Photos disappearing; showing up in Recovered Projects folder

Roger, I have never seen this weird behaviour, but what you are describing, could be a permissions problem.

Because I have a very large (Master) Aperture library, and multiple computers, I keep my the library on an external drive.

How is your external drive formatted? (Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture)

Have you the the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag set?

This document explains how to set the flag: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users

Without this flag, you might encounter permission issues, and original image files might be reported as missing, even if they are accessible when accessed from a different mac.

A recovered project will usually created, if you repair or rebuild a library. Then all stray images found in the library, that are not connected to image versions, will be collected in a recovered project.

But it is very disconcerting, that you do not see the same projects on both macs, when browsing the same library. Perhaps you are having different filters set in the library inspector panel. Check the searchfields in the Inspector panel and the Browser.

-- Léonie

What you report would be consistent with some images being Referenced, and stored on the Macbook Air. When the library is open on the Macbook Air, pick an image that you find missing on the other Macs, click on File, and see if Show in Finder is Black or Gray. If the Original is Referenced, Show in Finder will be available.

Ernie

The drive I am using is Mac OS Extended. I checked the "Ignore ownership..." flag; it appeared to be set already, but I de-selected then re-selected it.

That is perfect. And I do not think you need to copy the library again.

I've also changed permissions on the Aperture Library file itself to give read & write permissions to everybody; realistically only I will ever be using the library, and never more than one person at any given time.

That is good, but I would prefer to use Aperture's built-in permission repair. Launch Aperture while holding down the key combination option-command ⌥⌘, to bring up the First Aid panel, then select "Repair permissions".

The upsetting thing is - copying the photos from the recovered project folder back into the projects they belong in is not only tedious - they don't seem to stay there! Very odd, and very frustrating.

How did you copy the photos back? Drag them in Aperture's browser from the Recovered project to their original project? That should move them permanently back.

Are you using PhotoStream with that Aperture library? Can it be, that you have Photo Stream enabled on your MacBook Air, but not on your other Macs? An automatic import from Photo Stream on one computer, but not on the other machines, or an automatic syncing with FaceBook or other cloud services could account for different projects on different Machines. Check, if any Aperture preference settings are different on your Macs. I.e. check, if your Import settings are differnet - if your MBA is set to import referenced (as Ernie pointed out) and the other macs not.

Which of your macs are running Mt. Lion, and which Macs are running Mavericks? If you are using Photo Stream, it may be behaving differnetly on the different systems.

Don't drag. Use the command, File/Consolidate Originals, and tell it to either move or copy into the Aperture Library.

Ernie

Ernie - Good call...the "missing" photos are indeed referencing a long-deleted iphoto library. For the life of me, I can't understand how the recovered project even has them, if they were referenced files in a library deleted years ago. Maybe they were somehow imported, but still "labeled" as referenced? I don't know.

It is hard to say. If you imported your iPhoto library long ago, before the unifies library format had been introduced, you will have imported many photos twice - the original and the edited versions. And then the originals may have been imported referenced, if iPhoto has been referencing them, and the high resolution jpegs of the edited versions will probably have been imported as managed. Are there any keywords on the images in question? iPhoto original, iPhoto edited?

Should I consolidate originals, or export the entire libreay into a new library? I've kind of lost confidence in Aperture's record keeping on this library...

After consolidating the originals I'd backup the library and rebuild it. Rebuilding may take a long time for a large library.

You're welcome, Roger.

I did a "repair library", and everything seems fine. DO you think it's necessary/worthwhile to do a rebuild as well?

If all seems fine, I'd wait. Only make sure, that you have a working backup of the state of the consolidated library as it is now.