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Migrating AP Library to new computer, lost previews: Permissions?? #1
WorldTravelDude's picture
by WorldTravelDude
July 18, 2013 - 6:40am

Hi,

I just got a new Macbook Air and decided to start fresh instead of carrying over the years of who knows what funk in my OS install. No Migration Assistant. I wish Apple gave you more “partial control” over the migration but that's another story.

Anyway the only thing I'm having an issue with is moving my Aperture library.

I tried it two ways and they both had the same result.

My Library: 18gb on disk, with 100gb or so referenced.

New Computer: has a different username than my old computer.

Take 1: I use TimeMachine to restore my 18gb Library to the new computer

Looked like it worked, but when I opened it said something about permissions. Ok, fix em! That worked. Anyway it worked except now it's redoing my previews! The Ap file file reduced from 17GB to just 3-4gb.

Take2: Copy from my old computer to an external drive, then copy that onto my new Mac. Same situation.

Anyone have any idea how to save my previews on the migration?? I tried changing the permissions manually when I copied the file over but somehow it still lost all the previews. Any idea why everything works but the previews?? Or aren't they copying? It's pretty odd.

This is more than a little irritating - redoing 50k previews isn't fast!

Thanks,
Ryan

My Tips and Advice on Travel: http://worldtraveldude.com

David  Moore's picture
by David Moore
July 18, 2013 - 6:28pm

You can start AP without building previews by holding the option key while starting. However you will have to eventually let AP run over night if it wants to rebuild previews. The problem is bad if there are still 500 images that even after rebuilding previews it still wants to rebuild. Hopefully its not that Cheers

davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ

WorldTravelDude's picture
by WorldTravelDude
July 20, 2013 - 12:20am

I’m trying to avoid the preview rebuild.

What I want is to copy my current library from an older computer to a newer one and have it keep the previews instead of regenerating them.

I’m not sure what I’m missing, why don’t they copy?

My Tips and Advice on Travel: http://worldtraveldude.com

Adrian Freisinger's picture
by Adrian Freisinger
August 8, 2013 - 11:00am

I have the same problem. I restored via Time Machine and the Aperture Library to shrink from 100GB to 25 Gb. I had my library has managed but now I get yellow triangle on bottom right corner, I tried restoring from my vault but same issue…

WorldTravelDude's picture
by WorldTravelDude
August 7, 2013 - 1:39pm

SOLVED!

Well somehow I managed to sort this out. Note: I didn’t use migration assistant (which I think has helped me in other places but not in this case!)

Originally I restored via TimeMachine and Aperture asked to repair permissions when loading. It then deleted all previews and started rebuilding em (50k!). I tried using TimeMachine a few times, with the same result each time.

I then tried copying from my old computer to USB drive and to my new computer, same story.

It got weird when I copied over to the new computer and then tried to add myself as a user (I changed user names w the new computer) to the permissions. Hitting apply caused the Aperture Library to shrink from 17GB to 3gb as it deleted all the permissions. I tried doing this a few different times in different ways

Solution!

Not quite sure why this worked and some other things didn’t.

Copied Aperture Library from old computer to USB drive
Opened the library up on the USB drive (using option-command-Aperture to open Aperture).
Aperture asked to fix permissions, I said, OK!
The library worked fine
Copied that library to my new computer.
All good

So there ya have it - maybe each time u copy the library you have to redo permissions. Go figure.

Hope this helps someone as they copy their library around. The permissions thing is a bit funky. Maybe I had a bit of bad luck the first time and it should have worked. Glad I didn’t have all my eggs in the TimeMachine basket. I wouldn’t have lost photos per-se, but rebuilding all previews is stupid. Figure this one out Apple.

Cheers,
theWTD

My Tips and Advice on Travel: http://worldtraveldude.com

Jim Pappas's picture
by Jim Pappas
August 18, 2013 - 1:01pm

Ryan,

I am pretty sure that Time Machine excludes previews from its backup set. This is from memory… Not from experience. The rationale was similar to why TM does not back caches. The theory being that previews are easy to recreate.

/Jim

/Jim Pappas

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