Register Aperture 3.4.5 on OS 10.7 (Lion)

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Register Aperture 3.4.5 on OS 10.7 (Lion)

I have installed a new hard drive on my 2006 Mac Pro which uses OS 10.7 as the latest OS offered for this machine.

The last time I installed Aperture on this OS, I was able to download it from "my purchases" at the App store.

This time the App store tells me I need OS 10.10 to be able to download Aperture, but that is not possible with my old Mac Pro using (and restricted to) 10.7.

On the previous, old hard drive (which still works) I find a 32 digit serial number on the "About Aperture" window, but this serial number is not accepted when I try to register.

I no longer have the original serial number from the old discs as I wrongly assumed that the App store now have those numbers under my name.

How can I use Aperture now?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Aperture version 3.4.5

Posted on Sep 5, 2015 7:39 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:07 AM in response to Clive Russ

On the previous, old hard drive (which still works) I find a 32 digit serial number on the "About Aperture" window, but this serial number is not accepted when I try to register.

Have you tried to copy the Aperture application from your old mac and then to enter the serial number? You should be able to run the version from the old drive this way.

The problem is, that Apple stopped selling Aperture and you cannot reinstall any older version from the App Store any longer, only the last version, Aperture 3.6, but that version requires MacOS X 10.10.3 or later.

Does Aperture show in the Purchase history of the App Store for you? Try, if you can reinstall Aperture from your Purchase history.

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Answer 2

Clive Russ Author

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Sep 5, 2015 8:53 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for the suggestions.

I copied Aperture from the old drive and that is what did not register. I now find that I can not use iWork (Pages) apps, also transferred from the old drive for the same reason. The apps show in my Purchase History, but they don't allow downloading to 10.7.5, only 10.10 as you noted.

I have newer Macs which use these apps. They download and work fine.

My old Mac Pro is my main computer for photography, Aperture and PhotoShop being the purpose for the MacPro. But it looks like I have come to the end of the road with this machine. The prospect of migrating all my photos to Lightroom does not appeal to me, but as Aperture is now obsolete that may be the thing to do. Pages would still not work, but that is less important.

Is the question now to buy a new iMac 5K ... or a Mac Pro using my old Eizo screen which gives me color calibration that looks like my prints?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

Sep 5, 2015 9:04 AM in response to Clive Russ

I copied Aperture from the old drive and that is what did not register. I now find that I can not use iWork (Pages) apps, also transferred from the old drive for the same reason.

Have you tried to use Migration Assistant to migrate all applications automatically from your old drive to the new drive?

There may be two reasons why Aperture is not accepting the serial number -

Oither your serial number is an update serial number from Aperture 2 to Aperture 3. Then you may need to enter both the original Aperture 2 and the Aperture 3 serial number.
Or you may have migrated an old ProAppSystemID file, that needs removing, check, if you still have an old file "ProAppsSystemID" in your System Library.

Quit Aperture.
Go to your MacintoshHD and open the folder "Library", then "Application Support", then "ProApps".
Remove the File "ProAppsSystemID" to the Desktop, if it exist and restart Aperture.
Reenter your serial number, hopefully for the last time.

Sometimes Aperture writes this file to a temporary directory, when it cannot write to the Library. If the above does not work, look at the temporary directory /tmp

Use the Finder's "Go" menu

Go > Got to folder and enter /tmp into the textfield. If you see ProAppsSystemID there, move it to its proper location in /Library/Application Support/ProApps.

Aperture must be running, and you will have to wait a few minutes to be seeing the file appearing the /tmp directory.

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Answer 4

Clive Russ Author

Level 1

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Sep 5, 2015 10:40 AM in response to léonie

Woooohoooo! Thank you. Migration Assistant worked.

I tried opening Aperture after moving the "ProAppsSystemID" from /tmp to the ProApps folder, and then tried moving the file to the desktop, but neither worked.

I do not have my original Aperture 2 serial number, and you are correct that my Aperture 3 is an upgrade serial number.

So I used the Migration Assistant to transfer all my Applications from the old to the new disc by restarting the computer with both discs in the Mac Pro. That worked. Now Aperture works and iWork (Pages etc.) works. They did not ask for serial numbers. Instead they asked for user information on startup and then the apps loaded up correctly. Pages does not share files with the newer Macs, but that does not matter much for me.

The new hard drive sounds much crisper than the old tired one, and the new is also working much faster. My old Mac Pro, 2006, still looks new. I only use it for a few hours a week, but unlike the other computers I have, this one is important because it holds my photo images. I am happy to have it work for a bit longer now that Aperture shows all my photos. The old disc can now sit on the shelf in retirement, to be called on in an emergency only!

Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions and guidance.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

Sep 5, 2015 10:48 AM in response to Clive Russ

Great that it worked! 🙂 You're welcome. I'd keep an additional bootable clone as a backup in addition to your original disk, just in case.

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Answer 6

Clive Russ Author

Level 1

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Sep 5, 2015 10:54 AM in response to léonie

I'll do that. I usually only back up the Aperture file so that my photos are backed up, but I see now that if I want this old machine to be of any use to me, I'll have to back up the Apps too! It won't help Apple shares much this time, but I realize that it is only a matter of time and money before I need to replace my old Mac Pro.

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