Resolved Help! Aperture corrupting photos?!

[stiligFox]

Hello everyone, I'm getting fairly scared.

Lately I've been going through my Aperture library trying to clean it up. I have about 50GB worth of photos. Most of it is fine, but here and there are pockets of garbled photos, as well as photos that have a little triangle with the "alias" arrow.

Does anyone know what's going on?! I've seen something somewhere about there not being enough RAM, but sadly I have a MacBook Air so if that's the problem I'm pretty much stuck :C

 

[flynz4]

Try right clicking on one of those photos and select each of the following:

• Update Preview
• Update From Original
• Reprocess Original

/Jim

 

[stiligFox]

Try right clicking on one of those photos and select each of the following:

• Update Preview
• Update From Original
• Reprocess Original

/Jim

I did try that, but it can't find the originals. It says to check if they are offline - but they are store locally in Apertures library shell.

 

[MCAsan]

Did help when you ran the Aperture database repair tools?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3805

 

[flynz4]

Also take a look at this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1487175/

It seems that one version of Aperture had an issue with some pictures if any adjustments had been applied. The problem was fixed by changing the zoom settings. Select a picture... type the "Z" key shortcut and see if that helps.

Given that your originals appear to be offline... I am not optimistic that the above will help.

By chance, have you made any changes by using finder or terminal to any of your Aperture library package contents?

I am thinking that the most likely cure will be to repair your database.

/Jim

 

[stiligFox]

Did help when you ran the Aperture database repair tools?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3805

I just finished running them, and sadly that did not help.

----------

Also take a look at this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1487175/

It seems that one version of Aperture had an issue with some pictures if any adjustments had been applied. The problem was fixed by changing the zoom settings. Select a picture... type the "Z" key shortcut and see if that helps.

Given that your originals appear to be offline... I am not optimistic that the above will help.

By chance, have you made any changes by using finder or terminal to any of your Aperture library package contents?

I am thinking that the most likely cure will be to repair your database.

/Jim

Yee, Z just zooms in closer on the damage. These images have also never had any edits done to them.

I haven't edited anything inside the package -- I know that can lead to issues, and that was something I appreciated about Aperture - it takes care of things where I don't have to look at or worry about them.

I also tried repairing the library (option+command click the library package, I ran it through all three options) and no dice.

Does this mean it's a bad idea to use Aperture as a place to store my photos?

Thanks for the help guys!

stiligFox

 

[maflynn]

Did you try to export the masters to see if they're corrupted?

 

[blueroom]

Are you running any sort of backup?

 

[stiligFox]

Are you running any sort of backup?

I do have Time Machine backups, but as a bit of an Aperture noob I'm not sure how to look for photos in it -- I remember iPhoto made it a simple process. (I have been using Aperture 3 for a couple years now, but mostly as a place to dump photos after I've taken them. Now that I have 50GB worth of photos I'm starting to take the time to go through them and clear out the garbage shots.)

----------

Did you try to export the masters to see if they're corrupted?

I did try to do that first thing, but it says it cannot export the file because they are "offline."

I'm beginning to wonder if these are ghosts of images I deleted a long time ago? But that doesn't make sense why there are so many.

Also I should note that I haven't seen anymore like this so far. There were two videos that had the same issue but I thought nothing of it as I no longer need those videos.

 

[flynz4]

My suggestion would be as follows:

• Make a copy of your existing library and put it aside on an external disk (just to be safe)
• Rename your existing library to something like "2014-06-04 corrupt library"
• Use Time Machine (or whatever tool you use) to restore your main aperture library to a pre-corrupt state.
• Select the specific projects that have since been corrupted... and export them to a new "2014-06-04 corrections" library using "Aperture > File > Export projects as a new Library > 2014-06-04 corrections"
• Exit Aperture and delete the restored from backup (i.e. old) Aperture Library
• Open your damaged "2014-06-04 corrupt library"
• Delete the damaged projects
• Import the pre-corrupt projects by "Aperture > File > Import Library > 2014-06-04 corrections"
• If everything is now fine (it should be)... rename "2014-06-04 corrupt library" to "Aperture Library"

Hope this helps.

/Jim

 

[flynz4]

I do have Time Machine backups, but as a bit of an Aperture noob I'm not sure how to look for photos in it -- I remember iPhoto made it a simple process. (I have been using Aperture 3 for a couple years now, but mostly as a place to dump photos after I've taken them. Now that I have 50GB worth of photos I'm starting to take the time to go through them and clear out the garbage shots.)

Aperture might also have ways to replace photos more directly from Time Machine... but I tend to distrust such services. If you follow my steps... you will learn just how easy it is migrate projects across different libraries or across different machines. It is a valuable skill to learn if you get to the point where you use more than one machine for your photography. As an example, I have an iMac which contains my full A3 library... and I routinely create new A3 projects in the field and begin the organization... and then move the projects into my main library once I return home.

/Jim

 

[stiligFox]

Aperture might also have ways to replace photos more directly from Time Machine... but I tend to distrust such services. If you follow my steps... you will learn just how easy it is migrate projects across different libraries or across different machines. It is a valuable skill to learn if you get to the point where you use more than one machine for your photography. As an example, I have an iMac which contains my full A3 library... and I routinely create new A3 projects in the field and begin the organization... and then move the projects into my main library once I return home.

/Jim

Alrighty! Thank you.

I'm trying to follow your steps, but my HD is full so I'm having to do some reshuffling onto external hard drives. My library in Time Machine is about 50GB and I only have 40 left. Having a small MacBook Air is getting a bit tight around my data-waist!

I'll report back once I've freed up enough space to restore the old library!

Thanks for the help!

 

[stiligFox]

Aperture might also have ways to replace photos more directly from Time Machine... but I tend to distrust such services. If you follow my steps... you will learn just how easy it is migrate projects across different libraries or across different machines. It is a valuable skill to learn if you get to the point where you use more than one machine for your photography. As an example, I have an iMac which contains my full A3 library... and I routinely create new A3 projects in the field and begin the organization... and then move the projects into my main library once I return home.

/Jim

Well, I did what you said, and I was able to recover some of the missing photos. However the ones in the picture up above were still damaged, although somehow less so. They are garbled but I can sort of tell what they were a picture of. Thankfully they are of nothing important, but it is still distressing to know that something happened and I can't figure out why. The originals are missing. My Time Machine only goes as far back as when I last rebuilt my Mac, which was in March, so there's that.

Thank you for all the help!

stiligFox

 

[flynz4]

Well, I did what you said, and I was able to recover some of the missing photos. However the ones in the picture up above were still damaged, although somehow less so. They are garbled but I can sort of tell what they were a picture of. Thankfully they are of nothing important, but it is still distressing to know that something happened and I can't figure out why. The originals are missing. My Time Machine only goes as far back as when I last rebuilt my Mac, which was in March, so there's that.

Thank you for all the help!

stiligFox

If your backup does not go earlier than the corruption, then you probably have recovered all that is possible.

There are some advantages to a managed library, but given that you have a MBA with limited storage, you may want to consider a referenced library. Then, your originals would be stored outside of Aperture. You would still be able to do lots of things with your library, even if your external drive (with originals) was not connected. You would be able to view your previews, and perform some metadata updates, ratings, etc.

If you do this... be VERY careful that you external drive is being backed up. Unfortunately... this becomes a manual process assuming that you use your MBA in a mobile manner.

/Jim