Backing up Aperture library on external drive.

Lately I haven't been using Aperture, I've just been organizing all my pictures into folders, and keeping the folders in my Pictures folder. Then making a copy of the whole thing onto my external. I decided to start using Aperture.
I finally just finished organizing everything the way I want it. But how should I go about saving a backup to my external.
I have 2 libraries. I also have 2 vaults saved (one for each library). So when I go in my Pictures Folder, I see Aperture Library, Aperture Library 2, and my 2 vaults. Is it enough to just put the Vaults on my external? Or do I need to put the whole "Library" on the external. I would think it would be enough to put the Vaults, cause that's what I would think the vaults are for. To completely restore the library incase anything goes wrong. But I just wanna be sure before something happens to my computer, and all I have are Vaults that don't do me any good.

Issues,
I would think it would be enough to put the Vaults, cause that's what I would think the vaults are for. To completely restore the library incase anything goes wrong. But I just wanna be sure before something happens to my computer, and all I have are Vaults that don't do me any good.
Yes, that is what vaults are for. With a vault you can restore everything that was in your library. Remember that referenced photos are not stored in your library and therefore not backed up in a vault. Also remember that the most likely reason to use a vault is because the disk with your library is damaged or unavailable in some way. For instance, my MacBook internal drive bit the dust absolutely, completely, just before Christmas. No booting up; the Apple store couldn't even look at the hard drive by attaching it as a secondary drive to a different computer. If you find yourself in that situation, your vaults in their current state would be completely useless.
nathan

Similar Messages

Aperture library on external drive that just died...

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but here goes.
I recently moved my Aperture library to an external firewire drive. I set my Time Machine to back it up from the external drive. Its the only thing I backup from that drive, all other backups come from my built-in interal drive on my iMac. Problem is, I don't remember the name of the drive and where I put the library file. So I am planning to get a new drive and I want to restore it from the backup. Any ideas?
If you know of a better area to post this, please advise.
Thanks

Alfredo,
Is your old drive no longer available?
You can browse your Time Machine backups like a disk in the Finder. Perhaps you can tell, what the name of your old drive and the name of the Aperture Library was. For example, my Backup drive "Lacie RaidBackup" looks like this in a Finder window:
It has a folder "Backups.backupdb" and with in folders for each Computer, then folders for each drives. Here you can see the backed up drives on your machine.
You can search the backup for Aperture libraries:
Select the the backup of your external drive and type ":aplibrary" into the search field, then set the search range to the name of your exterternal HD.
The Path bar at the bottom of the search window will show you the location of your Aperture library.
To restore your Aperture Library from Time Machine, open a Finder Window showing your "Computer" with all drives in "Column View" - set the Finder's Preferences to show all devices in the Sidebar, if you have not already done so:
With this window the frontmost Finder window dive into the Time Tunnel from the TM menulet:
Go back in time, until you are seeing your external drive appear in that window:
If you named your new drive exactly like your old drive, you should be able to restore your library using the "Restore" button .
For more general Information on TM see Pondini's excellent page: Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions
Reagrds
Léonie

Large aperture library on external drive; too large to move to internal before switching to photos

I have a 395gb aperture library on an external drive. It used to reside on my old macbook pro, but i got a new one (retina) with a smaller hard drive and i haven't found a way to bring it over yet. My plan was (and i started) to slim it down by getting rid of photos and projects that I don't need, but it'll take a while.
I was hoping i could bring it over piecemeal, like by exporting some folders/projects as aperture libraries, and then importing them into photos, but i'm not sure that's possible.
I tried opening the aperture library (on the external) in photos so it would migrate, but it said i need much more space (the external is pretty full). Any ideas?
Thanks,
Adam

jpvp wrote:
Hi,
NoisyScott: do I understand it correctly that your masterfiles on the server are just sitting in a folder individually, or are they within an aperture library that is on the server that just has your masterfiles???
And FINALLY: can you back up your referenced files (or versions) as well, and how do you go about that?
My master files are just sitting in folders on the server. I leave the Aperture Library on my laptop hard drive as it just contains thumbnails, previews and the actual Aperture database.
You can back up your master images any way you want; a separate hard drive, a Network Attached Storage device, Mozy.com, Amazon S3, etc. The issue is that backing up these images is now up to you as you can't use the Aperture Vaults with referenced masters.
For what it is worth, moving master images around in Aperture is ridiculously easy once you get used to it. You can Reference your masters to a new location at any time you want, as many times as you like then change your mind and consolidate them to your Aperture Library (and thus make them managed masters again) all without Aperture missing a beat.
The critical thing to remember is you must do any and all Master Image file operations through Aperture.
If you decide to re-organize your Master Image folder structure through the finder, Aperture will no longer be able to connect to those Master Images and you then have to attempt to re-connect the images to the references in the Aperture database. This sounds like it should be easy, but for some reason Aperture has a very difficult time doing this. If you only ever use Aperture to move the files around, everything works swimmingly.
Try all of the Relocate and Consolidate Masters functions with a small test project or two at first until you are comfortable with how you want to organize all of your files and then go for it.
Good luck.

Aperture library on external drive for multiple computers

I would like to store my aperture library and all masters on an external hardrive (with a backup). Ideally I'll be able to only transport this external drive to work to edit photos and return home to my personal computer and continue where I left off. I've tried something similar but ran into problems with lost adjustments, etc and am wondering what the simplest method is that others have discovered.
Cheers

All the editing work is stored in the *****.aplibrary file.
THe most obvious way will be to keep it on the external drive. If you experience it is to slow with USB you could probably have a better performance with FW800. Probably not so much with FW400.
I have no experience with ***-aplibrary on external drive. Probably ist it to slowdown the editing.
The best way to edit on 2 different macs will need in my opinion some extra preparation.
Set both Aperture in exactly the same way pointing to referenced files on the external drive.
Keep the *****.aplibrary file on the HD of the mac you are using and at the end of your work copy it somewhere (may be on the same external HD where you keep the referenced masters). Before starting to work on the second mac copy this ****.aplibrary on it. You will need to do the same reversed to go back to the other mac.
This will probably give you the fastest editing but you will need time to copy the *****.aplibrary files, may be a lot of time. Even if you use a program like Tri-Backup to do the copy you will se that even if the *****-aplibrary has few changes it takes a lot of time to overwrite the older copy.
Keep projects and libraryes as small as possible, or you will waste more time coping it compared to the more speed in editing.
This is only my opinion, and I am not 100% sure of it. I'm giving it to you only as a suggestion you could try and see if it works for you.
Regards
Walter

Aperture library on external drive - Aperture not responding

as my laptop filled up - I created an external Aperture library on an external drive - with a matching drive used as a vault - worked fine - then I was deleting images from the laptop library that were also in the library on the external drive and when I re-connected the external library drive Aperture would be unable to start, had to force quit - I can not open the library on the external drive in Aperture - I can open the library on the laptop - but I need the images in the external drive - the vault was updated 6 days ago -
I am in the process of restoring the library from the vault - my question -
can anything be done to open the current library on the external drive? - any kind of work around?

Well, yes and no. When my laptop drive got full, I copied the laptop library to the external 500gb drive and gave it a different name. Then I proceeded to use it as the primary library as I shot 3 weddings. So, yes, I have 2 separate libraries, the one on my laptop and the one on my external drive(s), both have masters (no referenced files), the external drive has everything that the laptop has - the external drive has probably 100 gigs more than the laptop (the laptop has about 85 gigs of files) - I also have a second matching 500gb external drive that backs up the first external drive which is where the vault for the first 500gb drive is located.
I just restored the library from the vault (from December 1) to create yet another new library on another totally spare drive just to see if it would work - that was successful now it is recovering the 41 projects
that were in the vault - it looks to be running pretty smoothly - although the process has so far taken several hours. Recall, however, that this vault backup is 6 days old. The most current library still will not load. This new restored library opens fine. So, there is something corrupted (a bad image perhaps?) in the most current 500gb library that is hanging Aperture.
I still have the original cards that I shot in the past 6 days (about 20 gigs) which were not in the vault, but I did a lot of work with those files and would like to recover the projects from the library
that can't currently open. I have a desktop at my studio and I am thinking I will try opening the problem library (on the 500gb external) there and see what happens.
This whole thing started when I figured I could clear some files from the laptop that were both on the laptop and the external drive. I have done this before to create more working space on my laptop.
Have I clearly answered your questions? - thank you for your P.S. - I didn't know I could get the .approject files out - I may try that -

How to back up iPhoto library to external drive

I have purchased a seagate external drive to back up my iphoto library. I currently use Time Machine but want to have my pictures in another place just incase of drive failures.
Wen doing the following User>Pictures I try to drag iphoto library onto my desktop Seagate drive icon. Nothing happens. The files do not copy onto the external drive.
Can anyone help with what

It should not be a problem. How is the drive formatted?
Select the Drive in Finder, then Get Info (cmd-i).
You'll see the format in the General section:

How to back up iTunes Library to external drive so it can be restored

I recently moved my iTunes Library from a firewire Lacie external hard drive to a Western Digital USd hard that is now having problems (It keeps unmounting itself and I don't think that's good). It was not easy to move my iTunes folder and make it work again. I do not want to send 3 weeks plus using my spare time relinking songs or recreating playlists. I had to re-link 6,000 songs one by one. I iTunes will make a backup on CDs or DVDs why not an external device? Why would I want to copy 80 plus gigs to CDs?
If I simply copy my iTunes folder to the LaCie drive like apple recommends and the WD fails, I will lose all my playlists, track info, art work. I just got it all back. There must be some type of back up program I'm not seeing.
Please, some one help me. I am very disappointed that this solution is not on here.
I'm going to copy the file for now but it's really a poor solution.
Message was edited by: CindyLoo

I want to back up every thing, but I can't find a way to do it. That is the problem. Apple recommends if you are backing up to an external drive to copy folder the music folder to the drive via drag and drop. But I know when you do this that if you try use the backup you will only have the songs as if they were first added to iTunes.
I was able this time to move my music folder successfully (Last time the problem wasn't immediately apparent as it didn't affect my iPod, so I hope I'm not jinxing it). For now, my music is back on the Lacie drive, but it's still not backed up. If the LaCie drive were to fail I'd be faced with reimporting all my music and re-purchasing the TV shows and movies. (I almost always make a CD of new iTunes Purchases. which is why I have no desire to have a second huge stack of CDs.) My computer will not burn DVDs.
I want to backup everything so that it could be restored and be like it is now, but I don't see a way to do it. And I am not backing up all 80 plus gigs to CDs. My computer would crash and burn.

Aperture Library on External Drive Keeps Locking Up

Hello all!
I have the aperture library that I created after my most recent wedding shoot on an external hard drive. Since I was importing photos out in the field, I created the library on my external from my laptop. I now want to edit photos on my desktop mac at home, and am able to launch aperture to my wedding library on my external, and browse for up to a few minutes, but then it freezes, and sometimes will unfreeze after a few minutes, but sometimes I am simply forced to force-quit. The external is properly formatted (Extended, Journaled), and is connected via USB 3.0. What could I be doing wrong?
Paul

and browse for up to a few minutes, but then it freezes, and sometimes will unfreeze after a few minutes, but sometimes I am simply forced to force-quit.
Have you repaired the Aperture library after the Force -Quitting? That is strongly recommended.
Next time you launch Aperture, open the Activity viewer (From the Windows menu > Show Activity). This way you will see, which media Aperture is currently processing, when it is starting to hang.
You may have a corrupted video or photo in your library, that cannot be processed and is causing Aperture to hang. You can test that by launching Aperture while holding down the Shift-key. This will defer the generation of preview images. If Aperture does not hang when launched this way, it is very likely, that a corrupted file is causing this, and you have to try to identify it.
If the shift-key does not make a difference, test with a new, empty Aperture library and add a few test images. DO you have the same problem with a different library?

Aperture - library on external drive Firewire 800 or S-ATA?

Hi
Which is the best kind of connections to store and edit images on Aperture library?
Do you suggest FW or S-ATA external drive?
thanks
Koferc

While eSATA is marginally faster in real world use than FW800, the fact that you have to retrofit it makes the calculation a little more difficult. I have a MacPro and was thinking of using the Newer Technology upgrade kit ($25) to add this to my setup. But after reading the experiences of a number of users regarding the complexity of the upgrade compared to the benefit, I decided to hold off. You can see some comments by people who've actually done the upgrade after the article.
http://www.macworld.com/article/133689/2008/05/newertechesata.html?
It seems that eSATA on a MacPro is a bit faster than FW800 on writes and about the same on reads. I was looking for a huge speed increase connecting a Nexto DI Extreme unit I use on the road, as it is limited to eSATA and USB2 (SLOWWWWW). But I only use this unit once a month, and once I factored in spending an hour taking my MP apart I decided it was better to do file transfers while I was out of the office. The cheapest way to "speed things up" - just do them when you aren't looking!

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

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

Hello. I keep my IPhoto library (about 90GB) on an external HD and am trying to back it up to another external drive. Both are formatted Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled). Recently, backup has failed from the start due to error 36. Howtoresolve?

Hello. I keep my iPhoto library (about 90GB) on an external HD and am trying to back it up to another external drive. Both are formatted Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) and both check out when scanned with Disk Utility. Recently, backup has failed from the start due to error 36. Any ideas how to resolve? Also, what's the maximum recommended size for an iPhoto library file? Thx!

Since you can't drag the library to the other EHD for the backup see if you can duplicate it (if you have enough room on the drive) by selecting it and typing Command+d (duplicate).
If you do rebuild the library without a backup and it goes awry you won't lose your photos but you may lose your orgnaizational efforts. So try the following:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library in the location of your choosing based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
NOTE: Fix 2 above might be the method you might want to try first with iPLM creating the new library on your second EHD. If it works that would get your backup copy on the second EHD at the same time as repairing it. If it does'nt work then go back to Fix 1.
OT

Currently my internal drive is full due to Aperture. I want to work with Aperture from a external drive verses my internal drive. In addition, I want to back-up my work to another external drive. Is this easily done? Does this make sense? Pros / Cons...

Currently my internal drive is out of space due to my Aperture files. I want to place Aperture on a external drive to work from verses in intnal drive. In addition, I want to back-up all my work to another external for safe keeping. Once I move aperture to the external, I want to delete it off my internal drive. Does this make sense to do? Pros / Cons....

It is common for people to move their Aperture, iPhoto, iTunes etc. files to an external drive when those files become too large to conveniently keep on the internal drive.
The best approach is probably to keep the applications (iPhoto, Aperture etc.) where they are now, but move the files (photos, music, videos etc.) to the external drive.
You should set up a process to regularly backup all the files from both the internal drive as well as the external drive you'll be using. Here are two approaches:
(1) Use Time Machine. You can configure Time Machine so that it backs up both the internal drive as well as the external drive, all to a third separate backup drive. This is done via the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane.
(2) You can use a "cloning" program, such as SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, to make complete copies of files on your internal drive and that external drive. One way to do this is to use a very large disk for the backups, and to partition it into two backup drives, making one dedicated to the internal, the other dedicated to the external.
Two separate types of backups are recommended. I use both (1) and (2) above, and I disconnect and shut down the clone type backups when not being used. That way a power failure or surge that might destroy the original disk(s) plus the Time Machine backup(s) would still not damage the backups made under (2).
Don't delete your original Aperture files until you have verified that they are working properly from the external drive AND you have made a backup of them.

Managed LIbrary and External Drives

I want to transfer my Aperture library to an external drive, continuing to operate on a 'manage' basis, as I'm rapidly running out of room on my internal drive.
This external drive will be exclusive to Aperture and I wish to back this up to another external drive (again only to be used for Aperture back up) using time machine.
Currently I'm backing up to a 1TB drive which I wish continue to use via time machine for everything else.
Am I asking too much? If not can anyone advise how to do.
Many thanks.
F S
Aperture 3.2.4

The previous discussion at the link may be of interest:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17064093#17064093
Currently, I do my primary editing on my rMBP, with a dedicated Thunderbolt drive as the host of the Managed Library (about 2 TB current). I now do my first clone backup to a USB3 drive, which can then be used as a source to further clone back to a dedicate drive in my old Mac Pro.
Hope this helps.
Ernie

Move imovie library to external drive

Hello, how do I move my imovie library and projects to an external drive without getting a gray screen?
After a hard drive failed one year ago, I brought back the projects from an external drive (using finder) and the screen was grey because it said it could not find the underlying video content. Please note that I did not have a time machine and used the finder to copy from a backup drive.
So there was audio but no video.

I was planning on manually backing up my external to the time capsule - but is there a way to set it up to back up automatically instead?
Time Machine will backup up automatically - you can not have your iPhoto library on the same volume as the TM backup (it will not work and it would not be a backup)
Dragging the iPhoto library to any external drive will backup it us also
I was also thinking about having the library copied to another external (I mean we're talking about irreplaceable photos here) - would i just drag a copy of the library to that drive as well?
Yes - that is a good idea - I run TM giving me hourly backups and a daily clone of my entire system giving me a bootable backup - plus do an occasional TM backup at our second home so I have one off site
is it possible to deal with my imovie library in the same way? so all my movies and photos are on my external?
Probably - but I use iMovie very little - better question for the iMovie forum
LN

Backing up Aperture library on external drive.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for