I deleted a couple photos earlier today that I didn't mean to delete. I didn't empty the trash in Aperture, and it says there are 2 files in there, but when I open the Trash nothing shows. Any ideas?
Hi Joseph, I am also having problems seeing the images in my Aperture trash. Interestingly I can see them in one of my newer libraries but not in one of the older ones. I can see images that were deleted as part of an entire folder or album that was deleted. But photos that were deleted individually can not be viewed even though the numbers show that the image is within the trash. I have gone through the above posts and tried most of the suggestions without success. I have cleared the filters for the trash. I have deleted trash related folders/albums within the package contents of the aperture library file in Finder. I have repaired and rebuilt the library. Do you have any other suggestions that I might try? Thank you
One of the biggest “big gun” tricks I have is to import the entire Library into a brand new, empty Library. This means that you need to have 2x the free space available on your HD that your original Library is, and some time on your hands. But, I’ve seen this correct the oddest of things.
It could easily take overnight if this is a big Library. Don’t do it if you plan on needing Aperture for the next day or so… just to be safe.
Database repair and permissions repair done and am still having this issue. I’ll try a database rebuild overnight. I keep forgetting about Apertures database tools, thanks.
OK, after all database maintenance tools have been tried none of them worked. So if I have to how can I restore these 2 photos from my Aperture library in a Time Machine backup?
aha, OK. Well, I’m certainly at a loss as to why you’d have 800 fewer images, unless they were in the trash waiting to be deleted. I’m pretty well out of ideas to solve this mysterious can’t-see-in-the-trash problem.
If you want to keep working on it, then yeah, I’d go ahead and import them into a new Library again, and then go project by project to see where the missing images are. If you can’t see where they are, then I think it’s reasonably safe to say that this is just prat of the problem you’re having with the other Library; trash isn’t showing what’s in there, and, possibly related, the Photos count is inaccurate.
I appreciate the thoughts. Might just let this one settle for a bit and see if it is worth more energy or not. If I get any other ideas or resolution I will post again. Thank you.
Thanks for the advice. Taking the plunge today and importing the troubled library into a new library. When I back up the new version of the library as a vault, should I start all over with a new vault or can I back up to the original version of the vault? If I use the original vault, do I need to reset the pathway? Many thanks
I tried to import the troubled library into a new library but it would not complete the import. It is an 80 G library and after a short while it would get stuck on 75.9 G of import. It stayed there for hours without progress. I tried it twice and the last time let it run for more than 12 hours but it stayed stuck on 75.9 G. Any suggestions? Thank you
Let’s go the other direction then. Select all the Projects and export them as a new Library. If that fails, select half of ‘em… you know the routine. Then once you’ve succeeded with getting all Projects out as new Libraries, (and possibly identifying the problem Project), reimport those into a new, clean Library.
Thanks for the additional idea. I exported each folder or project as a separate library. I then imported all of them to a new library. When I did this, I was about 800 photos short of the number in the original library. And I didn’t know how to tell which ones were missing. also tried to restore this library from a vault but the same bug existed in the restored library- I could’t see the images in the trash. Other ideas? Thank you
You had a library with images in the trash that you couldn’t see. Emptying the trash did what; I don’t see that you said what happened when you did.
Now that you’ve done the export/import, you’re 800 photos short, but don’t know which ones. But the trash is what now… correctly empty?
Is it conceivable that these missing 800 photos were the ones that were thrown away before but couldn’t be seen?
Aperture shows how many photos are in a project if you enable the preference, which I think you already have on: [screenshot]
Take a screenshot (or a few screenshots if needed) of one library list, then open the other, and put the two side-by-side and look for a difference in numbers in the projects. See if you can identify them that way. There’s no way to compare two Libraries that I’m aware of.
Thanks for getting back to me. When I delete a photo, it goes into the Aperture trash but I can’t see it when I click on the trash in the inspector. Yet, if I empty the trash, it will ask if I want to trash 2 versions or however many versions I had previously deleted. Once I empty the Aperture trash, the images go to my overall Mac trash where I have to empty them again to completely get rid of them. At this point the Aperture trash icon goes gray so it looks empty. So it seems like it is really getting rid of the images that are deleted but I just can’t see them in the Aperture trash. I didn’t same my last attempted library where I had been missing several hundred images at least according to the overall number of images listed when I click the “Photos” bar in the inspector. Do you think I need to try that again and reset the preferences to show the number of images in each project, folder, album?
Check to see if you have any filters set in the Trash view. Select the Trash and in the upper right-hand corner in the search box click the pop menu and set it to “Show All” or type control-6.
This was one of the first answers in this thread but it’s worth repeating since you didn’t ask the original question.
Now that I’ve re-read this thread, I see you’ve already tried this. Sorry about the redundancy.
And this is in the newly created Library? Weird. OK just for giggles, create a totally new Library, import a single photo, trash it, and see if you can see it in the trash.
I’m not following the second half of your post, starting with “I didn’t same my last attempted library…”. Could you clarify that for me?
Yes Thomas I did check the trash filter as you noted. Good thought.
Joseph, I just made a new library and imported an image into it and then deleted it and yes I am able to see the image when I click on the trash. In fact I have 6 Aperture libraries and the problem with not seeing the files that are in the trash is only a problem on 2 of my libraries. The other 4 libraries work fine in that regard. As far as your second question, I think I threw you a typo. Sorry! I meant to say that I hadn’t SAVED the library that I had made when I exported all the separate components of my original library and then tried to make a new library by importing all of these components separately. It was in that scenario that the new library had several hundred fewer images than I started with in the original library. Does that make sense?
Kevin, if this can bring a little relief though no solution to you, I’ve been experiencing exactly the same thing for 4 months now. No filter in the trashview (of course), disk+database checked and repaired/rebuilt a dozen times, tried to create a fresh new database by reimporting the old one, stuck on 9/10 of the process… any new library i create behaves properly. I’m puzzled but ended up accepting it.
So now stuck with a flawed 250 Go DB and triple checking every delete and hoping never to make a mistake. From this to FCP to iCloud limitations, I’m little by little getting more and more fed up this apple’s craze.
Thanks for sharing your experience Kenji. I wish I had an answer for both of us. Fortunately as you know, the deleted files do go to the system trash so we have a safeguard. For now, I think that needs to be enough for me. Best to you with the other issues.
I’m having this issue too. I ended up deleting from Aperture trash and then restoring from the system trash. (I’d inadvertently trashed something). Just thought I’d check in here to see if anybody else was experiencing the same trouble. It’s always reassuring when it’s not just me :)
Sarah! Thank you. I had been afraid to empty the Aperture trash, but I just tried your method and it worked. I lost the tagging info, but was able to re-import the photo. Thank you so much!
I’m having this problem as well. Haven’t tried either of the database tools yet, but I’ll give them a go and report back.
One quirky thing is that if I delete a project I can expand the trash, click on the deleted project and see the images in there, but not if I click on just the trash itself.
Totally OT, I noticed another weird quirk tonight when trying to view the rejected images of a project. When I activate the ‘rejected’ filter in the search field it populates the search field with two stars. I tested it on a few other projects and they all execute the search properly and display rejected images just fine.
Since a rebuild didn’t work try dumping the Plist file Remove the Aperture preference located in ~/Library/Preferences… where ~ is your home lib. look for com.apple.Aperture.plist
After that go for som of these gems
first read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805 Reboot in Safe Mode. Hold the shift key while starting the Mac then restart again Start Aperture while holding the option key and repair permissions rebuild library. then reboot Use Disk Utilities to repair permissions on the Mac
First read http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 Use command + S and power on the Mac to start in single user mode then type sbin/fsck/ -fy (after that type) reboot
There may be a simpler way but this covers a lot of variables and has some overlapping fixes. Its like a tune-up for the car. Let us know if there are still issues after the basic steps from above are taken.
Im sorry Joseph you have provided a great FAQ section. I should of pointed there first. That was a error on my part not to remind everyone that most problems are already answered in there. And with Apple links to support pages
I know this originated a while ago but it’s still an issue as I came across it last week on 3.3.2 with Lion. The suggestions posted above did not fix my particular case and I will not bore you with the background details of how it arose (unless requested), but I found a fix (albeit a slightly scary one, at least for me) going back to July 2011 on Apple’s Aperture forums.
The advice was, having closed Aperture, to right click on the affected Aperture Library to Show Package Contents and then search for “trashAlbum.apalbum”. Remove this from the Library and then reopen the latter via a rebuild (i.e. opening Aperture and holding down the Option+Command keys). I admit I do not like doing a Rebuild (vs a Repair) but it all worked fine - and certainly I couldn’t leave things as they were as the problem seemed to be spreading out of the Trash and affecting normal edits. The advice also stated that the “TrashFolder.apaplbum” should be removed too but I could not find such. Nor, thinking there might have been a typo’, could I find “TrashFolder.apalbum”.
Perhaps Aperture 3.4 might deal with this but, given some of the posts here on that, I think I will wait a while longer before upgrading!
The usual caveats apply, of course, regarding the above! But for those that read this, I hope it goes well for you too.
Hi Joseph,
I am also having problems seeing the images in my Aperture trash. Interestingly I can see them in one of my newer libraries but not in one of the older ones. I can see images that were deleted as part of an entire folder or album that was deleted. But photos that were deleted individually can not be viewed even though the numbers show that the image is within the trash. I have gone through the above posts and tried most of the suggestions without success. I have cleared the filters for the trash. I have deleted trash related folders/albums within the package contents of the aperture library file in Finder. I have repaired and rebuilt the library.
Do you have any other suggestions that I might try?
Thank you
Kevin,
One of the biggest “big gun” tricks I have is to import the entire Library into a brand new, empty Library. This means that you need to have 2x the free space available on your HD that your original Library is, and some time on your hands. But, I’ve seen this correct the oddest of things.
It could easily take overnight if this is a big Library. Don’t do it if you plan on needing Aperture for the next day or so… just to be safe.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Perhaps a silly question….do you have a filter turned on in the Trash?
Scott
http://scottdavenportphoto.com/
That was my first assumption, but I’ve cleared all filters and still nothing.
Iain,
Sounds like a database issue. Can you do a database repair and report back?
@PhotoJoseph
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Database repair and permissions repair done and am still having this issue. I’ll try a database rebuild overnight. I keep forgetting about Apertures database tools, thanks.
OK Iain, keep us posted.
@PhotoJoseph
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OK, after all database maintenance tools have been tried none of them worked. So if I have to how can I restore these 2 photos from my Aperture library in a Time Machine backup?
Kevin,
aha, OK. Well, I’m certainly at a loss as to why you’d have 800 fewer images, unless they were in the trash waiting to be deleted. I’m pretty well out of ideas to solve this mysterious can’t-see-in-the-trash problem.
If you want to keep working on it, then yeah, I’d go ahead and import them into a new Library again, and then go project by project to see where the missing images are. If you can’t see where they are, then I think it’s reasonably safe to say that this is just prat of the problem you’re having with the other Library; trash isn’t showing what’s in there, and, possibly related, the Photos count is inaccurate.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
I appreciate the thoughts. Might just let this one settle for a bit and see if it is worth more energy or not. If I get any other ideas or resolution I will post again. Thank you.
Iain, Sarah,
Brilliant… wish I’d thought of that ;-)
Glad it worked and I’ll keep this in mind for future problems!
@PhotoJoseph
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Thanks for the advice. Taking the plunge today and importing the troubled library into a new library. When I back up the new version of the library as a vault, should I start all over with a new vault or can I back up to the original version of the vault? If I use the original vault, do I need to reset the pathway?
Many thanks
Kevin,
I’d start with a new Vault. I can’t say unequivocally that you need to, but that’s certainly what I’d do.
@PhotoJoseph
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I tried to import the troubled library into a new library but it would not complete the import. It is an 80 G library and after a short while it would get stuck on 75.9 G of import. It stayed there for hours without progress. I tried it twice and the last time let it run for more than 12 hours but it stayed stuck on 75.9 G. Any suggestions?
Thank you
Have you tried repairing the disk permissions on the drive that holds you library?
This is the one in disk utility in system preferences.
Good thought Chris. I did that and it didn’t seem to make a difference. Still looking for answers.
Kevin,
Let’s go the other direction then. Select all the Projects and export them as a new Library. If that fails, select half of ‘em… you know the routine. Then once you’ve succeeded with getting all Projects out as new Libraries, (and possibly identifying the problem Project), reimport those into a new, clean Library.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Thanks for the additional idea.
I exported each folder or project as a separate library. I then imported all of them to a new library. When I did this, I was about 800 photos short of the number in the original library. And I didn’t know how to tell which ones were missing.
also tried to restore this library from a vault but the same bug existed in the restored library- I could’t see the images in the trash.
Other ideas?
Thank you
Kevin,
OK, let’s rehash here for a moment.
You had a library with images in the trash that you couldn’t see. Emptying the trash did what; I don’t see that you said what happened when you did.
Now that you’ve done the export/import, you’re 800 photos short, but don’t know which ones. But the trash is what now… correctly empty?
Is it conceivable that these missing 800 photos were the ones that were thrown away before but couldn’t be seen?
Aperture shows how many photos are in a project if you enable the preference, which I think you already have on: [screenshot]
Take a screenshot (or a few screenshots if needed) of one library list, then open the other, and put the two side-by-side and look for a difference in numbers in the projects. See if you can identify them that way. There’s no way to compare two Libraries that I’m aware of.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Thanks for getting back to me.
When I delete a photo, it goes into the Aperture trash but I can’t see it when I click on the trash in the inspector. Yet, if I empty the trash, it will ask if I want to trash 2 versions or however many versions I had previously deleted. Once I empty the Aperture trash, the images go to my overall Mac trash where I have to empty them again to completely get rid of them. At this point the Aperture trash icon goes gray so it looks empty. So it seems like it is really getting rid of the images that are deleted but I just can’t see them in the Aperture trash.
I didn’t same my last attempted library where I had been missing several hundred images at least according to the overall number of images listed when I click the “Photos” bar in the inspector. Do you think I need to try that again and reset the preferences to show the number of images in each project, folder, album?
Kevin,
Check to see if you have any filters set in the Trash view. Select the Trash and in the upper right-hand corner in the search box click the pop menu and set it to “Show All” or type control-6.
This was one of the first answers in this thread but it’s worth repeating since you didn’t ask the original question.
Now that I’ve re-read this thread, I see you’ve already tried this. Sorry about the redundancy.
Thomas
Kevin,
And this is in the newly created Library? Weird. OK just for giggles, create a totally new Library, import a single photo, trash it, and see if you can see it in the trash.
I’m not following the second half of your post, starting with “I didn’t same my last attempted library…”. Could you clarify that for me?
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Yes Thomas I did check the trash filter as you noted. Good thought.
Joseph, I just made a new library and imported an image into it and then deleted it and yes I am able to see the image when I click on the trash. In fact I have 6 Aperture libraries and the problem with not seeing the files that are in the trash is only a problem on 2 of my libraries. The other 4 libraries work fine in that regard.
As far as your second question, I think I threw you a typo. Sorry! I meant to say that I hadn’t SAVED the library that I had made when I exported all the separate components of my original library and then tried to make a new library by importing all of these components separately. It was in that scenario that the new library had several hundred fewer images than I started with in the original library. Does that make sense?
Kevin, if this can bring a little relief though no solution to you, I’ve been experiencing exactly the same thing for 4 months now. No filter in the trashview (of course), disk+database checked and repaired/rebuilt a dozen times, tried to create a fresh new database by reimporting the old one, stuck on 9/10 of the process… any new library i create behaves properly. I’m puzzled but ended up accepting it.
So now stuck with a flawed 250 Go DB and triple checking every delete and hoping never to make a mistake. From this to FCP to iCloud limitations, I’m little by little getting more and more fed up this apple’s craze.
Thanks for sharing your experience Kenji. I wish I had an answer for both of us. Fortunately as you know, the deleted files do go to the system trash so we have a safeguard. For now, I think that needs to be enough for me.
Best to you with the other issues.
I’m having this issue too. I ended up deleting from Aperture trash and then restoring from the system trash. (I’d inadvertently trashed something). Just thought I’d check in here to see if anybody else was experiencing the same trouble. It’s always reassuring when it’s not just me :)
Sarah! Thank you. I had been afraid to empty the Aperture trash, but I just tried your method and it worked. I lost the tagging info, but was able to re-import the photo. Thank you so much!
I’m having this problem as well. Haven’t tried either of the database tools yet, but I’ll give them a go and report back.
One quirky thing is that if I delete a project I can expand the trash, click on the deleted project and see the images in there, but not if I click on just the trash itself.
Totally OT, I noticed another weird quirk tonight when trying to view the rejected images of a project. When I activate the ‘rejected’ filter in the search field it populates the search field with two stars. I tested it on a few other projects and they all execute the search properly and display rejected images just fine.
www.pixbeatphoto.com
Since a rebuild didn’t work try dumping the Plist file Remove the Aperture preference located in ~/Library/Preferences… where ~ is your home lib. look for com.apple.Aperture.plist
After that go for som of these gems
first read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805
Reboot in Safe Mode. Hold the shift key while starting the Mac then restart again
Start Aperture while holding the option key and repair permissions rebuild library. then reboot
Use Disk Utilities to repair permissions on the Mac
First read http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
Use command + S and power on the Mac to start in single user mode then type sbin/fsck/ -fy (after that type) reboot
There may be a simpler way but this covers a lot of variables and has some overlapping fixes. Its like a tune-up for the car. Let us know if there are still issues after the basic steps from above are taken.
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Just FYI, there’s loads of basic service and maintenance tips in the FAQ on this site as well.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Im sorry Joseph you have provided a great FAQ section. I should of pointed there first. That was a error on my part not to remind everyone that most problems are already answered in there. And with Apple links to support pages
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
I just had the same problem in Aperture 3.4.3 and what HK_Nick described was the only thing that could fix it.
As a little clarification, these are the two files I moved out of the Aperture library package before having Aperture rebuild the library:
trashAlbum.apalbum (path: Database/Albums)
trashFolder.apfolder (path: Database/Folders)
Hope this may help the next one encountering this problem.
Cheers,
Adrian
I know this originated a while ago but it’s still an issue as I came across it last week on 3.3.2 with Lion. The suggestions posted above did not fix my particular case and I will not bore you with the background details of how it arose (unless requested), but I found a fix (albeit a slightly scary one, at least for me) going back to July 2011 on Apple’s Aperture forums.
The advice was, having closed Aperture, to right click on the affected Aperture Library to Show Package Contents and then search for “trashAlbum.apalbum”. Remove this from the Library and then reopen the latter via a rebuild (i.e. opening Aperture and holding down the Option+Command keys). I admit I do not like doing a Rebuild (vs a Repair) but it all worked fine - and certainly I couldn’t leave things as they were as the problem seemed to be spreading out of the Trash and affecting normal edits. The advice also stated that the “TrashFolder.apaplbum” should be removed too but I could not find such. Nor, thinking there might have been a typo’, could I find “TrashFolder.apalbum”.
Perhaps Aperture 3.4 might deal with this but, given some of the posts here on that, I think I will wait a while longer before upgrading!
The usual caveats apply, of course, regarding the above! But for those that read this, I hope it goes well for you too.
Nick
Hong Kong
Nick,
Thanks for posting that find. Hopefully that helps anyone else running into the issue.
@PhotoJoseph
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