Q: Aperture frozen on "loading assets"

I worked around this by deleting already imported images from the camera before inserting the memory card into the card reader.

For me it seems like the problem is related to not importing duplicated images. As long as there are none on the memory card everything is fine.

Over 700 views to date!  Useful suggestion!  I reformatted the memory card in my camera and everything seems to work fine now.

And i noticed that some images don't get imported. I have over 70 missing on a 450 import. Not reliable at all! My workaround is to drag and drop from the card to a new project. This one works out. Not the best since it skips all the import options. But at least they get imported. I am thinking of doing a clean install of Yosemite. I'll keep you posted if I do and see any change.

Making a clean install of Yosemite didn't solve it (but it did make the computer work better as a whole ) BUT... I remembered reading about this simple trick and tried it: once the card reader is inserted, delete the trash bin. It worked for me twice already! I know it sounds way too simple, but please try.

Second on the "import duplicates" trick, that worked for me. To even have the option of unticking the box, I had to do an import from a clean location with no images. This is a shame because I like to keep images on my card as a backup until I know my library has been backed up offsite. But, I can limp along like this until I get to try Photos and decide to stay with Apple or go to another vendor.

This is my first experience with Apple abandonware, and makes me very hesitant to commit to Photos even if it turns out to be better than people expect.

What finally worked for me, not sure what exactly did it:

- Opened Aperture, plugged in phone

- Clicked import and choose the phone

- Showed some random photos, said 'loading assets'

- Emptied Mac recycling bin

- Eventually import failed, phone disconnected from Aperture

- Exited Aperture, unplugged phone, put computer to sleep for a while

- Started Aperture, waited a few minutes

- Plugged in phone, waited a few minutes

- Clicked import, clicked on phone

- This time, it started showing photos from the very first camera roll photo

- After a few minutes, import was available. Chose the album and checked "Don't import duplicates"

- Import worked!

Inserting the card with Aperture open and emptying Mac Trash fixed it for me.  (I also emptied Aperture Trash, but don't know if that had an effect or not)

Had the same problem after making the Yosemite and Aperture 3.6 upgrades. Attempts to import from SD card got stuck midway and the thumbnail photos didn't appear, just the empty boxes for them. This suggested a memory space problem. So I emptied the "Aperture" trash (which had hundreds of previously deleted versions of other photos), and started the import process over from scratch. The import worked with no problems.

What you put in Aperture's Trash stays there until you empty it, apparently hogging memory.

I has the same issue.

Tried the things people mention, but did not work.

This worked for me however..

Connect the iPhone to the Mac

Load up iTunes, allow iTunes to connect - you have to click allow or something like that

Load up aperture, and then it seems to work.

Once its started importing, I quit iTunes, and all seems okay now.

Maybe some kind of permission thing for certain access to the phone.. who knows.. it works now anyway.. 

Two things seem to work.

Format your card after importing pictures.  Should work properly next import.

If not, copy DCIM file to desktop and import from there.