(Pretty well confirmed) Fix For Repeated “Inconsistencies… Please Repair” Aperture Dialog
IMPORTANT UPDATE — SCROLL DOWN
ApertureExpert community, I could use your help on this one.
Several users have reported a problem where Aperture would repeatedly warn you on launch that the library had “inconsistencies”, and that it “needed repair”. After repairing, the warning would show up again as soon as the next launch, and in some cases, each repair seemed to be making things worse, not better.
One of our users appears to have gotten to the bottom of this with the help of Apple Support, but after trying many things isn’t 100% sure about the steps taken to resolve the issue.
The belief is that the issue was finally fixed through a permissions repair — not of the Library or of the hard drive, but of the app itself. And this is where I need your help; I don’t have the problem and so (presumably) I don’t have this repair option.
If you “Get Info” on the Aperture application itself, at the bottom of the Info panel is a gear menu, which apparently could contain some kind of “reset” or “repair” permissions option. Selecting this option apparently took a few minutes to run, but then all of these reported issues went away.
Can you help please…
If you are seeing these kinds of issues, what I first would like is a screenshot of the error dialog so I can put the actual text in a repair tip — having the actual text will help other users find this issue.
Second I’d like a screenshot of the “reset” or “repair” option on the gear menu of the Aperture application Info panel.
And third of course, I’d love some other verification that this solved the problem!
By the way if you see this on Aperture, check on iPhoto as well to see if it has the same fix option.
If you can help, please comment below. Thanks!
The Solution
IMPORTANT: We now have the correct solution. The original user who spoke to Apple Support just posted back and was able to tell us what actually happened.
First of all, I finally have a screenshot for the error, because it happened to me (and yes, so far this fix looks like it’s holding). Here’s the dreaded inconsistencies error dialog:
The correct fix isn’t to fix permissions on the app, but to do it on the Home directory itself. Get Info on your Home folder (easiest way is to hit Command-Shift-H to go Home in the Finder, then immediately hit Command-I to open the Info window. Toggle open Sharing & Permissions if it isn’t already open, unlock it using the lock icon in the lower right, then click on the gear menu and choose Apply to enclosed items…. This will copy the correct permissions throughout your Home folder.
This will correct any permission errors found in your Home folder
I would expect that if your Library isn’t in your Home folder (i.e. you store the Library on an external drive) then this isn’t going to help you, but hopefully anyone reporting these issues actually does have their Library in the Home folder.
Please let us know in the comments if this helps you or not!
Comments
on October 20, 2012 - 5:11am
I don’t have that option, but I also am not having that issue. The gear drop-down only shows “Revert changes” and is grayed out. If I could attached an image here I would show you. I’m running OS X 10.8.2 and the latest Aperture on both a 2012 retina MBP and a 2010 17-inch MBP.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
on October 20, 2012 - 6:27am
Walter, you’re seeing the same thing I am. I’m hoping someone will be able to show a repair option. Thanks though!
@PhotoJoseph
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on October 20, 2012 - 8:21am
I now did just get that same message. This newest version of Aperture is also having problems with printing. Once I get into the print dialogue windows and want to cancel, it is locking up. The only way out is force quit. Have had to do that at least 7 times this week. Every other time I start up Aperture again, it wants to repair the database. And, of course, the reason I have been messing with printing is stated in another message I posted. The print quality is not matching the slected ICC profile.
Here’s a hint to Apple: How about hiring some real professional programmers that can focus on Aperture. I don’t think money is an issue with a company of Apple’s wealth.
Ken
on October 21, 2012 - 4:40am
Thank you for posting this Joseph.
Although now my issue as you said is resolved, I still do not understand why it wanted to keep repairing the library. Not sure if you saw, but for me rebuilding the library and then repairing did the trick.
on October 21, 2012 - 10:27pm
I have been having this problem for a couple weeks. I am running 3.4 on 10.7.5.
Last week, when it started, I wasn’t able to get in, even after letting the repair process continue (several times, ugh.) I finally rebuilt the database and then all was fine for about a week.
Now I am getting the “repair” message (screenshot attached) frequently, but am able to just cancel and get right into Aperture. I do not see the option to repair permissions on my Aperture application.
Here are the screen shots you requested: http://jumpshare.com/b/P7LPZu
on October 22, 2012 - 12:23am
I too have been having this issue, i thought i had resolved (i re-install Aperture) but on restart today its back after a couple of weeks. i’m currently doing the repair in iPhoto as it seemed more stable… In regards to the get info option i also don’t see any options there the repair permission when logged in as admin.
on October 22, 2012 - 1:50am
Hold down option and command keys and launch Aperture this gives you a 3 step Permissions,Repair and Rebuild options.
I went through each step and it has fixed the reoccurring Repair issue.
Time for an Apple update ………
oliverpearce.com
on October 22, 2012 - 2:46am
Yeah Oliver and John, I thought the issue was resolved. I am now currently repairing the library. Rather inconvenient since I have a deadline later today to make. I hope that the rumored Aperture update Tuesday resolves these issues.
on October 23, 2012 - 4:08am
I had this error twice, ran the fix as prompted and have not seen it since. The first time it took around 15 minutes and the second time was a bit less.
I also looked under the Application info window and have a greyed out “revert changes”.
I’m running Aperture 3.4.1 and Lion 10.7.5.
Would like to know what that message was all about though!
www.pixbeatphoto.com
on October 24, 2012 - 7:30am
Thanks for everything folks, still trying to get more info for you here :(
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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on October 29, 2012 - 11:06am
I think I was the one who originally posted about the problem and fix through Apple Support. I have just been talking again to Apple Support and how have the correct solution that we did. The permissions repair was not on the Aperture Library Get Info but the home folder from Finder. The little gear at the bottom of the Get Info screen says “apply to enclosed items”. This resets permissions for the home folder where no doubt some error had occurred. This is why the “inconsistencies” messages which were plaguing Aperture and iPhoto disappeared from both applications.
Hope this helps others with this problem.
Ruth Lathlean
on October 30, 2012 - 2:25am
Ruth,
YES you were the original person, and I’ve been waiting for your confirmation! Thanks for this, I’ll update the post immediately.
@PhotoJoseph
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on October 30, 2012 - 8:55am
Thanks for the info! I had only seen it once more since last posting and it was very inconvenient. It took about an hour to repair, if not more. It happened directly after Aperture quit unexpectedly. If this had happened at an event I would have been hosed! I guess it’s a good thing I use a newer and smaller library for my event photography, so if it had happened maybe it wouldn’t have taken as long to repair.
Anyway, I have run the fix on the Home directory and will let you know if the monster rears its head again.
FYI, my Home directory is 390 GB and applying the permissions fix took about 1 minute.
www.pixbeatphoto.com
on November 3, 2012 - 1:31pm
oh my… I have been having this issue for 24 hours… ready to become frantic now! Just tried the fix mentioned above, hasn’t worked so far. (I do need to lock that icon back up, correct?)
Was about to post an online gallery for a client. Now I can’t even get Aperture to open. I’ve been hitting ‘repair’ and ‘reopen’ so many times I can’t even remember what order everything happened now… short of taking it in, any other ideas?
Back to the drawing board, will reload all the images from the card to my macbook pro (it’s had the same problem, but always comes back after I repair).
on November 5, 2012 - 10:28am
Theresa,
Locking the info panel back up wouldn’t make any difference.
Do you have enough space on your drive to copy the Library into another user account? If so, create a new User, log into it and make sure Aperture opens (with a new library), then go back to your main user account and drag your Library into the new user’s User > Public > Dropbox folder, and that’ll copy it to there. Once the copy is done, log into the new user account, drag that library out of the dropbox (to Desktop or Pictures, doesn’t matter) and see if it’ll open.
@PhotoJoseph
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on November 19, 2012 - 12:35am
After a few weeks without seeing this problem, it’s just crept up on me again! I did just have a power outage while I was away. Aperture was open but my computer was sitting idle.
I’ve been waiting about 18 minutes for the repair and it’s at 21%. I think I may try migrating to a new library soon.
www.pixbeatphoto.com
on November 19, 2012 - 1:13am
Repair took 59 minutes… good thing I had other stuff to do.
www.pixbeatphoto.com
on November 21, 2012 - 3:40am
It’s back again! This time I left my computer alone with Aperture running idly. When I came back it had quit unexpectedly and it is currently repairing library database. I’d better get a new library started asap. Can’t afford to have these problems on a regular basis.
www.pixbeatphoto.com
on September 16, 2013 - 11:09am
Thanks to Oliver Pearce!
I tried the CMD + OPTION as I clicked on Aperture Icon to open it.
The dialog box had three choices and I chose the first one called “Repair Permissions” and after that finished the problem was fixed