iPhoto Library & Aperture Library on portable hard drive

Question

Level 1

8 points

iPhoto Library & Aperture Library on portable hard drive

Since downloading El Capitan to my MacBook Pro I can't access my iPhoto or Aperture Libraries held on my portable 1 terabyte Seagate hard drive.

I can look at everything on the Seagate disk using 'Finder' so it's not locked.

I can see my iPhoto Library and Aperture Library but when I double click on them to pull them up, as I used to do when I was on Yosemite, I get this:

I have used the Option key in iPhoto to change to the library I want (see below), then I'm back at above!!!

I'm going round in circles. The Seagate can't be locked as I can access everything else on it. Can anyone help, please?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 1, 2015 9:00 AM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Nov 1, 2015 9:08 AM in response to GemsMacBook

Try to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag, if it is not already enabled. You can do that from the Get Info panel, when you select the disk in the Finder and press the key combination ⌘I for File > Get Info.

Reply

Answer 2

GemsMacBook Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2015 9:32 AM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie but it doesn't seem to work. I've tried it on both iPhoto and Aperture and it still thinks the Seagate is locked.

it is something to do with 'sharing & Permissions' as it says I can only read, I have ticked the 'share folder' box but that hasn't helped. I then tried to pull up the Aperture library

have gone back to the 'get info' and its still showing 'You can only read' do you have any other suggestions, please????

Reply

Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Nov 1, 2015 12:47 PM in response to GemsMacBook

The "Sharing&Permission: You can only read" is exactly the problem. iPhoto and Aperture need Read&Write permissions for the library.

If you are in a hurry to open your libraries copy them to a different drive.

I'll ask our system experts to drop in and give advice on how to unlock a locked drive.

Reply

Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 1, 2015 12:58 PM in response to GemsMacBook

The problems is that the disk is an inappropriate format for these datatypes. It's formatted Windows NT and needs to be formatted Mac OS X Extended, Journaled.

You can reformat the drive with Disk Utility, but remember that doing so will erase the drive so back up all important data first.

Reply

Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Nov 1, 2015 12:55 PM in response to Yer_Man

I missed the Windows NT format 😊 😊 Since the libraries previously worked on the drive, I expected the filesystem to be correct. I wonder why it worked previously with that disk format for the drive. This support article (support.apple.com/kb/TS3252) is at least five years old, and all MacOS X versions since Mt. Lion refused to open an Aperture library on an incorrectly formatted drive.

Reply

Answer 6

GemsMacBook Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2015 12:56 PM in response to léonie

Thank you Leonie, I can't understand why the Seagate could read/write when I had Maverick & Yosemite and now seems to have changed with El Capitan. This Seagate portable hard drive was loaded with the software for Apple (I bought it at the same time as the MacBook), whereas my other two Seagate portable hard drives were older and I had to download the software to allow my MacBook to write to them. I will have to look up that information as I have just checked one of the older Seagate drives and it is now showing 'read only' - confusing!!! But many thanks for your help.

Reply

Answer 7

GemsMacBook Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2015 1:47 PM in response to léonie

Odd Leonie, really odd as my MacBook is my first Apple computer.

I have on the Seagate three Libraries, 2 iPhoto and 1 Aperture - it did work in Yosemite as I put them there - allowing me to play around with my photos. See below:

Just been checking my old files and have found this:

I asked Seagate the question when my old Seagate drives wouldn't work with the MacBook.

I did as they instructed and it all worked.

Well it did until El Capitan which now doesn't understand the Seagate!

The new Seagate which I'm using now came ready loaded with the software for Apple & Windows so possibly tomorrow I'll recheck with Seagate to see if there is an El Capitan problem or just try and reload following the above.

I will try and back up the disc as I don't want to loose anything.

I also use the Seagate drives on my old Sony PC as that has all my family photo's going back to the 1800's quite a few are in the Aperture Library on the Seagate!

Thanks again for helping - if you can think of anything further would love to hear from you. Many thanks.

Reply

Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Nov 2, 2015 1:00 AM in response to GemsMacBook

The setup with the Seagate is working for single files and documents, but Apple's photo libraries are packages of linked files and the references in the internal database files require MacOS Extended (Journaled) to work reliably. With a different file system the filenames or pathnames may become ambigious. Earlier versions of MacOS X did not check the file system, when you opened an Aperture Library or an iPhoto Library on an incompatible drive. That usually ended up with a library corruption and copy errors when trying to move the libraries between drives. So the most recent versions of Aperture and iPhoto are checking the filesystem, before they open the library.

If you try to open an Aperture Library or an iPhoto Library on a volume with an incompatible filesystem in the new Photos.app, you will have the added complication, that Photos cannot create hard links on the disk and will create a migrated library on your system drive instead and probably run out of storage.

Reply

Answer 9

GemsMacBook Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 2, 2015 2:25 AM in response to léonie

Thank you Leonie, I think I can now understand why this is happening.

When I purchased my MacBook I was somewhat upset it didn't have a very large memory compared to my old Sony PC but I was very impressed with speed.

I decided by purchasing a '1TB USB 3.00 Seagate Backup Plus' that works on PC and Mac would allow me to use this like a secondary hard drive for the MacBook. I stored all my new photos direct to an iPhoto Library on the Seagate keeping my MacBook's memory space free. When this worked I purchased Aperture and started recreating all my family photographs from 1800's through to present time using the library directly to the Seagate.

Just as well I have plenty of spare time as it would appear I now have to start again and keep all my Library photos on the MacBook.

Again thank you for your help.

Reply

Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Nov 2, 2015 2:34 AM in response to GemsMacBook

You could start over with a second external drive, that is formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled).

Small portable external USB drives are no longer expensive.

You can reformat a new drive with Disk Utility. Then copy your libraries from the Seagate to that drive. You shold be able to open them there.

Probably you will be prompted to repair them, when you try to open them.

Reply

Answer 11

GemsMacBook Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 2, 2015 6:53 AM in response to léonie

That sounds great.

I already have a spare USB2 1TB Seagate I use as back up so I can do as you suggest.

(Or I'll try and move my Libraries from the USB3 to my spare USB2 Seagate, reformat the USB3 Seagate to start over then copy the Libraries back - a USB 3 might work a little faster than a USB2!)

This means I can keep my Libraries on the re-formatted Seagate without clogging up my MacBook with photos.

I do not have the time to try it out today but will try and let you know how I've got on sometime in the future.

Thank you again for all your help.

Reply