Help with Aperture Library! Cannot open after manual backup! :(

[redboxcar]

Hi Everyone

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with the latest update of Aperture 3. Last night I decided to backup my Aperture manually... by dragging my ApertureLibrary.aplibrary (231 GB) to my external hard drive. It finished transferring and now when I try to open Aperture, it tells me:

Time Machine is backup up "Aperture Library".
"Aperture Library" cannot be opened until Time Machine has finished.

Only problem is I didn't use, nor have I ever used, Time Machine to back it up. I tried repairing permissions, repairing database, and rebuilding database. I've shut down the computer, turned it back on, etc. Nothing works.

I feel kinda safe that my photos aren't gone cuz the file is still 231 GB, but I can't open Aperture now!!

Please help!! Thanks in advance!

[flynz4]

Originally Posted by redboxcar

Hi Everyone

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with the latest update of Aperture 3. Last night I decided to backup my Aperture manually... by dragging my ApertureLibrary.aplibrary (231 GB) to my external hard drive. It finished transferring and now when I try to open Aperture, it tells me:



Only problem is I didn't use, nor have I ever used, Time Machine to back it up. I tried repairing permissions, repairing database, and rebuilding database. I've shut down the computer, turned it back on, etc. Nothing works.

I feel kinda safe that my photos aren't gone cuz the file is still 231 GB, but I can't open Aperture now!!

Please help!! Thanks in advance!

Did you copy it or did you move it to the external drive? Are you trying to open the one on my MBP or the copy on the external HDD?

I have copied mine before, but never had a problem.

/Jim

[redboxcar]

Originally Posted by flynz4

Did you copy it or did you move it to the external drive? Are you trying to open the one on my MBP or the copy on the external HDD?

I have copied mine before, but never had a problem.

/Jim

Hi Jim,

It copied to the external drive. I've unplugged the drive since (just to make sure)... the 231 GB library remains where it was, but still does not open.

[redboxcar]

Ok, I'm not sure why I didn't try before... but when I plug my external back in, and option+open Aperture to choose the library... I choose the one located on the external and it DOES open!

But... it doesn't work with the library that is stored directly on my drive anymore.

Any insight?

[flynz4]

Originally Posted by redboxcar

Ok, I'm not sure why I didn't try before... but when I plug my external back in, and option+open Aperture to choose the library... I choose the one located on the external and it DOES open!

But... it doesn't work with the library that is stored directly on my drive anymore.

Any insight?

Well... that is a relief. Protect that drive. I've never heard of a library being corrupted when it is the source of a copy operation.

What is your backup status? Is your entire machine backed up from before you did the copy? Assuming that you have enough space left on your backup drive... you could attach the external... ensure that it is part of the backup set, and let the known good copy to be added to your backup.

You may also want to make an Aperture Vault and save that to an external drive as well. With the size of your library... it will take a while... several hours or maybe overnight.

At this point, I would not do anything experimental with your known good Aperture library until you know you have a second copy of it somewhere.

/Jim

[redboxcar]

Originally Posted by flynz4

Well... that is a relief. Protect that drive. I've never heard of a library being corrupted when it is the source of a copy operation.

What is your backup status? Is your entire machine backed up from before you did the copy? Assuming that you have enough space left on your backup drive... you could attach the external... ensure that it is part of the backup set, and let the known good copy to be added to your backup.

You may also want to make an Aperture Vault and save that to an external drive as well. With the size of your library... it will take a while... several hours or maybe overnight.

At this point, I would not do anything experimental with your known good Aperture library until you know you have a second copy of it somewhere.

/Jim

As far as the backup... I copied only the aplibrary file to the external and let it transfer over night. Nothing else on my machine is copied to the external drive, nor was it automated (such as Time Machine or CCC or anything)... I copied it myself. I have never used an automated backup of any kind on this machine.

Do you think if I delete the aplibrary file from my computer () and copy from the external drive back onto the computer... it will work? I don't have enough room on my laptop to copy and try it before I delete the original. However, the library on the external is the only one that works...

I'm just confused why Aperture thinks Time Machine is "currently" backing up my library. I checked System Preferences and Time Machine isn't even on.

I've attached a screenshot.

[flynz4]

Originally Posted by redboxcar

As far as the backup... I copied only the aplibrary file to the external and let it transfer over night. Nothing else on my machine is copied to the external drive, nor was it automated (such as Time Machine or CCC or anything)... I copied it myself. I have never used an automated backup of any kind on this machine.

Do you think if I delete the aplibrary file from my computer () and copy from the external drive back onto the computer... it will work? I don't have enough room on my laptop to copy and try it before I delete the original. However, the library on the external is the only one that works...

I'm just confused why Aperture thinks Time Machine is "currently" backing up my library. I checked System Preferences and Time Machine isn't even on.

I've attached a screenshot.

I personally wouldn't delete anything until I knew that I had at least two copies of my pictures. My pictures are my most valuable of all my digital assets. With a >200GB A3 library... I am making the assumption that they are valuable to you too.

I would get another drive for backup... and then configure time machine to back up to that drive. I'd let it run to completion, and then see if your A3 library is still locked. It might be OK and not physically corrupted.

Only after I had dual working copies of my A3 library, would I consider deleting and replacing the current A3 library.

/Jim

[redboxcar]

Thanks for your help, flynz4.

Short of re-copying my library multiple times (I will def do this if necessary, but would prefer to do it as a last resort because of the time it takes to transfer multiple times)... does anyone know how I might be able to just fix the database file or some other tweak that might get it working again? Has anyone seen the above error before?

I'm still having the original issue (see 2 posts above and OP). All of the photos are still in there, the .aplibrary file is still 231 GB and when I show package contents and navigate to the Masters folder, I can still see all the pics and open them in Preview.