Aperture hangs - over to lightroom

Hi all.

 

I have been trying Aperture, having bought a copy. No go: when I import pictures

(leaving files in existing location, that import type) Aperture freezes after

roughly 500-1,500 images. I have spent wreeks with APpel support; they made me

replace RAM, hard drive and all software (they actually made me wipe my imac and

re-install: I am still working on recovering all my stuff!) - but all to no avail.

 

Lightroom worked immediately; imported 15,000 images without an issue: no issues

yet.

 

Anyone with similar issues?

 

Apple has stopped answering my emails ad calls. They must be sick of this

"case". As am I: a simple refund would do. But they have no answered that

request either. Pity - I had expected better.

 

But that said - so I wasted $299 on Apple - Lightroom is very good.

 

Michael

Version? The latest is only $199, and the updgrade is 1/2 that.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB286Z-A-Aperture-Upgrade/dp/B000ROD3W6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1213047038&sr=8-3

I am in Canada, Robert. We pay more here that you do in the USA: Apple considers us foreign, so charges more.

Or maybe I am $100 out. I must admit I have not checked. I just remember I paid for it - through a haze of wine, time, and cameras...

<I>Anyone with similar issues?</I><P>No and I have been using Aperture since day

one, even before the rebate in fact.<BR>Why should Apple give you a refund, the

problem isn't with Aperture but somewhere within your computer. Now that could be a

Apple problem but Aperture isn't. <BR> BTW, you are the first one that I'm aware of

that Apple "made" you <I>replace RAM, hard drive and all software (they actually

made me wipe my imac and re-install</I> Sounds like you got Microsoft support by

mistake. LOL<P>It does sound like a hardware problem, along the lines of a kernel

panic, which are bitch to find. Good luck.

There are at least a few dozen others with similar issues according to Apple support forums.

 

Re replacing RAM, hard disk (two external ones ando the internal disk: all the same issue), and re-installing OS from scratch: yes, Apple asked me to do thiese things or they could not help. No, I did not enjoy having to do all this. Are you making fun of me here?

 

The iMac is new. Aperture is new. I do not feel like debugging what this is. It is an Apple issue for sure, one images, since I have eliminated all else. And Lightroom and all my other apps work fine, whatever they do. A memory test running all night also works fine.

 

It's no Kernel panic: it is Aperture that hangs, nothing else, even when I stress the machine to bits.

 

Here's the thing, Ace Fury. "It works for me" (and that is what I hear a bit in your response: apologies if I am mistaken!) is not a useful support response. That's like saying "the previous 105 space shuttles worked fine, so it must be something you did".

 

Apple COULD have said "Gee. You bought TWO new Macs (iMac and MBA) and Aperture and a 1TB drive and many other things in the last four months, and after extensive debugging we find it likely it is somehow our problem. Tell you what: instead of making you arbitrage between our hardware and software departments, we will send someone to your house / give you a new Mac / refund the money for Aperture (any of the above)".

 

But no: they stop responding to email/phone - presumably because they don't know what to do.

 

I find that disappointing. Comparisons to Microsoft notwithstanding.

 

Anyway: Lightroom works fine.

I have a similar problem with iPhoto hanging / choking on RAW files. I may have

narrowed it down to using a Firewire reader to ingest the files. I am now using a USB

reader.

 

I have a new iMac and I am dedicating it to my passion for photography. I don't have

to tell you how easy it is to accumulate a ton of images!

 

Hope you are able to resolve the problem.

Hi Joseph:

 

I have tried firewire, USB, and local disk as a source. All three do this when I import thousands.

 

Yes - it is easy to accumulate thousands!

 

Michael

>>> Anyone with similar issues?

 

No. But I know there are many with far more images and it works fine.

 

 

>>> That's like saying "the previous 105 space shuttles worked fine, so it must be something you

did".

 

So, then, do you think it is something Apple did to your particular machine or version of Ap?

Brad,

 

Of course Apple did not "do anything" to my machine. But with a fresh OS, and having excluded disk or RAM, it is indeed likely to be an Apple problem.

 

Michael

Michael - Apple should give you a working configuration. You are running Apple software on an Apple platform. If they can't get your machine to work, they should giive you a new one.

 

For what it's worth, the grass isn't so green on the pc side. Too many vendors, so it's always someone elses fault.

"Joseph Martines , Jun 09, 2008; 07:49 p.m.

I have a similar problem with iPhoto hanging / choking on RAW files. I may have

narrowed it down to using a Firewire reader to ingest the files. I am now using a USB

reader.

 

I have a new iMac and I am dedicating it to my passion for photography. I don't have

to tell you how easy it is to accumulate a ton of images!

 

Hope you are able to resolve the problem."

 

You have other issues, like maybe a bad firewire cable, or even a fried FW port.

Firewire is the interface of choice for Macs because it's WAY faster than USB or

USB2.

 

Never install, or remove a Firewire cable while the computer is powered. Even brand

new FW cables can be faulty, I'd try a different one. Or, it could be a bad card

reader, it happens.

I have used Aperture on a MacPro and MacBookPro since the beta version and not

seen this particular problem. There could be a lot of things causing this problem.

 

Example: Aperture uses the user interface (i.e. keyboard and mouse) extensively.

My Bluetooth mouse and keyboard usually work fine, but occasionally Aperture gets

confused. Perhaps the room is too warm or the mouse battery low, but sometimes

the mouse behaves as if every click is a right click, not a left click. Turning off the

mouse and turning is back on fixes the problem.

 

When you say "Aperture freezes", could you be more specific?

Run "Activity Monitor.app" and see if Aperture is using any CPU. Click on Aperture

and then on "inspect" and "Sample Process". You can learn there what the code is

doing, perhaps it is waiting for some file, perhaps it really died.

<p>I've never had this problem, but I feel your pain. I, personally, dislike Lightroom's

interface (I always thought it was Adobe trying to be Apple, but failing)--so if I lost Aperture,

I would be pretty pissed.</p><p>Also, it pisses me off when Apple (or any company for

that matter) makes their customers run the gauntlet of technical support advice: reinstall

the OS, change out hardware, etc. If the entire machine doesn't crash, then there is

absolutely no need to take these measures. Apple employees are required to do these

things though, so what can you do?</p>

<p>This surely doesn't sound like a problem with the OS, and I'm not sure what you all

mean by "an Apple problem." It sounds like a bug in Aperture's managed library database-

-it's choking on one of your images, I would presume. I'll take you through the possibilities,

and my reasoning. (1) If your RAM were the problem, there would surely be a kernel panic

(or something equally fatal). Oftentimes RAM failure results in a weird beeping on boot,

and (in the old days) the infamously cute sad-mac. (2) If it were your new hard drive, the

hard drive would have problems in other applications. You've tried Lightroom, and so

you've ruled that out. (3) The firewire-cable idea is ruled out for the same reason. (4) It

must be something in the way Aperture is reading the files. Afterall, it does try to import

some pictures, it just doesn't import all of them and it hangs when it tries. This leads me to

believe that you need to run Disk Utility to make sure that all of your drives are

defragmented, checked, and good to go. What format is it? Apple products are particularly

fond of HFS+ drives. I seem to recall a time when Aperture would not accept FAT32 drives

(they're inefficient, unstable, and Apple relies on the format of their drives to make speed-

tweaks and file-names, I presume)--but don't take my word for it. There's a <a

href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6069759">support question

dealing with it</a> (from last year). Where is your library located? Are you trying to set up a

"reference library," or just a "managed library?"</p>

<p>There are more considerations. Are you running Aperture 2.1 (the update of 2)? If you

are not, it is likely you should upgrade and try again. Also, have you installed all of the

updates for Mac OS X? After reinstalling the OS, many neglect to run Software Update.

You might want to clear out settings that might be hurting Aperture's ability to build a

proper library. Are you importing raw images or some other format (in the case of scanned

film slides)?</p>

<p>The most important question: did your tech support rep ask any of these questions?

</p>

<p>I hope this was of help in some degree. I hate it when things don't work.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>