Aperture & Flickr ate my images!

[robklurfield]

Big, disturbing problem today. Help!

I have the latest version of Aperture running on a new Macbook Pro Retina. I have not yet imported any of my old images from the legacy Mac running an old version of Aperture. They are safely walled off on a hard drive.

Today, after importing some scans from my Epson V700 into Aperture, the software froze on one image. I ran a force quit. When I attempted to reopen Aperture, I kept getting error messages saying that I needed to reopen and ____ hm? I don't exactly remember the message, but the bottom line is that I could not open the software. Essentially it said something about the library needing to be reset or the like (I wish I could remember the exact wording).

Now, as luck would have it, I just installed a new Apple Time Capsule a few days ago and therefore have fresh Time Machine backups. So, I thought no big worry; I'll just restore from a backup.

Well, after three attempts, I finally got a restored library that would open. (All the backups seemed to work, but the problem with Aperture not opening kept recurring until that last try.)

BUT....! Big problem. All of the images are in the program (it counts all of the and provides SPACE for a thumbnail), but a great many of them show up as checkerboard patterned nothingness or striped noise patterns in the thumbnails AND in the VIEWER-sized images. Many show up in the thumbnails as pure black frames, but do load when you click them to VIEWER size.

Very, very vexing indeed.

But wait. It gets more complicated. After quite some time, pulling out clumps of hair (metaphorically), I discerned a pattern. It seems that after a certain date range (meaning the date when the image was first imported into Aperture from my M8 or scanner; earlier images are fine, later ones not), ANY IMAGE THAT WAS SYNCHRONIZED WITH MY FLICKR PAGE was readable AND any image that was never uploaded (again ONLY after a particular date from when it was first uploaded into Aperture) was not readable/openable in Aperture.

All of which leads me to believe that there's some synchronization issue between Aperture and Flickr that has caused this. In support of my theory, around the time that all this happened, I noticed that Flickr posted a banner on the site announcing a new iPad or iPhone Flickr app.

Anyone have thoughts on this???

My Time Machine backup would appear to be only marginally useful at the moment, as it seems there's something corrupting the Aperture library. I suspect that images are intact, but are getting locked up by a bug (hence that correlation between Flickr-loaded images being accessible on Aperture and images not loaded to Flickr being the ones that are stuck).

Now, for the one tidbit of good news. For my $29.00/year, I've been using my Flickr Pro account like a total hog, literally using it as a cloud backup of any images that I valued. So, I guess I could import those some of those stuck images back into Aperture.

All those has me freaking out a bit. Any help or insights will be much appreciated. I'll probably post this on some Apple boards (official Mac support groups and on MacRumors) to see if some Apple geeks know anything.

 

[charjohncarter]

Sorry, but maybe use a PC to transfer your images. It sounds like an Apple problem.

 

[robklurfield]

John, after 20,000 plus scans and digital imports into the old and new versions of Aperture on an eight-year old Mac and three-month old Mac, that's not an answer that's helpful.:bang: Mind you, this problem did not happen when loading images to Flickr. It happened when editing an image that was already sitting in my Aperture library. Suggesting that a PC is the answer is kind of like telling me to get a Nikon because I have problems setting a decent exposure with a Leica or because I bought expired film.

John, would it be fair to say that you are not an Apple fan? You know, I am not an emoticon kind of guy, so understand that I'm peppering these around here to be sure you don't take any offense. None intended.

Anyway, the computer AND the software are both Apple-produced products.

Aperture has a feature that allows one to upload directly to a Flickr or Facebook page with one click. It then automatically syncs any edits to Flickr-loaded images. I suspect the problem is not with Apple, but rather with the interaction between Apple and Flickr. Somehow, somewhere their hand-shaking process got unsynced. Probably one or both of the partners updated a line of code that the other one didn't account for with a matching revision. It would seem to be software bug somewhere or perhaps two bugs -- one on each end. Gotta be that darned sync'ing feature.

Sorry, but maybe use a PC to transfer your images. It sounds like an Apple problem.

 

[JuJu]

Have you tried this to repair the database?

 

[GaryLH]

First thing to try before anything else. Have u brought up disk utility and run both verify hd and permissions. A force quit will sometimes leave permission wack or file system descriptors messed up. Btw I use aperture vault approach for my backup which save me a couple of times already.

If first step fails, try under aperture - photos - reprocess original and/or generate thumbnails. If that fails, try JuJu suggestion w/ repair database..

Next step is not for a novice... and very time consuming. Note the name of the images that are bad.. U will need it for next step.

Make a copy of your original aperture library before u continue from this point.

Since aperture is a non-destructive photo editing SW, it keeps a database of all changes and applies it to the master. Under aperture - preference - general, find the location where aperture is storing your photos known as "library location". Right mouse button the library file icon and use "show package contents". U should now c folders for
- database
- masters
- previews
- thumbnails
Among other folders. Under masters is sub directories that have your master files. However these folders names are aperture naming not humanity naming convention, but at the lowest level folders of the hierarchy, u should find your missing files unless they have really been deleted. Find each one and copy them to another folder u newly create. The next part is the tricky part.. This is where I am not sure what right approach is.
- Either delete the original from aperture library under full aperture control so that the corrupted database is fixed, then import that file again new folder
- or just try a fresh import from new folder
I am more inclined to try the second option first...

Good luck
Gary

 

[robklurfield]

Juju, thanks for the tip.

Yeah, I've tried this now several times on each of the versions of the library (the original plus two that I restored from Time Machine). Same results. All the images exist as a thumbnail and a viewer frame, but the ones that were never loaded to Flickr still won't display any image. They still show up as pitch black or various patterns of digital noise with no image.

I tried both the REPAIR DATABASE and REBUILD DATABASE options on each library. Nothing changed. Same result.

Thanks! Holler if you have other ideas.

I think that Flickr and Aperture are not enjoying each other's company today. Flickr must have made a software update today that has Aperture feeling unhappy.:bang:

Have you tried this to repair the database?

 

[robklurfield]

Gary, complicated? Wow, you're not kidding.

I did try Juju's suggestions to no avail.

I will try disk utility next.

My big concern about your next suggestion is less about how complicated it is (it is very complicated), but rather how many files are involved. It numbers in the hundreds (this current library has about 3200 versions; maybe 200 or 300 are corrupted).

I'll report back on how disk utility does.

Thanks!

PS, then, I'll ask you about using Vault. Let's leave that for later.

First thing to try before anything else. Have u brought up disk utility and run both verify hd and permissions. A force quit will sometimes leave permission wack or file system descriptors messed up. Btw I use aperture vault approach for my backup which save me a couple of times already.

If first step fails, try under aperture - photos - reprocess original and/or generate thumbnails. If that fails, try JuJu suggestion w/ repair database..

Next step is not for a novice... and very time consuming. Note the name of the images that are bad.. U will need it for next step.

Make a copy of your original aperture library before u continue from this point.

Since aperture is a non-destructive photo editing SW, it keeps a database of all changes and applies it to the master. Under aperture - preference - general, find the location where aperture is storing your photos known as "library location". Right mouse button the library file icon and use "show package contents". U should now c folders for
- database
- masters
- previews
- thumbnails
Among other folders. Under masters is sub directories that have your master files. However these folders names are aperture naming not humanity naming convention, but at the lowest level folders of the hierarchy, u should find your missing files unless they have really been deleted. Find each one and copy them to another folder u newly create. The next part is the tricky part.. This is where I am not sure what right approach is.
- Either delete the original from aperture library under full aperture control so that the corrupted database is fixed, then import that file again new folder
- or just try a fresh import from new folder
I am more inclined to try the second option first...

Good luck
Gary

 

[robklurfield]

Gary, VERIFY DISK was okay.
VERIFY PERMISSIONS is running now. It appears to be finding a lot of issues.
What next? Do I run REPAIR PERMISSIONS?

One line reads:
"WARNING SUID file 'usr/sbin/pppd' has been modified and will not be repaired."

None of the others (there are about eight or so) have a message like that. If it safe to run repair?

 

[dasuess]

If you have not done so already, you should post your issue on the Aperture community forum. There are some good and very knowledgeable folks there who may be able to help with your problem.

Forum located here:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/professional_applications/aperture?view=overview

 

[GaryLH]

Gary, VERIFY DISK was okay.
VERIFY PERMISSIONS is running now. It appears to be finding a lot of issues.
What next? Do I run REPAIR PERMISSIONS?

One line reads:
"WARNING SUID file 'usr/sbin/pppd' has been modified and will not be repaired."

None of the others (there are about eight or so) have a message like that. If it safe to run repair?

That is strange why a demon (pppd) has been modified. Permission repair is suppose to put things back to their normal state.

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

If you have not done so already, you should post your issue on the Aperture community forum. There are some good and very knowledgeable folks there who may be able to help with your problem.

Forum located here:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/professional_applications/aperture?view=overview

That I a good idea. I would suggest asking them or get a genius bar appointment before doing the last suggestion I made.

Gary

 

[Rob-F]

That I a good idea. I would suggest asking them or get a genius bar appointment before doing the last suggestion I made.

Gary

+1. I have found the Genius Bar to be a valuable resource for those tear-your-hair-out problems. They have fixed my problems in minutes, or even seconds!

 

[robklurfield]

dasuess, thanks. that was on my list of to-do's. here's a link to the thread I just created a few minutes ago:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4600273

For sure many of the folks on the Aperture forum (this forum on RFF, too) are a couple of dozen IQ points above me, so I will try to be optimistic.

If you have not done so already, you should post your issue on the Aperture community forum. There are some good and very knowledgeable folks there who may be able to help with your problem.

Forum located here:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/professional_applications/aperture?view=overview

 

[robklurfield]

Gary & dasuess, I have One-to-One and may bring my problem to the local Genius bar as soon as I can sneak away from work for a few hours. I have posted to the Aperture Community Forum.

Everyone who's made suggestions so far, THANKS! Keep those ideas coming. I really appreciate the support and will report back how this gets solved.

 

[GaryLH]

Gary & dasuess, I have One-to-One and may bring my problem to the local Genius bar as soon as I can sneak away from work for a few hours. I have posted to the Aperture Community Forum.

Everyone who's made suggestions so far, THANKS! Keep those ideas coming. I really appreciate the support and will report back how this gets solved.

I hope the genius bar can fix it. I had a similar situation happen to me maybe one tween one and two years ago and the vault backup save me. I don't think I would have been happy to use my suggestion of last resort.

These days to minimize damage, I keep my aperture library on a different hd then where I have my vault file. I also create a new aperture library for each year, to minimize the size of any disaster that can occur and also minimize the library reconstruction time if I have to use the vault to recover..

Good luck
Gary

 

[robklurfield]

Gary, thanks for the tips. I do have my older library (15,000 images on separate HD). I'll probably work out some new plan similar to yours moving forward.

If worst comes to worst, everything that's worth saving is sitting on my flickr account. I guess I'd lose the DNG/RAW formatting from all my M8 images, but better to have JPGs than nothing.

We'll hope the Geniuses live up to their moniker (they've done pretty well by me in the past).

I hope the genius bar can fix it. I had a similar situation happen to me maybe one tween one and two years ago and the vault backup save me. I don't think I would have been happy to use my suggestion of last resort.

These days to minimize damage, I keep my aperture library on a different hd then where I have my vault file. I also create a new aperture library for each year, to minimize the size of any disaster that can occur and also minimize the library reconstruction time if I have to use the vault to recover..

Good luck
Gary

 

[hteasley]

Gary gave most of the advice I would have given: explore the contents of the Aperture Library using the Finder, and you can get to your master images that way. You'll lose edits, but your masters are more important anyway.

I had the Aperture Library corrupt on me once, years ago, and that's when I moved to Lightroom. Aperture's Library scared me, not only because of corruption issues, but because there are a lot of OS operations that treat packages as single files. So even though it's actually a directory filled with thousands of other files, I worried that there would be ways it could be screwed up or deleted as a file that would make getting to its contents difficult.

Lightroom, by default, stores its files in flat folders. Aperture, by default, uses its Library file, which is a disguised directory with some special properties. Aperture can be made to use flat folders, so if you stick with Aperture, you might want to look into that: if anything, it makes getting to your raw files easier.

 

[dogbunny]

I had a similar problem and my library wouldn't rebuild. I didn't know what else to do, so I accessed the masters and cut and pasted all of them onto an external drive, then I created a whole new library. Reorganizing them was a nightmare, but I managed to save just about all of my photos. If I have to go through this again, I may just switch to a different program all together.

db

 

[robklurfield]

Harry, thanks for the advice. I'll probably try this, though I might visit the Genius Bar and use my One-to-One first.

I'm curious, when you made the switch did you import all of your Aperture images into Lightroom? Was that difficult?

I have about 15-20,000 images in an Aperture library on a hard drive from my old Mac from Aperture 2. I'm debating how to handle them as well as what to do long-term with the 3-4,000 I have in the corrupted Aperture 3 library.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Anyway, the computer AND the software are both Apple-produced products.

Rob, before you do anything that might create further damage, I suggest calling your Apple Store, make a Genius Bar appointment with their photography expert, and get this sorted out.

You have a corrupted catalog; I think that can be rebuilt, but you want to be sure not to discard the original image files.