I am an Apple Aperture user, and have been ever since version 1.0 was released. Aperture is a terrific tool which is responsible in many ways for the great efficiencies I have achieved in my photo production. It allows me to work quickly and accurately, gives me a good number of editing tools, both for individual photos and en masse changes.
I currently have close to 100,000 photos in my main Aperture library on my studio computer, and I have anywhere from 10-20,000 photos on my Macbook Pro library, which includes my family pictures.
Every once in a while, though, Aperture has a hiccup that causes me trouble. Most notably, I’ve had cases where I’ve tried to move projects between computers, upgraded hard drive, or even upgraded the OS X on my computers. In these cases, I’ve had to perform surgery on my Aperture installation to avoid doing a complete rebuild of my library. Once I did try to do a complete rebuild, and my computer was tied up for almost 30 hours.
The symptoms most commonly associated with Aperture database problems are:
- Incorrect or corrupt thumbnail images
- Error messages about missing Master files
- Inability to export versions
- Inability to locate Master files
- Errors ordering prints and/or books
So, I have developed a set of tools that I regularly use to diagnose and repair my Aperture library and projects. I can help you to do this, too. If you have internet access and are running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), I can use OS X “Screen Sharing” to access your computer and do this remotely. Most database and library repairs take less than an hour, and many can be completed in a matter of minutes.
If you’d like to hire me to do this for you, please contact me via email so that we can discuss your situation. The initial consultation is free. Up to 1 hour of repair work performed remotely over the Internet is $100. More complicated repairs will be estimated in advance.
Good luck, and happy shooting!
Steve
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