Aperture 3.1.3 Referenced files

I’m having a really frustrating issue at the moment.  I have a modest sized photo library that I’m running in Aperture v3.1.3.  I have a nicely underpowered iMac with fairly small drive for storae, and as a result I have to store some of my master image files on external storage.  I have a Mybook World NAS that has plenty of mirrored storage, so I keep a lot of my oldest files there.  There are some features in Aperture to facilitate moving master files to external storage, and I’ve been running in the fashion for quite some time now.

Yesterday I was working in my Library and was having trouble connecting to some of the images.  I ensured that the NAS volume was mounted and I was able to browse the folder structure as expected.  The problem is that Aperture isn’t properly seeing the volume and is insisting that the referenced files are ‘offline’.   I’ve tried using the ‘Locate Referenced Files’ feature in Aperture, but when I’m browsing for the files the ‘Reconnect’ button never activates for me.  It remains greyed out, and if I select the checkbox to only files not found then i get no files to reconnect.  The windows says that all my files are ‘offline’ but zero ‘not found’ and therefore wont let me reconnect.

I’ve restarted Aperture, and rebooted of course making sure to reconnect the NAS volume before loading the library again.  Still nothing.

In looking at Apple’s forums, I’m not the only one experiencing this issue, and it looks like people have been complaining of this issue for months with continued radio silence from Apple support.

 

If anyone has found a fix for this or had a different experience let me know in the comments!

 

[UPDATE]: 11-4-2011 – Check my post for how I solved this issue in my setup.

http://www.kevinnoall.com/blog/2011/11/04/manually-change-aperture-referenced-files-volume/

11 thoughts on “Aperture 3.1.3 Referenced files”

  1. Yea I can appreciate the need for more details on that one. I’m not a tech support type personality, so I know I leave out good details. I’m not exactly sure how else to get you help on it.

  2. Hi and thanks, unfortunately a bit too skimpy on the detail for me to follow. I did look at the RKMaster table and my RKMaster file has NO information in any field called ‘filevolumeuuid’.

    So not sure how to proceed with this one. Some users say changing the disc UUID in RKVolume should work, but that had no effect for me either.

    I cannot believe this is a problem – all I have done is change a disc, which is something that we will ALL have to do as time goes by and as our libraries grow, so I cannot believe that Apple has not got a solution.
    Cheers
    C

  3. Hi Kevin
    Please provide a link to those steps for the manual SQlite approach and I will try again. Genius bar is out of the question – I live in Scotland some distance from the nearest and I cannot lug my MacPro there 🙂
    Really cannot see why this is causing a problem – surely Apple is all about making things work – at least that is what (I used to) tell people.

  4. I just late last week posted the steps that I used to do the SQLLite manual update. It is a bit complicated for sure. If that hasn’t worked for you, then going to the Genius at Apple may be an alternative.

  5. Sorry to butt in, but this does not solve the issue at all.
    I have exactly the same problem as Kevin. I have a new bigger disc that I have cloned all my Aperture files to (from a smaller disc). Now all my referenced files are marked as offline (with a red line). No files show up in the relocate referenced files top section at all – and thus the reconnect buttons are greyed out !!!! Renaming the sdisc to match the old one has no effect.
    Please will someone help fix this. I have done this before in older versions of Aperture.
    I have tried using SQliteBrowser, to change the UUID, but it is complicated and I can’t get it to work.
    Help – please !

  6. You already know this, but if Apple won’t reply by phone or email, a trip to the Apple store Genius Bar would be my next step. If satisfaction is not forthcoming then try a different Apple store. Some “geniuses” are smarter/better than others.

    Post an update on your progress.

  7. Yes, sorry. I have read, and re-read the instructions. I have successfully done this procedure in the past so I know that I am doing it correctly.

    This procedure is no longer working in Aperture for me. As I stated before, the reconnect button never becomes available regardless of having the file path in the top and bottom matching exactly as they should be.

  8. ref: Aperture 3.1.3 Help menu > Aperture 3 User manual, pages 207,8:
    “Reconnecting Missing or Offline Referenced Images”

    After I foamed over in frustration with this same problem, I took a long break and then with my mind in a better state I actually read all the steps carefully instead of skimming over the words.

    With external storage mounted…

    (per step 5) On window in question TOP HALF, click to highlight any line in the “file path” column. A thumbnail should appear to the right. Observe the file path in that thumbnail panel.

    (per step 6) BOTTOM HALF of window (bottom left panel): click the volume that corresponds to the thumbnail file path. The second panel should now be populated (just as the finder does). Click the next part of the file path corresponding to the thumbnail above. Continue clicking this path in each successive panel until a thumbnail appears at right, matching the one above. The “Reconnect” and “Reconnect All” buttons should now be active.

    This is so forehead slapping obvious AFTER it is done once. Apple would do well to show a second illustration corresponding to step 6.

  9. This was frustrating and non-intuitive, but a very careful reading of pages 207,8 of Aperture 3 user manual (via Help menu) does provide the solution.
    see “Reconnecting Missing or Offline Referenced Images” and focus on steps 5 and 6.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.