Why is an Aperture Managed Library so small?

I decided to move my referenced photos in Aperture back into a managed library (basically because I plan to move to Lightroom and felt it would be easier to put the managed Aperture Library on an external drive to save it).
Everything went smoothly but now when I look at the size of the Library file, something does not seem right. The size of the library is around 100GB, but the combined size of the folders (where the referenced files were originally located) was closer to 500GB.
Is this because Aperture compresses the files in it's library - even though a lot of them were various RAW files?

That is what I thought, but when I opened Aperture using the "new" library and checked for whether photos were managed or referenced, all approximately 70,000 said managed.

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Why is my Aperture 3 Library 50% larger than my iPhoto Library?

So I have the latest iPhoto and I bought Aperture 3 (unlocked the trial). I imported my iPhoto Library into Aperture 3 with faces disabled and the preview option off. once it was imported, I turned on Faces and let it do its thing. As of right now, my iPhoto Library is 44.91GB and the Aperture 3 Library is 65.78GB. By y math that's about a 50% increase. Anyone have any insight into why?
I have maybe 50 RAW shots, the rest are all JPG and the occasional iPhone 3GS video. 450 Projects if that matters.
The only clue I can think of is that in my keyword list I have "iPhoto Original" and "iPhoto Modified", both have about 40k images tagged. Did the import from iPhoto perhaps copy both masters and versions? If so, how do I fix it cause I don't see duplicate images.

Terence Devlin wrote:
Search on iPhoto Edited keyword - a Smart Album, for instance. If these are jpegs then I would keep the original and rotate them again in Aperture. You lose less quality that way.
I think I may have mistyped above. After importing the iPhoto Library, I have 4 new keywords: iPhoto Converted, iPhoto Edited, iPhoto Hidden and iPhoto Original.
Converted has 280 images
Edited has 1 image, but that image says "1 of 2" in the upper left corner.
Hidden has 6, but these are just the images that were hidden in my iPhoto library.
Original has 40,309 images
If I go to Photos at the top of the sidebar in A3, I get 40,310 images.
For completeness, iPhoto shows 41,118 items, but I have been removing some projects from A3, so I expected it to be less.
So now I'm back to being confused about the size increase. I totally get that it would have imported both the Originals and Modified folders from the iPhoto Library. But if the image count isn't any higher, I don't see where the huge size increase is coming from.

Upgrading to Aperture 3, my Aperture 2 library got smaller (60GB vs. 102GB)

Moving from an old MacBook Pro running Aperture 2.1.4 to a new MacBook Pro, with Aperture 3.1.
I copied the Aperture 2 Library (55,000 images, nearly all referenced) to the new machine, and opened it in Aperture 3.1, which then upgraded my Library (overnight process).
Now I have two Libraries on the new machine: Aperture Library_original, and Aperture Library.
The new Aperture Library seems to work fine, and has the same number of photos as the original.
The original seems untouched, and if I try to open it in Aperture 3, it prompts me (again) to upgrade it.
Here is my concern:
My new Library is only 60GB, whereas the original is 102GB.
What, if anything is missing? It seems to work fine, but I have not been able to check all 55K photos!
Searching online, I can't find any reference to Library size decreasing with the upgrade from Aperture 2 to 3. If anything, some complain that it becomes larger in Aperture 3.
Does anyone know what is going on, or how to check that my new Library is complete?

Your previews are best set to your screen size, the ideal preview size having an asterix next to it.
Previews are relevant for referenced workflows, sharing with iLife and other apps, otherwise up to you.
Tony

When going from Aperture 2 to 3 and managed library to an existing Aperture 3 referenced

I am having to move several 2 TB Managed Aperture 2 Libraries to a new drive because the drives they are on are full and cannot be upgraded. I am copying them over to a new 4 TB drive and can either export the images out of the managed Aperture 2 Libraries or should I, once they are on the new drive, upgrade the "Managed" Libraries to Aperture 3 then export the images. I have been using Aperture 3 for about a year and have about 7 TB of images in an "unreferenced" Aperture 3 Library which is where ultimately I want to be able to access the old images.
Also what is the best way to export them out to maintain the integrity of the "Project/Folder/Album" structure I use.
And finally, is there a theoretical limit as to how large the Aperture 3 "Unreferenced" Library can be? My Unreferenced Aperture 3 Library is almost 200GB's. I have about another 6 TB's of images to add once upgraded.
Thanks for your help!!

I have been using Aperture 3 for about a year and have about 7 TB of images in an "unreferenced" Aperture 3 Library which is where ultimately I want to be able to access the old images.
If I understand you correctly, you want to create a consolidated single aperture 3 library on your new 7TB drive.
And now you have a small aperture 3 library on that drive and want to add the images from several Aperture 2 libraries, that are now on a different drive, that is filling up, correct?
Also what is the best way to export them out to maintain the integrity of the "Project/Folder/Album" structure I use.
To keep the integrity of your old projectaa and albums, your edits and tags, without losing the lossless workflow, I suggest to import your old libraries as libraries and not to export the images from these libraries to reimport them.
I'd do the following for each of your Aperture 2 libraries:
Do you still have Aperture 2 running, along Aperture 3, or can you reinstall it? Then I'd run the Aperture First Aid Tools on each of your old libraries to rebuild them and to ensure that they are having no glitches. Do that in Aperture 2, if possible. To launch the First Aid hold down the key combination âŒ¥âŒ˜ and double click the Aperture 2 library. Then select "Rebuild".
Copy the rebuild library to your new drive.
Double click your Aperture 3 library to launch Aperture 3 on it and use the command "File > Import > LIbrary" to import the Aperture 2 library into the Aperture 3 library. This will maintain all your projects, albums, edits, metatdata tags.
Repeat for all your Aperture 2 libraries.
Before you delete any copy of your old libraries, check carefully, if they imported well. And check, if your backup of the old libraries is current, before you do the rebuild in Aperture 2.
Regards
Léonie
And finally, is there a theoretical limit as to how large the Aperture 3 "Unreferenced" Library can be? My Unreferenced Aperture 3 Library is almost 200GB's. I have about another 6 TB's of images to add once upgraded.
There is no limit to the size of an Aperture library, that I know of. For merging libraries by importng one into the other you will need plenty of free space. See this: Aperture 3.4.3: Release notes
Scroll down to the paragraph "A note on upgrading your Aperture library" at the end of the document.
It might be better, to distribute your combined library over two drives. 6TB on a 7 TB drive might be problematic, because the OS may occasionally more free space to perform repairs and rebuilds.

Aperture 3: Library Management

I am sorry to ask such a simplistic question, but I am not sure how to do this and did not see a post on the question.
I have my main aperture 3 library. I am going to break the library up to speed performance and make the library smaller (Around 60 GB). I am going to break the library up into things such as Sports, Family, School, etc.
Here is my problem. I export a folder into a new library "school". I do not consolidate files. The new library is created and the file structure is in the new library. The file structure still exists in the old library. I delete the folder structure in the old library and move it to the trash. When I empty the trash all the master files are gone.
How is this done without deleting files?
Thanks

Here is what I did, as i wanted to "break up" my libraries the same way. Its taking me all weekend but I am getting it done and I am having good luck, knock on wood.
1. I created a new Aperture 3 Library called Sports
2. In finder I right clicked on the Aperture 2 library and selected "Showed package contents"
3. I created the folders in the new Aperture 3 library to equal the stuff I wanted imported. I did not recreate the projects.
4. I dragged and dropped the Aperture 2 project from the finder in the New Aperture 3 library.
5. Waited until it was done.
This did two things for me, it kept my Aperture 2 library intact, and allowed me a clean start.
This also works for dragging and dropping Lightroom2 folders.
So far so good.
Bill Debevc
sshaphotos.com
BokehBrothers.com

Aperture - Converting Managed Library to Referenced Library?

I goofed. I've been using Aperture for a while, and I now realize that by importing my image files directly into my Aperture library on my 1TB iMac hard drive, this managed library is now 430GB... I need to streamline. I understand (now) the benefit of using reference libraries wherein the image files themselves are stored elsewhere (I have a 3TB external USB drive) and the Aperture library accesses/utilizes the files from that location. The big question - how do I convert my current managed library to that referenced library model? If I copy my entire 430GB Aperture library folder from the iMac hard drive 'Pictures' folder over to the 3TB external drive, it's still a managed library in that new external drive location but now with USB access times added to the Aperture work flow... correct?
I'm assuming I need to somehow 'export' my image files to the 3TB external drive, and then tell Aperture to build a reference library off of those image files - correct? If so, is there an specific way to do this? Also, if I create a referenced library as described above, I assume that in the future I will need to import image files from my camera to the 3TB external drive outside of Aperture, and then use Aperture to import them from that 3TB drive into the Aperture reference library via Aperture 'Import'... correct?
Thanks in advance for any insight here.

It's all a lot easier than you expect.
Libraries are neither managed nor referenced, they are just libraries. It's the images within the libraries that can be either managed (stored with the library) or referenced (stored external to it). So within a single library you can have a combination of both (if you have a reason to).
But the simple answer to your question is, select all your photos, and from the file menu choose "Relocate Originals". It will prompt you for where to store them. Create a folder on your external (eg "Masters" or "Originals") and chose a folder structure to store them in (I use the project name for subfolders - but more complex options can be created using 'edit'). Press relocate button and go have a well earned beer while it relocates them for you.
Andy

Backing up a managed library in Aperture 3

So after much reading this is what I'm thinking..I'm hoping some of you very experienced aperture people will comment on this.
Planning a new managed library (may make it referenced in the future but not for now). Have (2) 3 TB external Seagate HD and a 1TB external.
1. Planning on using the 1TB to host the vault and ask it to backup at least once a week (this computer solely used for aperture so backing up entire hard drive to Time machine was not my plan). (Probably download about 300-500 images a week).
2. Then plan downloading the masters directly onto 1 of the Seagates outside of Aperture, though this will include crappy and good images, taking up a lot of space, I'm okay with that. T
3. Thirdly using the second Seagate and having that be the backup utilized through import settings thru Aperture.
Not worried about all of these backups being in the same building (fires, earthquakes, etc) or about the computer/hard drives being stolen. Also should I have one of these backups not include previews to save on space?
Thoughts?
Thanks!!

I actually find this very helpful because my Aperture (version 3.4.2) is extremely slow and crashes very often.
This can also be an indication that your Aperture Library needs repairing, or you may have imported corrupted media - image files or incompatible videos.
I'd try the Aperture lIbrary First Aid Tools to repair the database and permissions, if necessary to rebuild the Library, see:
Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual
After a crash it is always a good precaution to repair the library, since a crash may interrupt a database transaction and leave the Aperture library in an inconsistent state.
If repairing/rebuilding does not fix the slowness, check your recent imports, if they contain incompatible videos or images that cannot be adjusted and cause Aperture to crash.

When exporting images from iPhoto library to Aperture 3 library the highlights go red and the shadow area goes blue. This happen to all images in the Aperture 3 library, why?

For some reason all the images in Aperture 3 library have had their highlights go red and the shadow area goes blue. I can correct them one at a time with contrast control. This just happen on its on after I uploaded MOuntain Lion. Now when I go to transfer images from iPhoto this happens. The images are all right in iPhoto but this is not the case with Apeerture. I have 15,000 images in Aperture 3 and I can't afford the time to correct them one at a time. What is it that I did to cause this problem?

You have "Highlight Hot and Cold Areas" turned on.
Toggle this on/off from the View menu.
Thresholds are set at "Aperture➞Preferences➞Advanced". (I have mine set to 100% ~ it's not clear what the scale is.)
Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

Why won't my screensaver allow me to access my external drive that contains my aperture 3 library

I can't get my screensaver to see my Aperture 3 library which is on my external drive via firewire. It wants to use an older Aperture 2 library on another drive instead. Both drives are daisy chained together.
The only libraries that my System preferences sees are iPhoto and the older Aperture 2 library.

Repair yur QuickTime.
CONTROL PANEL
WinXP - Add n Remove Programs
Win7/Vista - Programs n Features
highlight QUICKTIME and click CHANGE then REPAIR

Macbook - moving Aperture 3 Library

I've read countless threads and articles on this but remain a bit confused.
My MBP is too full with Aperture 3 RAW masters. So I plan to move them off the hard drive to, most likely, a FW 400 external HDD.
There seems to be two ways (for what I want to do).
1) Close Aperture. Seelect the Library File and copy it to the external HDD then double click if from Finder so Aperture notes the new location.
2) Export inviduals projects as libraries.
Questions I have:
a) Does option 1 lead to the creation of a Referenced Library (e.g. is not on the Mac HD) or is that a seperate process?
b) For importing photos I presume the external HD has to be connected?
c) Or do you import locally then export the project to the library when connected?
d) Will I be able to view any of the library pics when the HDD is not attached.
I thought I 'got' the managed v referenced thing but the more I've read the more confused I've got.
Essentially I just need the disk space back and the least confusing and problematic way of doing it.

I am wearing this link out, but it is excellent: http://photo.rwboyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Aperture3Organization.pdf
ApertureSpeak is not really clear on this but:
-- The Library contains your Thumbs, Previews, Versions (edits), and all of the pointers to hold things together.
-- If your Master images, the files that came out of your camera (or scanner), are physically inside the Library, it is called a Managed Library and you are said to have Managed Masters.
-- If your Master images are not inside the Library; that is, they are either in different Folder(s) or on physically different drives, then you are said to have a Referenced Library with Referenced Masters.
But wait, there's more! You can have your cake and eat (most of it) too! You just have to decide what you want to do - do you always want to "see" one unified Library (which is what I do) or do you want separate Libraries? In other words, do you want many smaller libraries or are you merely trying to save space on you laptop?
If the former:
-- Create a new Library wherever you want and Export Projects as Libraries to populate it.
-- If you put the new Library on an external drive, you will only be able to "see" it when that drive is connected.
If the latter:
-- You can simply relocate the entire Managed Library to the external drive. You are very likely to see a severe performance hit, especially if that drive is USB 2.0 or FW400. Even FW800 will be slower, unless, of course, your internal HD is so full that it is already gagging. And, of course, you won't be able to see any part of Aperture unless the external drive is connected. Bad news all around.
-- The better solution, what I (and others) would recommend, is to use the Relocate Masters command to move some Projects to your external drive. Do this until your internal HD is at least 30% empty. Now when you open Aperture you will "see" your entire library. As Lónie noted, you can still do lots of things like e-mail and slideshows will all of your images. But you will only be able to Adjust images when the external HD is connected.
Assuming that you clean out more space on your internal HD and use a FW400 drive, you will probably notice a real performance increase. The only delays are likely to occur when you first read a full resolution file into memory. (So be sure you have as much RAM as possible.) And this happens a lot less often than you think.
This link has more ruminations on this subject: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18221097#18221097
As you can see, some of us have spent way too much time analyzing this stuff.
DiploStrat

Aperture 3 Library size vs iPhoto Library

Hi!
I recently switched from iPhoto to Aperture and am wondering about the library size? In iPhoto the library size was bloated because it made a copy of every photo behind the scenes upon import. I got tired of that and thought that moving to Aperture would solve the problem. But, after importing most of my photos into Aperture, then comparing the size of my Aperture Library package with the size of my Photo folder in Finder that I imported from, I'm finding my Aperture library is over 100 GBs bigger!! Yikes! How did that happen?
I am running a managed library, but I thought Aperture didn't make a copy of every photo behind the scenes but rather just made versions of the master when changes are made.
Frankly, I haven't even done any editing yet, just importing. So, why the huge library size compared to the size of my Photo library in Finder? It's 186 GBs versus 85 GBs. Same photo collection. Crazy.
TIA!

No, from folders in Finder. I always have my photos in Finder too on an EHD, even after I import them to iPhoto or Aperture.

Managed library size vs images plus referenced library

I have referenced library 18,1Gb and 109,7Gb image folder (all of them in Aperture). If I like to move to managed library, is it bigger or smaller than 128Gb (18+110) and if it is, is the difference significant? Do anyone know that?

Today a Managed-Masters Library for you would be about six times as big as your current Library, meaning six times larger Vaults and/or Library copies that take longer to create. And a Managed-Masters Library would keep growing and slowing the drive it lived on.
If currently your Referenced-Masters Library and the Masters are on the same drive maybe now is a good time to move the Masters to an external drive to maintain the speed of the internal drive with the Library on it. Or if you have lots of space leave Masters where they are until the drive gets about half full.
-Allen

Aperture Updating Library... 126,637 of 6,959,575

Hello all,
I upgraded to Aperture 3.2.3 and got an unexpected "Recovering Library" when it first started. Well, it seemed to have worked, and I did some importing in Aperture. It also started doing facial recognition in the background. I let all the background stuff finish, and then yesterday I quit Aperture.
At that time, it popped up a panel/sheet saying Updating library... 1 of 6,959,575 (commas added by me). It had done Updating Library in the past so I didn't think much of it.
However, now, a day and a half later, it is only up to 126,767 of those nearly 7 million. It seems to be going at a rate of one per second. At this rate, it will take around 80 days to finish. Given that my computer is a MacBook connected to an external DroboPro, that means I'm stuck with a non-portable computer that I have to hope has absolutely no crashes nor power failures nor any other hiccoughs for three months. Clearly, this is unacceptable.
Does anyone have any ideas what's going on here and what I could do, please?
Thanks,
Doug

If you have not read and undertstood this, you should: http://photo.rwboyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Aperture3Organization.pdf
This will tell you how to open the Library Package and determine how large your Masters, Thumbs, and Previews are.
Some other thoughts:
How full is your system drive on your MacBookPro? If it does not have between 25 and 30% free space, then that is the first thing you have to fix. Similarly, I assume that you have run Disk First Aid or Diskwarrior against your system drive, just be be sure that it is not, for any reason, hosed. From your comments about Lion, I would guess that:
-- Your OSX installation has real problems; problems that probably rate a visit to the Genius Bar; there should be one near you in New York.
-- Your Aperture rebuild may be having problems with latency - possibly because the catalog of your system disk is damaged or your Lion install is damaged. Couple that with the slow speed of the Drobo and things may be timing out. I will admit that this is a complete shot in the dark.
Assuming that your 2 TB Library is Managed, that is that the 2 TB includes your masters, and that you do not have 2 TB of free space in your MacBookPro, then:
-- First relocate your Masters out of the Managed Library and put them somewhere on the Drobo. There re many, many threads on this Forum discussing strategies for doing this.
-- Move the Library (now without Masters) onto your fastest, emptiest internal drive.
-- Resync everything. A quick pass with iDefrag wouldn't hurt after this much file movement.
Why lecture about backups?
-- Well, first of all you said that you had no backups.
-- Secondly, we are trying to diagnose a problem at a distance, on hardware that we cannot see. We can't really tell if your problem is with your Mac, Lion, the Drobo, or Aperture. Under those circumstances we could easily give really bad advice. The cyber version of the Hippocratic Oath (First, do no harm.) is to assure that backups are available.
Good luck and best wishes.
DiploStrat

What to do when Import is interrupted - Managed Library

I was in the middle of importing files via File > Import .... I selected to manage the library in Aperture ( not referenced files )
I left the machine running overnight as it was adding 160gig of files.
Upon my return, I noticed that the previews and most files were displayed in the morning - It actually looked like all the import had completed... but it still said importing. Even when looking at the activity monitor - it also said importing - i presume it did the previews ?
My problem came when I returned to my computer after lunch to see .......Aperture had crashed.
How can I verify all the files imported - as I think it still had quite a bit to go...
Is there any way to not check manually, so I do not have to import again ? As I think a manual check may just be on the previews and file count - not checking if the actual file is there ? Also there is loads
Please advise - Much appreciated

Thanks for the detailed reply
Will give each option a try this evening.
There were lots of video files in the import - so I presume you are correct in saying that may be why it crashed, even if it was another type of naughty problem file....
In this case - is there no way to check a managed library import target, against an import destination target - due to the masters being ripped & placed into the aperture 'show contents' folders structure?
I presume your suggestion below only apply's to the files that were imported before the crash tho?
"File➞Switch to Library➞Other/New" will bring up a dialog that tells you how many Originals and how many Versions are in each Library.
Apeture now is just crashing on opening all the time with the spinning ball ....think I may have to delete that whole import to solve the problem, regardless of the next anticipated 'crashing on import' issue that may be an obsolte one with certain files as you mentioned.
Many thanks again for any other suggestions or feedback

Move existing Aperture photos (from iPhoto) to Aperture's library's library

Hi,
I recently moved from iPhoto to Aperture. I did something wrong tho, since now most of my photos in Aperture are still in iPhoto's library (all of these show the "iPhoto Original" keyword).
I want to have them all in my Aperture's library, but I put many time on Aperture's organization and don't want to have to import all from the very beginning. Is there any way I can move those files still in iPhoto's library folder to Aperture's library? I plan to uninstall iPhoto after that, that's why I want all photos in Aperture's library.
Thank you

If the image is shown in Aperture, the image is in Aperture's Library.
The question is, where are the Master files on which the images in your Aperture Library are based. (The keyword "iPhoto Original" tells you nothing about the location of the Master.)
Right-click an image. Does "Show in Finder" appear in the pop-up menu? If so, then your image has a Referenced Master (Referenced Masters are located outside the Aperture Library (the image is in the Library and has a pointer to its Master which is outside the Library)). If not, your image has a Managed Master (the image, the pointer, and the Master are all inside the Aperture Library.
You can filter for images with Referenced or Managed Masters. Also, most of the default Metadata Overlays include a Badge which will show you which images have Referenced Masters (as well as the status of the Master).
Since you (seem to) want to have all of your images' Masters be Managed (= inside the Aperture Library), simply select all images and execute the command "File→Consolidate Masters". You can confirm that this has been done by using a Filter set to show all images with Referenced Masters. It should show no images.
Once all of your Masters have been consolidated into your Aperture Library, you can safely delete your iPhoto Library. You can also uninstall iPhoto is you wish.

Why is an Aperture Managed Library so small?

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