Importing from Aperture - import button greyed out

[danielb39330729]

hi , I'm a late adopter i guess

just signed up for my lightroom cc package . When I use the plug in it analyses my aperture library fine. Determined size , number of images etc, yet import button remains grey out . I backed up catalogue as per warning even though it was empty ... nada

anyone actually know what the issue is ? Similar questions crop up in the forums but no one seems to ever answer them!

[Sam251940285naf]

The first sentence in the part you linked says "Adobe Lightroom Classic version 5.7 and later includes a built-in tool for migrating Aperture libraries to Lightroom catalogs." And of course, that is the plug-in I'm trying to use. Nowhere in that support article does it state that you need to migrate from Aperture to Apple Photos as an intermediate step to migrating to Lightroom. Yes, the article does talk about migrating to Apple Photos, but that is independent of a migration to Lightroom. 

I appreciate your attempt to help, but the reality here is that Adobe provides a plug-in to facilitate the migration. It appears from reports I've read that it worked at some point in time, but it appears to be broken now at current LR-Classic and/or Mac OS levels.

The fundamental issue is that it doesn't appear to even read the aperture library. Once I select the Aperture library, the Number of image/video files" and "Disk space required" fields say "<undetermined>" and never update.

[Rob_Cullen]

In the link - yes, there is the tool in Lightroom-Classic. But read some of the fine print in the article. Namely-

1) "In June 2014, Apple announced the discontinuation of development of Aperture. Since then, Apple has released five major macOS updates. For technical reasons, Aperture will not run in macOS versions after macOS Mojave"

2) "Note: If you want to migrate specific photos from your Aperture library to Lightroom Classic, export them to a new Aperture library and then migrate the new library."

Item 1) Would suggest that you cannot run Aperture in the new Monterey OS.

Item 2) Would suggest that you would need Aperture working and operating!

So sorry I cannot be of any more help or suggestions.

Contact Adobe Support-  ! AUTO CHAT LINK 

[NK25011300t75d]

1) Yes, we know that Aperture doesn't run under Monterey. Thank you.

2) What's not at all clear is how the plug-in works. Adobe don't explain it, and their technical support staff don't appear to have any training on this topic.

What it boils down to is:

- Does the Lightroom Classic plug-in, which is advertised by Adobe as being capable of importing Aperture libraries, work by a) reading and importing data directly from an Aperture library? or b) by communicating to a running instance of Aperture on the same computer, and instructing that instance to export data? In other words, can the plug-in parse the Aperture library format itself?

- If a) is correct, then the plug-in appears to be broken. There is specific functionality that Adobe advertise as being present in Lightroom Classic that does not work.

- If b) is correct, then all their online documentation fails to mention a very important part - that you need a running copy of Aperture on your machine. This severely limits the usefulness of the plug-in, because you have to do all your imports to Lightroom on an old machine running an old version of the OS, and running Aperture. It also means the documentation is misleading and kind of useless. And in fact, it would also mean the plug-in is badly written, because it should inform the user that a running copy of Aperture is required to function. It doesn't. Its dialogue boxes imply that it can read the Aperture library directly.

[MKAP10]

One last comment - I tried to use the plugin on a machine that still had a running copy of Aperture, still running 10.14, and this didn't help.  The import button was still greyed out.  I think at this point, we just need to accept that the Aperture import plugin doesn't work.  Maybe it worked once, but not any more, and not for some time.  Time to make other plans!

[RandomPantsFoto]

I acutally just tried this (migrating to Photos App first), and the import button remains remains greyed out there as well (in fact, won't even let me select the library itself, as it stays greyed out, as if an incompatible file).

I am at a loss here.  I have 10+ years of photographs, equaling about 4 TB in size sitting inaccesable in that library, with clients pinging me about when they're getting photos back from recent shoots.  Not fun, for sure.  I wish Apple and Adobe would get their act together here!

[Peter2733374533x9]

I also need to migrate a huge Aperture library into Lightroom Classic - and the button in the plug-in is greyed-out. Still no solution to the problem?

[John R Ellis]

The built-in Aperture/iPhoto Plugin has always been very buggy, and Adobe has never acknowledged the bugs, much less fixed them. You could use the manual ("old") migration method described here:

http://lightroomsolutions.com/articles/migrating-from-aperture-to-lightroom-where-do-i-begin/

or you could use the Avalanche program, which will preserve all your metadata and edits. Lots of posts in the LR forums from satisfied users, and their support appears very responsive. It costs $40, but how much do you value your time and your photos?

[Peter2733374533x9]

Thanks - yes, I'm now into the 'old' migration procedure. Then I wanted to migrate my photos in Apple's Photos App (the update substitution for iPhoto). In the threads above it appeared that at least the Adobe plug-in works seamless here - but no. I get the message that the library is 'no iPhoto' library. So in this instance, too, Adobe is of no help?

[John R Ellis]

Similar problems with the plugin were reported for both Aperture and iPhoto libraries (apparently, internally they used the same or very similar database schemas).  Adobe has never responded to any of the bug reports.  Avalanche also works with iPhotos (and Photos).

[LuigiC79]

Hello, I also need to migrate Aperture library (and iphoto library) into Lightroom Classic - and the button in the plug-in is greyed-out. Still no solution to the problem?

[John277724480rsy]

I faced the same problem and paniced a bit when the advertised LR function didn't work. I know an article was flagged as the "correct answer" but the only correct answer I see (other than migrating manually) is the tip from @John R Ellis to use the Avalanche tool. I did, and it worked like a champ! It cost me $45 (with holiday promo code) but that's a bargain compared to the time and stress associated with the manual approach (especially since I no longer had a running copy of Aperture). Of course we shouldn't have to do any of this if the advertising function worked but we can't change that, nor does Adobe seem interested.