Hi guys, just a quick question. My MacBook Air has been acting up lately and I decided to do a clean install. However, I just realized that I do not really have a good way to reinstall Aperture 3 on it. I originally purchased Aperture 2 on a CD. Then, when A3 came out I upgraded to it by downloading the trial from Apple's website and using the new serial number. Ever since, when I had to reinstall for whatever reason, I just downloaded the latest version of Aperture 3 from Apple's website, then copied in serial from A2 and subsequently from A3. All was fine. Now however, I can't download a trial version but have to go to the Mac App Store and … buy A3 all over again? Thanks for your advice.
Jan,
So when you upgraded to 3, you bought the serial number from Apple’s website? I don’t recall what the details were for upgrades from 2 to 3.
I would think that you’d have a download link in your purchase confirmation email, no? I know the trial is gone now (odd). No chance you have a downloaded trial installer in a backup somewhere?
You may need to call Apple on this one.
@PhotoJoseph
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Unfortunately not. I wanted to see how to go about it the right way but after a phone call and 5 email exchanges I gave up. The replies from Apple Support were ridiculously polite, filled with useless links and the last one looped me right back to a phone call to Apple Care. I just gave up, downloaded the dmg as described above. Today, however, I did forward an email with the whole history and a short message to Tim Cook. I doubt he will respond but one never knows. It is strange that a legal way is so much harder than illegal download. I wouldn’t even mind spending the $79.99 but with Aperture 4 “possibly” around the corner I am not going to waste my money. Plus, I already paid once. In general, I have very good experience with Apple since 2007 when we switched our household to Macs. But lately, I see tiny hints of things slipping. Unless you have the latest hardware, the softwares on Macs and iPhones exhibits signs of delays and crashes. Not what I remember from 2 years back. Anyway.
Jan,
There is definitely a trend to need the latest hardware. To some degree we the consumers are at fault, demanding more and more from our software, and when we get it, and it requires fast hardware to be impressive, we complain about that, too. Imagine being the developer and creating a feature that is so cool but only works on the latest hardware, and then having to decide if you ship it or not just because users with older Macs won’t be able to use the feature and will complain. Kinda sucks, when you think about it.
@PhotoJoseph
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Yes, I see you point. I am the lucky one to be able to buy the latest hardware but keeping my wife’ beloved white MacBook from 2007 running is becoming a challenge. Anyway, I will see if I hear from anyone at Apple. For now, I stick to the Aperture.dmg I got and all works fine. BTW, your site here is really great. Love it!
Hi Joseph; good thinking but unfortunately no. When I bought the upgrade I just got an email from Apple with the license key and confirmation of the purchase. Bizarre. I will call them and see what to do.
Weird. OK yeah do call them and let us know what you find out please. I’d imagine you’re not the only one!
thanks
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi guys, I just wanted to report back that after calling and emailing with bunch of idiots from Apple (my first frustrating experience after 5 years!) I gave up on being redirected from one representative to another and just went to torrents and downloaded pirated version of Aperture and used my genuine - paid for serial numbers to activate it. All works now. It SUCKs that they made it so complicated. I was tempted to buy it AGAIN from the Mac App Store but with the Aperture 4 “possible” coming, I will save my money. After all, I already paid for this software once. My time has also value and I am not planning to spend it emailing and calling with “friendly” Apple morons in India.
Jan,
I’m sorry to hear that — definitely not the norm from Apple support. I was just reading another comment talking about the amazing attention to detail and interest they were getting on their side!
At least you’re up and running now. Did you get any indication of what they thought the right thing to do would be?
@PhotoJoseph
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Just wanted to report that I received a few more calls from Apple after negative feedback on their support. The end to this story is that they think it is ok for me to download an Aperture trial version from a torrent and register it by my legal credentials. So much for a solution. I did have them note down that it would be useful if I could in some way add Aperture to my Mac App Store Purchases. Case closed.
Someone over on the Apple Aperture Discussions forum posted a link to download the Aperture trial DMG from an Apple Server. They apparently got it from AppleCare. If anyone still needs that trial version because they have a Serial Number for Aperture 3 and may need to re-install someday, better get on over there and download it.
Apple Discussions Link: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18648747#18648747
Thomas
Jan,
first question would be … do you have a backup of your Macbook Air? If you have a Time Machine backup you could have easily recovered it from there.
2nd point …
For years I have been making .dmg copies of important software and storing them on an ext HD. It is just so much easier to re-install from there and you are a lot less likely to loose it than a cd/dvd.
However with the MacApp store kicking in … things have changed a little. If you want to keep copies of your software now, then you need to grab it after download, prior to installation. Usually it will be downloaded to the Applications folder. Just copy it somewhere else before hitting the ‘install’ button, because after install, the installer is automatically trashed. Of course, you can always just use the MacApp store as your backup … but sometimes downloading a multi-Gb file can be slow and difficult, which is just the sort of thing that happens when you have a crisis/disaster and need it urgently. :) :)