Aperture - library management and external HDD question
Hi all.
I have just graduated from a point and shoot to a Panasonic GH2 (love it), and have now begun using Aperture 3 rather than iPhoto on my early 2008 MB Pro to manage my photos going forwards. Of course, I’ve now discovered that Aperture is quite the resource hog and so it’s upgrade time (darn, “have” to buy a new ‘puter!). I have a 2011 MB Pro (2.3Ghz i7 with 512GB SSD) on order and 8GB of DDR 3 arriving from Crucial. Since I have this brand-new-computer opportunity I want to make sure I’m organising things properly before I start transferring things across, and so have a few Aperture-related questions. (In case it’s relevant, I’m shooting in RAW+JPEG. So far I’ve been using RAW as master, but have since learnt it might be a good idea to import JPG as master and switch to RAW only when I need to make corrections, so I’ll probably do that going forwards.)
I understand that moving to referenced masters on an external drive might be a good idea and save me precious SSD-space. To that end, questions are:
1. Can anyone recommend a companion external HDD for Aperture and the 2011 MBPro? I guess either FW800 or Thunderbolt are the way to go. The Lacie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt might be an option but is this overkill for Aperture masters or would FW800 be sufficient. I’ve also seen the G-Tech G-RAID mini, Lacie Rugged – thoughts welcome.
Key requirements are a) as compact as possible, and b) bus powered.
2. What kind of performance can I expect if I go down this route? Is there going to be significant loading/processing delay whenever I switch to a new image?
3. How will Aperture cope with (eg) syncing photos to iPad / iPhone if the drive containing the masters isn’t connected? Put another way, are JPG renders saved in the Aperture library (i.e. on my MBP SSD) or with the masters?
Thanks in advance to anyone who responds!
Aljrob
Aljrob_UK wrote:
...I have a 2011 MB Pro (2.3Ghz i7 with 512GB SSD) on order and 8GB of DDR 3 arriving
...I understand that moving to referenced masters on an external drive might be a good idea and save me precious SSD-space.
1. Can anyone recommend a companion external HDD for Aperture and the 2011 MBPro? I guess either FW800 or Thunderbolt are the way to go.
...Key requirements are a) as compact as possible, and b) bus powered.
OWC (an excellent vendor) has the Elite Pro Mini hard drive that meets your specs:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Thiunderbolt drives are not mainstream yet but eSATA and FW800 both work well. The multiple connection methods of OWC drives allow very desirable flexibility when purposing/repurposing drives.
Note too that the MBP optical drive can be replaced with up to a 1-TB hard drive DIY or OWC will do it for you. That is what I am doing with my 17" 2011 MBP.
2. Is there going to be significant loading/processing delay whenever I switch to a new image?
SSD latency is orders of magnitude less than hard drives. Switching to a new image even fast hard drives with fast connectivity add significant latency delay. To avoid that what I do is leave (Referenced) Masters on the SSD until all editing is complete (which may be a few weeks). Only then do I use Aperture to change the Referenced Masters location from the SSD to a large external drive.
What kind of performance can I expect if I go down this route?
With Masters on the SSD and 8 GB RAM imports/exports are very fast and all Aperture editing is essentially instant. You will be pleased!
Suggested workflow steps for Referenced Masters:
• Use a FW card reader or MBP slot to copy to a file folder on the SSD (never directly into Aperture or any other images management app). With fast camera cards copy times are quick, but cheap slow cards can slow this step down a lot.
• Eject and physically disconnect the card reader.
• Back up that file folder on external drive(s).
• Only after backup is complete, reformat the camera card in-camera.
• Import images into Aperture from the file folder on the SSD.
HTH
-Allen Wicks
Similar Messages
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How can I migrate an Aperture library from an external HDD with Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) format?
I used to store my pictures on an external hard drive using the latest version of Aperture. Now I tried migrating my Aperture library to Photos. However, after a short moment an error message popped up telling me that "Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions...".
My external HDD doesn't need any permission repairs nor is the system prohibited to read from or write to it.
Thanks for any advice in advance!
GohtacMy guess is that the encryption is the problem for the new app.
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My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?
You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac. -
ive recently updated, itunes and all my movies have disappeared,i can no longer add to library from my external hdd which ive always used and can only add from the laptops own hard drive,any ideas what the issue could be?if i transfer the movies from the external to the laptop they will add to the library without any problem so theres no issue with the laptop but when i go to add file in itunes i can path to the external but as soon as i select the file nothing happens, just goes back to itunes
This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2 -
Macbook Pro 2014
13-inch
Intel i5
8GB RAM
128GB flash SSD,
Integrated Graphics
iPhoto library is on external HDD
I was in a slideshow, with around 1,911 photos in it. About halfway through, my Macbook ran out of battery. Now when I restarted and charged the Macbook and reopened iPhoto, the slideshow won't advance through photos, and I can't figure out any reason why it would do this.
I thought it may be corrupted, so I deleted and reinstalled iPhoto library, iPhoto itself, and disconnected and reconnected my external HDD.
This didn't work, the photos still won't advance.
I don't know any reason why this would be happening, and there is ample space on my internal drive.
I'm happy to provide more information if needed!
Many Thanks,
JamesMake a few tests, James, to narrow down the problem and find out, if the slideshow is corrupted, your iPhoto Library, or settings in your account.
To test, if only your slideshow has a problem, create a new slideshow, just for testing. Just use "File > New Slideshow" and add a few photos. Does this slideshow play correctly?
If the test slideshow does not play either, create a new iPhoto Library. Use the File menu in iPhoto: File > Switch to library > Create New. Import a few photos and create a slideshow. Does it play?
If even a new library does not solve the problem, test in a different user account (see this document: Isolating an issue by using another user account - Apple Support):
This process involves creating a new user account, logging in to it, and testing for the issue.
Create a new standard or admin user account in Users & Groups preferences.
Use these instructions for OS X Mavericks.
See these instructions for OS X Mountain Lion.
See this video, or these instructions for OS X Lion.
Optional: If you have any specific files you wish to test with, copy (don't move) those items to the /Users/Shared folder in the Finder.
Log out of your current user account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in with the new account you created.
Attempt to reproduce the issue you were seeing in your regular user account.
After you have completed testing, log out of the test account by choosing Log Out from the Apple () menu.
Log in as your regular account.
After you have completed all testing with the test user account, you may want to delete it. You can delete an account in the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences.
Note: Prior to deleting a test account, make sure you are completely done with it. If you have files in the Guest User you wish to keep, you should copy them to the /Users/Shared folder .
If you should find, that slideshows only play in a new user account, post back. -
I recently moved my Aperture Library file to an external hard drive. Can I now create a vault to be saved on my Time Capsule for the Aperture library on this external hard drive?
One thing to bear in mind, if you are using Time Machine on your Time Capsule and have it set so the TM backup includes your external drive, you will effectively be backing up your Aperture library twice on the same drive, once with Time Machine and once with the vault. This isn't a problem unless you start to run out of space.
Another thing to note, vaults on network drives used to be flaky (i.e. not really supported) and required workarounds to be able to use them. I'm not sure if this has changed, but I just managed to create a vault on my TC ok. -
Having trouble backing up Aperture Library to an external hard drive
I'm using a brand new 27" imac and simply trying to back up my Aperture Library from my finder menu to my external drive. My Aperture Library currently is about 65gb. The file starts transferring (takes about an hour), and about 2/3 of the way through it, I get an error message that states "The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “Aperture Library” already exists." The operation stops, and the file size of my Aperture Library on my external drive ends up about 45mb approx, only partially transferred, so not a full backup. Happens every time. I have deleted everything and reformatted my external drive and still get the same message. When I try to create a vault and back it up on my external drive, I get an immediate error that states "The new vault could not be created because the file system of the destination volume is unsupported". Any ideas how to address this? All I really want to do is have an off-site backup of my full Aperture library.
You will have this problem using that format, the Library needs to be on a disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can reformat the drive. Or you could try creating a disk image formatted correctly and putting the library on that, then storing that on the MS format drive.
Regards
TD -
On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..
Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it. -
What is the best way to copy aperture library on to external hard drive? I am getting a message that say's "There was an error opening the database. The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported". What does that mean? I am trying to drag libraries (with metadata) to external HD...wondering what the best way to do that is?
Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane -
Can I store my Aperture library on an external Hard Disk?
I have a MacBook Pro with very few free space on its internal hard drive. My Aperture library is getting very heavy and i would like to move my Aperture library to an external HD. I know that you can keep files where they are and see them in your aperture library, but the thing i'm trying to do is to STORE AND OPEN MY APERTURE LIBRARY (.APLIBRARY FILE) FROM AN EXTERNAL HARD DISK. Is this possible?
It is possible to put the Aperture library on an external HD as long as the HD is formatted correctly see: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture
However keep in mind that depending on the HD type and the way it is connected to your Mac performance may be an issue. For the best possible outcome the external drive should have a large cache, high RPM and be connected via firewire.
The other option to explore is to put the masters on an external drive and keep the library on the internal. This will give you relatively good performance using a standard USB drive. -
Restoring aperture library from an external hard drive?
I have a major issue with my aperture library. It crashed completely and it turns out that the back up I have on my time machine was corrupted because of a hard disk error. I found this out after buying a new mac and while trying to migrate the old library to the new mac. I kept getting error message -36.
The situation is now as follows:
- I have the full Aperture library on an external hard disk that I recovered from my crashed mac
- I can acces and copy the indivial pictures via the master folder, but cannot copy the entire library. If I try this it give me an error (-36)
- I can see the individual photo files via (click, 'view content'), and can copy them in groups, but not as a whole. It turns out that If I try to copy the master folder, there are some corrupt images there and the copy exercise then quits automatically. It does not allow me to delete the corrupt images.
- when i try to restore the the library via aperture (so opening it with aperture) it keeps saying that my 'permissions' are not set correctly.
Does anyone have an idea to copy the library (24gb worth of photos) without having to go in and copy group by group eliminating the corrupt files?
There must be some way to rebuild the library on my new mac, from the hard disk, as I can see and access the individual pictures?
Thanks!
Alco
- My old mac ran on Snow Leopard.+the problem is this, almost every time i start my imac, launch itunes and then play a track purchased from an old itunes account, it keeps asking me to authorize that account. even though i have had previous macs containing itunes content on this old account, it has always played with no issues at all. now then... to try and remedy this, i first of all uninstalled itunes COMPLETELY and reinstalled. this seemed to do the trick but after a few days, it all started again.+
Did you unauthorize your old Mac and authorize this one? You only get a maximum of 5 machines, so maybe you're past that or haven't authorized the new one - to do that, open iTunes, click on Store in Menu. Now, there should be two options: authorize or de-authorize this computer. Click on authorize and report back with whatever message you get.
+on to my second issue, Aperture. the app works fine except, like itunes it constantly asks me to enter the serial number from the box. please note that this is a legitimate copy purchased from the apple online store and i used it for about a year on my old macbook pro with only having to enter the serial during the initial installation.+
The Aperture SLA states that you can install it on two computers - a desktop and a laptop. I don't know if there is any protection embedded in the DVD (if you've already had it installed twice), but if the issue persists, I'd contact the Apple store (since you said that is where you bought it) and ask - or, if you're covered by warranty, simply call Apple. Or, if not, make an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar and get answers there. It is perfectly legal to install it again as long as it no longer exists on the old machine - and I don't think it has anything to do with hardware, sounds more like a glitch. Oh, and have you tried to install it fresh, enter the serial, open it to see if it works and then copy over the library? -
Is it possible to make OSX see the internal and external HDD's as one large drive?
Is it possible to make OSX see the internal and external HDD's as one large drive? For instance, hypothetically, could I have a Mac Mini Server with 2TB of internal storage and 2 external 4TB Thunderbolt HDD's, and make the OS see them all as one large 10TB drive?
Yes it is possible to do this, but this is not recommended since a disconnection of the external drives would lead to a destabilized system. Its best to do this only with internal drives, or secondarily with only external drives that are set up separately from the boot drive.
However, if you do wish to do this then you can combine any local set of volumes into one large "spanned" hard drive using Apple's CoreStorage volume management service. It does take a few steps to set up and requires use of the Terminal and Disk Utility. Here is a tutorial on how to do this: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57550128-263/how-to-make-a-custom-corestora ge-drive-in-os-x/ -
If i move my iPhoto library to an external hdd, will Time Machine backup these photos as well?
I've moved my iPhoto library to an external HDD, I was wondering if now it has been moved outside of my iMac whether Timemachine will still back up my photos, or do I have to change any timemachine preferences to accomodate such a change, any responses will be welcomed-thankyou!
Thanks, Linc, you are the greatest!
So I moved my iTunes library to my external disk. When I checked Time Machine's Excluded list it was not there. Then I entered TM and saw that the library had been backed up from the external disk. So all is well and apparently the OS guys stopped adding external drives to the Excluded list. -
Installed iPhoto library on NAS external HDD - now I cannot access it.Help.
I initially had no problems with accessing photos from iPhoto but now when I open iPhoto I get a message "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto." and then "Your photo library is damaged or unreadable and cannot be opened.Please restore from a backup."
I cannot even see the individual files when I access the share on the NAS drive whether I mount it as smb or afp.
Any way to recover my photos?Simon
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums back.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD -
Is it better to daisy chain an apogee duet and external hdd or...
...setup an audio interface and external hdd to two separate bus ports? I ask because I going to be purchasing gear to set up my first home recording studio and I am torn between the MacBook Pro 15" and 17". The 17" comes with an Express Card slot (which I could use to utilize more bus ports), but is less portable and a little more expensive. The 15" is ideal in size, but lacks two firewire ports and Express Card possibilities. I know firewire is a must for a 7200 rpm external drive, but I have read very negative reviews about USB powered audio interfaces. Is daisy chaining a good idea? Are USB as bad as I've come to understand in terms of clarity and quality? Is the 17" my best option? I am looking at a starter's interface, like an Apogee Duet. The new Apogee One looks intriguing, but again, it is USB.
+1 for daisy-chaining Duet to Glyph. For audio work the 17" is the best option these days. The ExpressCard slot is invaluable for using Universal Audio plugins or powering an additional firewire device above and beyond the audio interface/hard drive, such as the Focusrite Liquid Mix.
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