Reconnected Managed (vs. Referenced) Images

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Level 1

19 points

Reconnected Managed (vs. Referenced) Images

How do I reconnect managed images in Aperture?

I've discovered that if I use the external editor command to open and operate PhotoShop CS2 on images, Aperture can lose it's connections between previews and masters. Not only has this happened to individual images, but also to images in an entire project.

When I try to work on images in this project I get a message telling me that I need to reconnect my images to the masters. Of course, since I'm using managed (as opposed to referenced files) I can't go to my file directory to find the masters. My masters are embedded in the Aperture library; therefore, not directly accessible outside of Aperture (as far as I know).

Unfortunately, I overwrote my good backup photo files before I realized I had an project-wide problem. For future reference, is there any way I can rescue these images and prevent this from happening again?

Cheers

G5 Dual Mac OS X (10.4.9) Aperture 1.5.3

Posted on Jun 1, 2007 8:18 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 1, 2007 9:47 PM in response to Garth Brown

How do I reconnect managed images in Aperture?

've discovered that if I use the external editor
command to open and operate PhotoShop CS2 on images,
Aperture can lose it's connections between previews
and masters. Not only has this happened to individual
images, but also to images in an entire project.

When I try to work on images in this project I get a
message telling me that I need to reconnect my
images to the masters. Of course, since I'm using
managed (as opposed to referenced files) I can't go
to my file directory to find the masters. My masters
are embedded in the Aperture library; therefore, not
directly accessible outside of Aperture (as far as I
know).

Unfortunately, I overwrote my good backup photo files
before I realized I had an project-wide problem. For
future reference, is there any way I can rescue these
images and prevent this from happening again?

Cheers

G5 Dual
Mac OS X (10.4.9) Aperture 1.5.3

I don't know the solution to the problem but if you want to find and copy the original files from the Library you right click on the .aplibrary file and choose Show Package Contents. You can then navigate to the originals. Every file has it's own folder so if you have a large number of files you need to reconnect this would be very tedious.

Hope this helps.

Terry

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Answer 2

Jun 1, 2007 9:57 PM in response to Garth Brown

You should try rebuilding the database. Do a search through this forum as I can't rember how to do it, something like holding Com+opt at startup of Aperture.

Cheers,

Terry

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Answer 3

Garth Brown Author

Level 1

19 points

Jun 1, 2007 10:24 PM in response to Terry Wedd

Thanks for the suggestion, Terry.

I tried that and saw only project level files. When I selected them--expecting to see my images--I saw nothing in any of my project folder files.

This is exasperating.

New development
Now the problem happens in Aperture without the external editor active.

I was editing in Aperture. I left the computer for a few minutes and came back to discover my Google search window active. I moved it aside and attempted to reinitiate work on my Aperture images. Now they're ALL offline!!!!!!!!!!

These are managed images. They're not supposed to go offline, especially on their own. What is going on?

Cheers,
G

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Answer 4

Jun 1, 2007 11:36 PM in response to Garth Brown

Garth,

when you see Projects you do the same again, right click and you will get to files.

I think the best thing to do is try rebuilding the database, as per my other post. I would also repair permissions via Disc Utility.

Cheers,

Terry

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Answer 5

Garth Brown Author

Level 1

19 points

Jun 2, 2007 1:04 PM in response to Terry Wedd

Will do, Terry. I'll let you know what happens.

Just to bring you up-to-date, after my last "offline" adventure, I shut down the computer and went to bed in frustration. Got up this AM to try again. Surprisingly, all images were back online!

This is not the first time I've seen this off-again, on-again behavior. It happened several weeks ago. The outcome was the loss of about 1300 images. I managed to overwrite all of my backups before I realized how extensive and intractable this problem can be.

Rebuilding the database is a ray of hope. Thanks.

Cheers

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Answer 6

Garth Brown Author

Level 1

19 points

Jun 7, 2007 8:12 PM in response to Terry Wedd

Garth,

when you see Projects you do the same again, right
click and you will get to files.

I think the best thing to do is try rebuilding the
database, as per my other post. I would also repair
permissions via Disc Utility.

Cheers,

Terry

Just wanted to let you know that I have taken your advice and, by all appearances, have restored my image database. What an obscenely time consuming task it is to have to find a move every single image in my database! This exercise has put me off managed images. I do not trust the managed image protocol. I'm going to try my luck on the referenced image approach.

The key combination to rebuild the database is command-option while opening Aperture.

Per your suggestion, I ran the Disk Utility to correct permissions on my drive. then I went to my Pictures directory and control-clicked (since I don't have a right-click button) the Aperture library and selected Show Package Contents. In my earlier email, I mentioned that I saw nothing in the folders. Turns out I had a number of empty folders. On further investigation I discovered folders with images. Surprisingly, I also discovered folders with duplicate sets of images. What's that all about? Was the database trying to rebuild itself by copying itself?

I sure hope that Apple is aware of this 'offline image' bug and is doing something to correct it. It's a shame that such a fine piece of software has such a tragic and destructive flaw.

Anyway, thanks again for coming to my rescue, Terry. Many blessings on you and all your creative endeavors.

Cheers,
Garth

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Answer 7

Jun 8, 2007 6:56 PM in response to Garth Brown

Garth,

glad it all worked out. I must say that I use a combination of Referenced and Managed files, I Reference files when they are 6 months old, and I have never had any major problems with files dissapearing. I have had to do the same thing once when my camera was set to RAW+JPG and I had to manually delete the JPGS.

Your problem seems to be a rare problem in what is generally an excellent peice of software.

Cheers,

Terry

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Answer 8

Garth Brown Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 27, 2007 8:43 PM in response to Garth Brown

Terry,

I think I'm cursed. It's happened to me again!

I was processing a large batch (1000+) images through the Photoshop Batch>Automate routine. At the same time I was sorting and keywording photos in a project containing about 800 photos in Aperture. Suddenly, I got a message telling me that I must make more room on my hard drive, otherwise my Aperture library. I checked my hard drive to discover that I had only 1.5GB left. When I started I had in the neighborhood of 40 or 50GB. I shut down Aperture immediately (having backed up to my vault only moments before I received that message). I had to force quit Photoshop. I reconfigured my hard drive to 232GB, ran Disk Utility to correct permissions, copied the library to the new space, and relaunched Aperture.

When I examined my images, all of the ones in the project in which I had been working were disconnected; images in other projects were still connected. When I restored the contents of my vault, ALL images were disconnected. Go figure. I think that message must have been obscured by various Photoshop windows opening and closing in addition to being obscured bythe Aperture window in which I was working.

I discarded the restored vault images and reimported my library. I now have the enviable task of going through my Aperture library and individually extracting more than 800 images.

Right now, all I can think is " A pox on Aperture!"

Have there been any new developments on this problem since we last corresponded?

Cheers,
Garth

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