Retrieving Aperture photos in Catalina

Could you post a screenshot of the items in your Pictures folder?

Which version of Aperture have you been using? Has it been Aperture 3.6?

Is there some item with the filename extension .aplibrary or .migratedaplibrary in any folder?

Try to search for these filename extensions using the search field in the toolbar of a Finder window or Spotlight.

By default your Aperture Library should be in your Pictures folder.

If there is an Aperture Library on your Mac, Photos for mac should be able to find it.

• Launch Photos while holding down the options key ⌥.
• Keep holding down ⌥ until the Library Chooser Dialog appears, then release the key.
• Are you seeing your Aperture Library in the list of libraries? Then select it.

Photos will create a new library from the Aperture library. That will allow you to export the photos.

No, just meant to remind you there may be another place to look.

I think Time Machine is an unreliable way to back up. It uses lots of storage space and you never know what's there unless you check it often.

Maybe you 'Masters' files is there.

This is a reminder to everyone. Be sure you have backed up all important files prior to upgrading/updating system software!

3Squirrel wrote:

Hi Leonie, I’ve just traced the photos to a file in Spotlight called ‘Masters’. They appear to be all there and catalogued in folders labelled year by year. Thanks for your support. This may help someone else in future.

That is good news, that you found the Masters folder. So you could at least recover the original image files. But your work in Aperture is still missing - the albums, projects, adjustments, metadata. The Aperture library seems to have become damaged by the backup method. The enclosing folder of the Masters folder is probably the Aperture Library, but the filename extension ".aplibrary" is missing (if it is an Aperture 3 library and not an Aperture 2 library). You could try to append the filename extension ,a-library to the enclosing folder of "masters" and see, if it will turn the folder back into a n Aperture Library. Then you could try to open it in Photos. But save the Masters folder somewhere else, before you do that.

I have tested Retroactive some time ago, and it is nice to have in an emergency. I am not yet sure, if it is really safe to use. Right after I let Retroactive patch iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture, many system applications started to crash. It might have been a coincidence, but be careful. The patched version of Aperture is somewhat limited, anyway, because video is not supported.

Why, it's in your backup!

So naturally I am wondering where my Library with thousands of images is located.

Why, it's in your backup! You know, the one you made before you upgraded your MacOS.

Congrats! I know the feeling.

It should be ".aplibrary". The "a-library" is an invention of the spell checker. I am sorry.