Combining library (iPhoto) with Aperture

I've just purchased Aperture becasue I saw that I can use the same library that I have with iPhoto as 1 library between the 2. I also got aperture because of the ability to create different libraries and store them on other drives. But initially I'm having a problem and I can't understand what the issue is..
First off, I had very little hard drive space left due to an ever growing iphoto library. So I copied my iphoto library to an external drive set up on my network here at my house (actually its on a timecapsule 2tb). I then deleted the iphoto library on my macbook air's hard drive and then pointed iphoto to the copied iphoto library. Iphoto works fine and I can see all my pictures.
Now when I started Aperture, it asked if I wanted to use the existing iphoto library, which I said yes, but it said that the file format was not acceptable. I'm not sure what the issue is, as I do NOT want to store pics on my macbook air any longer (initially). What I'd like to do is make an aperture library that I will keep on my macbook air hard drive that contains pics from current travels, and then eventually once they are edited move them to my external drives at my house (either my 4TB networked drive or my 2TB time capsule).
Can someone please tell me if I am or not able to do this? What could be wrong with my iphoto library that wont allow the 2 programs to use the same library?

You need iPhoto 9.3 or later and also need to open your iPhoto library with this version so it can update the library format. This Apple support article has additional details.
I recommend against keeping a working library on a networked drive. There's an article on ApertureExpert.com about it that will explain more.

Similar Messages

How to completely replace iPhoto with Aperture

I would love to use Aperture for all my image-handling, but it seems iPhoto is hard-coded into the OS X workflow. For instance, when right-clicking images on the web, there's the possibility to save to iPhoto. Same thing thing when doing a slideshow in Preview, there's an option to add pictures directly to iPhoto.
Does anyone here know how to completely replace iPhoto with Aperture?
Thanks
(ps: did search in the forum here, but couldn't find anything about this)

I would love to use Aperture for all my
image-handling, but it seems iPhoto is hard-coded
into the OS X workflow. For instance, when
right-clicking images on the web, there's the
possibility to save to iPhoto. Same thing thing when
doing a slideshow in Preview, there's an option to
add pictures directly to iPhoto.
Does anyone here know how to completely replace
iPhoto with Aperture?
Thanks
(ps: did search in the forum here, but couldn't find
anything about this)
Hi, you seem to be right, although I've never used that myself, it made me go off and test it myself.
However, you can use the 'save image to <my-downloads-folder>' feature, and then import the images into Aperture. Which is what I've been doing anyway. It's a two step process for sure, but it'll work.
I'm very much like you, and trying to swap from iPhoto to Aperture. I have to say that I haven't actually run iPhoto since I got Aperture though.
Cheers
Andy
PowerMac G5 DP 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.5GB RAM, Formac Gallery

Using Places in iPhoto with aperture photos

If we have a picture in aperture with the City and Country Name attribute filleds, this picture in iphoto will not have the info. So, iPhoto no uses the EXIF City and Country Name fields.
are there any solution to use the exif info filled in apeture with Places in iPhoto?
Thanks.

I am not familiar with Aperture so I don't know what it can do or if any helper programs/plug ins will do with Aperture.
However there are other Geotagging programs out there. One that is very easy to use in conjunction with Google Earth is Graphics Connverter. With GC, you can open Google Earth, find the location of you want to tag your photo with, then switch over to GC and use the menu item to geotag the selected photos (you can do many photos at once) with the currently displayed Google Earth location. In addition there is a menu command to simply type in coordinates if you do not want to use Google Earth. GC can also tag using GPS data logger files.
GC will write the coordinates to the EXIF data and I have done it myself on both normal JPGs as well as Olympus RAW format. I know when I geotag with GC and then add the photos to iPhoto, iPhoto sees the tags just fine and show their locations. I assume Aperture would do the same.
iPhoto can tag photos as well, but it only writes the data to the database and doesn't actually add the info to the EXIF of the photos themselves until you export the photos out of iPhoto. Do to do it with iPhoto is a multi step process that would require adding them to iPhoto, tagging them, then exporting them back out of iPhoto. I think CG would be an easier solution.
Patrick

Iphoto library edit with Aperture

can I edit my iphoto library in Aperture 3? If I am using Aperture and viewing at my referenced iPhoto library and delete a photo from the iPhoto library, will that photo be deleted, or in the trash, when I open up iPhoto?

can I edit my iphoto library in Aperture 3?
No, but you can damage it.
If I am using Aperture and viewing at my referenced iPhoto library and delete a photo from the iPhoto library, will that photo be deleted, or in the trash, when I open up iPhoto?
Depends. If you don't delete the master then iPhoto will be unchanged. If you do then you'll trash the iPhoto Library
Aperture and iPhoto are entirely different applications that work in very different ways.
The only communication between the two is as follows:
Aperture is able to parse the iPhoto Library to allow it to import the contents while stacking the Originals and Modified versions, preserving metadata and so forth.
Aperture can share its Previews with the iLife apps, including iPhoto.
That's it.
So, specifically, what interaction there is between the two is designed to facilitate migration from iPhoto to the more powerful app. After that, iPhoto has exactly the same relationship to the Aperture Library as, say, Pages or iMovie.

Library iPhoto to Aperture

Hi,
I have now imported my iphoto Library to Aperture, to save space and speed is it recommended that I delete the library in iphoto?
Thanks

is it recommended that I delete the library in iphoto?
Have you tested thoroughly, that the import went well? I'd keep a backup of the iPhoto library on an external disk, so that you can repeat the import, just in case there have been conversion problems.
Once you are sure, that all is well, you can delete delete the iPhoto library, yes. It will not save speed, but free space.
Regards
Léonie

Max Photos in Library (iPhoto vs Aperture)

I recently upgraded from a 500 GB MacBook Pro to a 3 TB iMac so I could keep my 42,000+ iphoto library (around 287 GB) in tact and have some room to grow. My one on one advisor said that I should be using Aperture for that size library. Now, on my iMac my iphoto slide shows no longer play their playlist music. In Aperture, the same slide show does play it. The Apple tech guy told me that I had to uncheck the music and reenter the new playlist. I have over 30 slide shows in iphoto. It is hard to swallow that I have to ruin the music and reenter to get back to where I start from. Disappointing. Does anyone have ideas on Aperture vs iPhoto?

Now, on my iMac my iphoto slide shows no longer play their playlist music.
This iPhoto v9.5 or later?
In iTunes go File -> Library -> Organise Library -> Reorganise Library.
Then quit and restart iPhoto.
Credit to user keysandfood who figured that one out.

When I downloaded pics from my camera to iPhoto it put them in a file that was named with the download date. Can I do that with Aperture (as the download default)?

I recently replaced iPhoto with Aperture. When I download pics into Aperture they are place in a file that's called "Untitled Project." When I downloaded pics from my camera to iPhoto they were put in a file that was named with the download date (YYYY MM DD). Can I do that with Aperture (as the download default)?

My apologies.
When I import I have an Applescript that stores the images in a year month day folder-project structure so I haven;t used the default Aperture behavior in some time. When I tested it out to reply to you I was doing it from the file system and it picked up the date from the folder. mea culpa.
Anyway the closest you can get is to have Aperture split the images by date. IN the Aperture preferences set the project split granularity
Autosplit into Projects
and then in the import window set
Automatically split projects.
This will give projects named Month Day, Year (ie: Mar 13, 2012) there is no way to change this
As I said I have a script that runs on import and sets up a structure like:
Of course many here will say not to name projects this way, that Aperture has the ability to sort by date and you're better off naming projects something more meaningful. For them that is true and it might be for you also. For me I like to store my masters this way, it works for the way I shoot.
regards

How to import the old library of iPhoto in a new imac with aperture 3.4.4

Hi guys I'm a happy owner of a new 27-inch iMac. I previously had a G5 and I had my old iPhoto library on an external hard drive. Now I would like to import this Iphoto library in Aperture. I do not want to create duplicates and I would not want the photos to be saved on the internal hard disk but in my exterenal hard disk.
After importing the Iphoto library can I delete it from the external drive?
What procedure should I use to make this?
Thanks in advance for your help and answer!
Alessandro

After importing the Iphoto library can I delete it from the external drive?
What procedure should I use to make this?
In addition to Terence Devlin's advice just a few words of caution, since merging and upgrading libraries will be a major reconstruction of the libraries - better be safe than sorry:
Check your available free disk space. Merging libraries will need temporarily plenty of additional disk space, more than the size of the library that will be imported.
Before upgrading your iPhoto library, check, if your backup of the iPhoto Library is current. Don't merge the libraries without having a current backup of both libraries - your Aperture library and your iPhoto library.
Merging and upgrading libraries is safest, if both libraries do not have any inconsistencies and permission issues. Run the "Library First Aid Tools" on both to repair the database and to repair the permissions, before you do anything else. To launch the "First Aid Tools" hold down the key combination ⌥⌘, while double clicking the library in question.
After you imported the upgraded iPhoto library into your Aperture library, as Terence Devlin explained, check the result of your import carefully, if it is complete. There may be referenced images, that fail to import, or images synced from Photo Stream, Facebook, or something. Do not delete your old iPhoto Library, until you are sure, that every image has been transferred correctly and can be opened and edited.
Regards and Good Luck!
Léonie

Use both iPhoto and Aperture with one library-best practice?

I'd like to use both iPhoto and Aperture, but have both programs use/update just one photo library. I have the latest versions of both programs, but was wondering if the optimum approach would be to:
a)point Aperture to the existing iPhoto library and use that as the library for both programs
or
b)import the entire iPhoto library into a new Aperture library, delete the iPhoto library, and point iPhoto to use the Aperture library.
I should point out that up to now I've been using iPhoto exclusively, and have close to 20K photos in the iPhoto library, tagged with Faces, organized into various albums, etc; if that makes a difference...
Appreciate any advice!
Thanks,
Dave

Thanks Frank! I'll try it that way.
Appreciate the help!

Merging iPhoto's library with Aperture's

What I want to accomplish: merge my iPhoto library with my Aperture library, creating one Aperture library while removing any duplicates.
What I've done: copied my iPhoto library to an external disc.
What I've tried to do: use "import library" on the Aperture File (while in the current aperture library on my internal disc) menu to import the saved iPhoto library on my external disc.
What happened: iPhoto library is visible but not selectable.
What went wrong? Thanks.

Got it working--not sure what happened.
Probably your iPhoto library needed upgrading to the latest iPhoto version that is compatible with your recent Aperture version. If your Aperture version is currently Aperture 3.5.1, you need to open any iPhoto library that you want to import at least once in iPhoto 9.5.1. Otherwise you cannot select it. See this document:
Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5296

Can I open iPhoto 7.1.5 library with aperture 3.4.3?

Can I open iPhoto 7.1.5 library with aperture 3.4.3?

Is there any other workaround, such as exporting my iPhoto 7.1.5 library to some other format and then importing such format to Aperture 3.4.3? I will be grateful for any help with this odd situation.
How many photos are you talking about? If you have huge iPhoto Libraries, and have invested much work into organizing and adjusting your photos, you really will want to import your iPhoto library as Library. This way you will transfer your work, not only your photos.
If your library is small, and you do not mind to do all the organisation and adjusting again, you can export your photos from iPhoto 7 - create a folder in your "Pictures" folder and export your photos from iPhoto to this folder, one event at a time as separate folders of image files. You can either export the original images or the edited versions. If you have done much editing, export both, to save your originals. Then import these folders of image files into your Aperture library.
But if you have huge libraries to transfer and many years of editing to preserve, the sensible thing to do would be to invest into iPhoto 9.4.3 and to upgrade your iPhoto libraries to the new unified format. You will not only save your edits and library organisation, you will also save plenty of disk space, for you can import the edited versions and originals as master-version pairs and not have to deal with duplicates.
When did you buy Aperture? Do you have a serial key for Aperture, that can be used with the Aperture Trial version? Then you might consider to reinstall Aperture 3.2.4 from your backup (rename your current Aperture version while you are doing that) or to download the Trial and try to import your iPhoto library into a new Aperture library. Earlier Aperture versions could import older iPhoto libraries, but will import two image files (Version and original) for each iPhoto image. So you will end up with plenty of duplicate images that you will have to organize. (A link to the Trial is here: Aperture 3.4: May quit unexpectedly on launch after updating).
As I said - to invest into iPhoto '11 will have a lot of advantages.
Regards
Léonie
11940

How share Iphoto library with Aperture 3?

I would like to know if it's possible to share the iphoto library with aperture 3 without duplicate the photo. could be possibile to modify one photo with aperture and view the correction with iphoto? is it possible to have one library for the same and open it with one or the other sofwtare?
thanks a lot,
V.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
is it possible to have one library for the same and open it with one or the other sofwtare?
It's not possible.
iPhoto cannot understand the Aperture Library.
Some things you can do: Have two separate libraries pointing at the same set of photos.
Share the Aperture Previews with iPhoto.
But there is no way to have edits made in one Library show up in the other automatically.
possibile to modify one photo with aperture and view the correction with iphoto?
Aperture is not an pixel editor like Photoshop, you cannot use it as an external editor for iPhoto.
Regards
TD

I have Aperture 3 now and can't use my iPhoto library with Aperture.

My version of iPhoto is 8.1.2. Aperture says I need iPhoto 9.1 or somewhere around there. How do I do this. Is this another purchase I will have to make? I downloaded the upgrade for iPhoto 9.4.2 and it told me that I need iPhoto 9.1 or later for the upgrade to 9.4.2. Come on man!!!
I just spent $100 for mountain lion and aperture. What is the oldest upgrade I can make to iPhoto 8.1.2 so it will work with aperture 3? Or am I just stuck with having to purchase iPhoto 9.1?
Thanks

As documented you must have iPhoto 9.3 and Aperture 3.3 or later - if you do not meet the minimum requirements then you must upgrade to meet them - in your case purchasing iPhoto '11 in the App store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5260?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
With Aperture 3.3 you can directly open and work with libraries from iPhoto 9.3 or later.
LN

HT4007 Lost Link to Aperture/iPhoto combined library procedues

I lost the link to the information about combining Aperture and iPhoto Libraries. Help! How can I get back to it?

Did you try the support docs here? http://www.apple.com/support/aperture/
Or this main page: http://www.apple.com/aperture/iphoto-to-aperture/

Workflow integration with Aperture or iPhoto, and storage/deletion questions.

I have been using my iPad to download and view photos when I am travelling. I liked the fact that I could delete bad photos or do basic edits like crops and straightens in the "Photos" app and those edits would be saved when I transferred the photos to Aperture. And furthermore, the edits would be shown in Aperture as edits with the ability to revert back to the original or modify those edits later (for example if I wanted to change a crop or fine tune a straighten). This is an example of nearly perfect workflow integration, only problem is that the tools are pretty basic, for example the straighten tool requires an awkward gesture and has no control for fine tuning.
Now when I bought iPhoto for iOS I figured it would be a more advanced version of that except with more complex editing abilities. However, when I make my edits in iPhoto for iOS, no matter how I import my photos onto my mac there seems to always be two different versions of each photo rather than having both the original and the edit combined like when I edit directly in the "Photos" app. And there's no way to fine tune the edits once imported into iPhoto or Aperture like there is when I edit the photos inside of the Photos app. Is this the correct behavior, and if so, is there anyway to make iPhoto for IOS behave more like the Photos app editing mode in terms of workflow integration.
Also, I am unsure how the photos are stored in iPhoto for IOS. If I have a bunch of freshly imported photos in my "Photos" app's film roll, and then I edit them all in iPhoto for iOS, I now have two versions of each photo - one in iPhoto and one in the film roll. If I want to delete some photos to save space, can I delete all of the originals in the Film Roll and just keep the edits in iPhoto until I can sync with my Mac, or will that delete it in both places? Manually saving each edit as a new photo in the Film Roll and then deleting the original is tedious. Is the iPhoto app's library only storing the edited versions while the film roll is only storing the originals? Seems kind of like a weird way to handle things, and very unintuititive for those of us used to either iPhoto or the iOS film roll method of editing.
I'm a fairly advanced user and all of this is pretty confusing to me. It seems like I might just have to ignore iPhoto for iOS and go back to my old method of editing in the Photos app for workflow integration purposes, but I wanted to check to see if I was missing something or doing something wrong first before giving up on iPhoto for iOS.

Hello Robert. wow, dense prose...
this wil be more transversal.. hope you'll forgive me.
iPhoto has several shortcomings that other people might point out. I'll just mention a few.
when you adjust the image, using the adjustement HUD that floats around just like the one in aperture, you're making destructive pixel changes. True, iP 6 has a way of keeping the original untouched, but the two images will live separate lives (in albums, etc). Furthermore: once you move to the next picture you want to enhance, all the adjustment HUD sliders return to zero. This means that you'll never be able to return to an image and visualize the changes you made to the picture looking at the sliders. You'll have to guess. and restart from scratch.
About quality: the adjustement sliders in Aperture are waaay more subtle. iPhoto sliders impact the image in a very visible way.... as you "touch" will immprove, you might start to feel that adjusting with iPhoto is a bit gross.
File renaming: personnal opinion: don't bother. set your camera to increase numbering always... and if possible choose a meaningful prefix (few cameras allow that, the Nikon D200 does). beyond that, I don't have time for this, and don't need it... keywording images is a much more effective way of making them easier to locate. my own view. others will disagree.
duplicates: lots of people have identified this shortcoming in aperture. considering in version 1.5 they took the time to be able to identify referenced masters in a pretty comprehensive way (using a bunch of data like name+ date/time of capture to reconnect to a lost master), I'd be really surprised if the next major version doesn't fix that.
Aperture accepts to import/reference your iPhoto folder but I don't think the former will see changes made in the latter..?
just a few ideas.... HTH
yours
maxpol

Combining library (iPhoto) with Aperture

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