want.  As long as you retain an Image based on an Original, Aperture will not delete the Original unless you explicitly tell it to, via "File➞Delete Original Image and All Versions".  That command should be rarely used.

Frank -- do you mind confirming the above?  Thanks.

A good practice, IME, is to auto-create Version Stacks.  Versions Stacks are Stacks that contain all the Images based on any single Original.  "Aperture➞Preferences➞General➞Automatically stack new Versions".

Additionally, I have found it useful to color-label my Images.  Red=develop this. Orange=changes made; not finished.  Green=Developed.  Gray=stop developing, but keep.  Used with the Reject rating (which I have re-assigned to "x" on my keyboard), this lets me always pick up wherever I left off, and never leaves me in doubt about the status (in my workflow) of any Image.

Frank -- do you mind confirming the above?  Thanks.

Can't do it in Aperture just now but what you wrote seems OK.

To be honest I'm still trying to wrap my head around what the OP is doing. The setup seemed to change from the first post to the one after that.

regards

You might want to try explaining your workflow and problem again in a different way. To be honest, as I wrote above, I am having trouble following this.

regards

What I need is a way to get Aperture to delete the raw files for which there are only rejected versions, or no versions at all (although then I don't know how Aperture would know about that raw file.)

Aperture has no smart rule to count the number of versions of an image . Try the following work-around:

Consolidate your rejected versions with "File > Consolidate" before you delete them. Now you can delete all rejected versions with "File > Delete Version ⌘⌫". When you delete the last remaining version the original raw file will be deleted as well. But as long as there is another version of the image the original file will be saved. When you are done with deleting rejected versions, you can use a smart search to find any remaining managed image and relocate it back to the folder outside.

Deleting images and getting rid of orphaned original image files is easier for managed images.

If you do not want to use the work-around to make the image managed before deleting versions, delete your versions only while browsing them in the project, sorted by filename. That will keep all versions side-by-side and you can see, if you are about to delete the last version. Or drag each version you want to delete to a new, empty project: When you move a version to a new project, all other versions will go along. You now will have a project containing only one image with all its versions. You should be able to see by the "rejected" badge, if you should delete using "delete version" or "all versions and the original".

This should work. Just tested it here ad it seem to do what you want.

If you go to the Rejected Album and select all the images and do a delete versions all images that have only a single version will delete the version and the master. All versions from originals that have multiple versions will only delete this version.

Now if you have referenced originals in the selection befoe the referenced original is deleted you will need to select the checkbox in the confirmation window

You will not need to do that for managed originals.

GoClick has only referenced originals.

* I use only referenced masters *

I tried exactly what you suggested, Frank, before I posted my complicated work-around.

There is one problem Frank. When I tried with only referenced images, the originals were never deleted. I hope, I have no problem with my Aperture trash   The "Are you sure you want ..." panel simply did not show, when I emptied the Aperture trash, and the referenced originals stayed behind, in two cases: if I had trashed the versions one-by-one, or if I had trashed all versions for one image at once. No prompt at all. And the referenced original remained in the folder.

So, you are saying, this should still work for referenced originals on the system drive? Then I guess, I'l  have to start repairing permissions

The screen capture was from my test run so it is working here for me.

the referenced originals stayed behind, in two cases: if I had trashed the versions one-by-one, or if I had trashed all versions for one image at once. No prompt at all. And the referenced original remained in the folder.

Are you saying that the only way you can delete the referenced orginal is if you select Delete original and all versions? If so that is not what I am seeing and at least for the way Aperture has always worked it is wrong.

What about managed originals?

Aperture has always deleted the original (managed or referenced) when the last version was deleted. You aren;t running some super secret versions by any chance?

Wait a minute; if you deleted the version one-by-one and the referenced original was never deleted what happened when you deleted the last version? Did the image no longer appear in Aperture but was on the disk or did it still show in Aperture?

Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano

It has always worked this way -- as described by Frank -- for me, afaik (viz.: when the last Version based on any Original is removed from the database by emptying the Aperture Trash, and I select "Move referenced files to System Trash", the Original is moved to the System Trash whether it is Magaged or Referenced, and regardless of what drive it is on).  I'm pretty certain of this because I _always_ check the System Trash, and empty it every day.  This is how Aperture has worked (and been supposed to work) since I got on-board with 3.0.

I will try to confirm that again today.  (Fwiw, I'm still on 3.4.5 on 10.8.5.  I rarely repair permissions, but I do run "Repair Database" about every couple of weeks on every large Library I manage, for purely precautionary reasons.)

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

GoClick just realized you never mentioned your Aperture and OS versions. Could you do that in your next post.

regards

GoClick -- you workflow makes sense.  It _should_ be working this way.  As you can see, Frank and Leonie (and I) are looking into why it isn't for you.

GoClick wrote:

 

What I need is a way to get Aperture to delete the raw files for which there are only rejected versions, or no versions at all (although then I don't know how Aperture would know about that raw file.)

There are a few work-arounds for this.  The most trustworthy (imho) for deleting Originals that no longer have an Image in your Library is to relocate _all_ Originals to a different drive, confirm that there are no missing Originals, and then delete all the files left in the Finder folders that had held the Originals.  Then relocate the Originals back (and again confirm none missing).