Hello,
My first post, this looks like this is the place for support.
Background:
I am using Aperture 3.4.3 and have recently had a problem with my Library which forced me to Repair and Rebuild my Library and in doing so I lost connections to almost all (if not all) of files (over 27 thousand!!). They now all have with an exclamation mark and a yellow arrow.
Thankfully the are now in a folder called 'Recovered Folder' in my Library. Once i realised this i exported the originals with metadata to my desktop and then proceeded to reconnect all missing images . This has worked for a lot of them, which is great but not working with all.
Problem:
When I go to: File>Locate referenced Files I can find the file I want to match the upper image with but the Reconnect button is greyed out.
I have tried holding down the Option key but looks like this is no longer possible with the version of Aperture i am using. For example I want to reconnect “DCIM 001” but the image I want to match it up with is called “DCIM 001 (01)”.
Is there a way to force this? If there are small consequences I could put up with it, depending on what they are but after literally days of trying to solve this I am prepared to put up with some….
Cheers,
Graeme
Graeme, what you’re looking for are the “online” files so you don’t inadvertently rename them and hence take them offline or missing when renaming the other files to cure that same problem!
If all of your online files are managed instead of referenced, you can skip that step since those will all be housed safely in your aperture library. If you’re not sure whether all of the online files are managed, there’s an easy way to check: search for files that are online and are referenced.
If some or all of your online files are referenced, we just need to make sure none of those are kept in the desktop folder(s) we’ll be doing surgery on to rename the offline files. Does aperture allow searching on file path? I don’t have my Mac in front of me, so I’m not sure, but if it does, again the solution’s easy: search for online files where the path contains [your user name]/desktop
Failing that, the best way would likely be to convert all your referenced files to managed to ensure none are in the desktop folder(s). The command for that is “consolidate originals”. Just select all your photos after clicking on “photos” at the top of your library tab.
@Whitney
Thank you very much for your detailed response - sorry for the delay in coming back to you, my notifications are not turned on so have had to manually come back and check this.
In regards to your comment: (You could search your library for all images not offline or missing and then make sure none of those are in the folder(s) on your desktop.)
Is there a way to cross reference these files? I have 2286 files ‘Offline’ in Aperture now.
Thanks
Graeme, I’ve got the same problem even with exactly identical file names. No Solution yet :-((
Raimund
what I’ve found when the reconnect button isn’t there, is that you’re not pointing aperture to the right file. Sometimes, and I’m not sure how this has happened but I’ve found that there’s two copies of my “relocated masters” and I have to tell the program where to find the right one. I hope this helps.
I’ve dealt with this. The solution is to rename the files to the their original name and then aperture will reconnect normally. It’s been a while so I’m a bit hazy on the details, but if you can, the easier way to do it is in aperture, the harder way using the finder.
Here’s how I’d do it with aperture. First, isolate the files you’re having trouble reconnecting from the rest of them. In your case, those should all be in the folder(s) you exported to the desktop. Just make sure none of the files you subsequently reconnected are intermingled with the ones you haven’t been able to. (You could search your library for all images not offline or missing and then make sure none of those are in the folder(s) on your desktop.)
Second, make a new library (we’re going to trash this at the end and you don’t want your main library getting even more jumbled if things go pear shaped). Third, import all the orphaned files on your desktop into the new library (referenced, not managed).
Fourth step is where we try to fix the problem. I’d suggest doing this on a few photos at a time to see if this works. Start by searching for files whose file name contains “(1)”. Pick one or two and then choose “relocate originals” from the menu. I don’t have my Mac in front of me, but I believe one of the options available for renaming the file is “original file name”. Select that. If the process works, your file should have been renamed from something like DSC_1234 (1).JPG to DSC_1234.JPG. If it was, switch libraries to your master library and see if it will reconnect the 1 or 2 files we’ve just renamed. If it did, success! Go back to your new library, select all the files containing “(1)” and rename them using the relocate originals command. I’d suggest then searching on “(2)” and “(3)” as well since you can often get those as well with multiple exports of the same file (which seems to be what caused the problem here).
If you can’t get things working with aperture, you’re going to have to rename the files with finder. Unfortunately, my applescript / automator skills aren’t good enough to say exactly how, but all you need is a script that will remove the ” (1)” (don’t forget the preceding space in this case!) from the filename.
Good luck!