Just a quick note to anyone who uses Apple’s Aperture 3 who use either an automated or manual backup system to safeguard their images. I have just found out that while Aperture is open it takes exclusive control of some or all of the images in its projects. If you attempt to run a backup...
Monthly Archives: August 2010
08-20-2010
A note to Apple’s Aperture 3 users
Posted in News & Messages
Tags: aperture, apple, backup
Joseph - Can you elaborate any more on what or where you heard this? It’s news to me, and if it’s true I’d love to dig into it more.
I advise people to use an online cloud backup like Backblaze and if there’s a risk of corruption on backup, that’s something to learn about.
thanks
-Joseph
Martyn - Hi joseph,
I have recently had my external backup crash and burn (no data lost as I have several backups) and when reviewing logs from my backup software it appears that the issues may have beed made worse by a large number of “in use” files being locked an unable to be backed up. I was aware that Aperture was open when the backup ran and the files that were unable to be backed up were in the project I had just imported (about 1 hour before the backup). Also, the aperture library file was also locked and unable to be backed up.
So it would seem that Aperture is claiming exclusive use of these files making backing them up impossible until Aperture is closed.
John Smith - This is incorrect.
Time Machine will back up your Aperture library just fine. However, if Aperture is running, then Time Machine will not back up the library itself while Aperture is running. This is to prevent backing up files that are open, perhaps resulting in a corrupted backup. If you are using a managed library, this means Aperture won’t back up the masters either while it’s open. If you are using referenced masters, they will be backed up even while Aperture is running.
When you quit Aperture, Time Machine will back up the changes the next time it runs. Given that Time Machine backs up on an hourly basis, there should be no issues unless Aperture is open 100% of the time you are running your computer.
There were issues between Time Machine and Aperture when 10.5 was first released, but they were resolved over 2 years ago, with Mac OS X 10.5.3:
Martyn - John,
That may be true of time machine but this post is directed to people who use a separate backup utility as mentioned in the post.
I would imagine that time machine being an apple product as well as aperture they have a system to back up files when other applications, such as the one mentioned in this post are unable to do so.
John Smith - You don’t want to use any backup tool to back up the Aperture library itself while Aperture is running. The SQLite database may not have everything persisted to disk so you could get data in an inconsistent state in the backup.
At no time would there be any issues using any backup utility (Time Machine, ChronoSync, or other) with referenced masters. Those are just files on disk. Your comment “This applies to both managed files as well as referenced files.” is just flat-out incorrect. The original (RAW or JPEG) files themselves are not special in any way, it’s just Aperture’s database files that shouldn’t be backed up while they’re in use. In a managed library, everything is inside the same “package” file but from the OS perspective it’s just a directory, and managed and referenced files themselves are pretty much the same.
Martyn - John,
I’m not going to argue with you, that’s not what this blog is for. What it is for is to offer help and advice so other Aperture users do not run into the same issues as I have done.
That being said, I have a very long log detailing what I have explained and the makers of Chrono sync also confirm my statements.
xavier - I had a major crash last week and used time machine to restore my system from my 2To time capsule. Since then my Aperture Library is completely corrupted. I tried regenereating the database, repairing authorization etc… The previews are missing from my library and when I try to open the files from Aperture, I get error messages saying that the volume where the files are stored is disconnected, whereas the files are saved on my hard drive in my iphoto library….
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as I have all my books created with Aperture.
Thanks!
Xavier
Martyn - Xavier,
Have you tried selecting all the missing files (cmd + A) in each project, then right click and the 4th option down is “Locate Referenced Files”. This brings up a relocate popup with a navigation screen in the bottom half, you should be able to browse to the correct folder in your iPhone library and select “Reconnect All”
Other than that you could try creating a new Aperture library and reimporting your iPhoto library by going to File > Import > iPhoto Library
I hope that helps but if not, go on to Apple’s USA site and in support there is a “chat” option to allow you to speak directly with an apple tech support (link may be difficult to find, it always takes me some time to find it!)
Good luck and I hope the recovery goes well.
Martyn
Nik Player - I have to say I have never experienced the issue you are talking about. You cannot backup the Library while Aperture is open, it contains a SQLite database. The referenced masters should be fine. In my experience the masters always backup with out issues. Perhaps it is a problem with the version of Chronosync or the fact you are using some sort of RAID to present a 4GB disk as a mount point.
John - I think that when you backup your system, the system takes a snapshot of the disk, as it was at the moment you started the backup. If you add more files later, while the backup lasts, then those files are not (or shouldn’t) be included in the backup.
At least that is the whole theory behind backup systems, I am not sure how ChronoSynch works.
show hide 10 comments