Merge multiple Aperture and iPhoto libraries into Photos?

I have around 80GB of material in multiple Aperture libraries, and around 12GB of old material in iPhoto. Is it even sensible to think about holding all this data in Photos, and if so, how is it possible to import multiple libraries? The option to convert an existing library only seems available at first start-up, and is then limited to only one library.

Yes it is practical - but you have to merge the libraries before converting libraries to Photos - Aperture can do that
LN

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How to import Aperture and iPhoto libraries into LR Master database

I have a lot of photos in files and events in iPoto and Aperture. Would like to conso;idate all my photos inLightroom Master Photo file with those files and events as folders.
Could I have instructions on this from someone who has done the same
Many thanks
Ivan Ungar

John,
While I am very new on LR and your referenvesare to older versions of the
softwares
Running LR 5.2, Aperture 3.4.1 and iPhoto 11.
I could not find any reference as to the step by step import/export
procedure with the most important proviso for me.
There is aprox. 24000 photos in Events/Folders and I need to keep these
intact while importing it into LR.
Could you help please
Best rgds
Ivan
Ivan Ungar
Phone: (612) 8354 0618
Mobile: (+61) 417 687 906
E-mail: [email protected]

HT201340 moving aperture and iphoto libraries

My aperture and iphoto libraries have consumed my little MacBook. What is the best method for moving all libraries to a different harddrive?

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto and/or Aperture
2. Copy the iPhoto Library / Aperture Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library. Repeat form Aperture.
4. Test the libraries and when you're sure all is well, trash the ones on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

How can I import multiple iphoto libraries into Photos beta

I have successfully imported a single iPhoto Library into the Photos Beta app. However I have several other iPhoto libraries that I would like to import into the Photos library. Think of is as merging everything into one now that there's iCloud backup.
I started with iPhoto back in 2005 and have created a separate library every three years ever since. Each one is quite large, ~40 gigs.
What is the best means to import additional libraries into my new Photos library. Unfortunately the File import option on Photos does not allow for a selection of iPhoto Library file type.
Thanks,
Brian

Merge all iPhoto Libraries into one before migrating them to the new Photos.app.
You cannot add additional libraries to a Photos library, only additional photos. Or have several Photos libraries, but only one of them can sync with iCloud.
To merge your iPhoto Libraries into one, use either Aperture, if you have it (see: Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries), or the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager: Download it here: iPhoto Library Manager

File Sizes Surge with Merger of Aperture an iPhoto Libraries

I merged an Aperture library and an iPhoto library. All went well. However, the resulting file sizes on BOTH new libraries have increased significantly. The iPhoto file size went from ~ 50 gigs to ~144 gigs and the Aperture library went from ~90 gigs to ~ 102 gigs.
I thought I would be able to delete one of the libraries (iPhoto) after the merger, but now that it is so big...I;m not sure what to do.
I can understand the post merger Aperture library getting larger, but why the iPhoto library?
Also, I read that the iPhoto library may contain "originals" and that only versions merged over into the new Aperture (post merger) library. Is that true? If so, what can be done to move over the originals to whicheveer library survives?
Thanks!

How exactly did you merge? And what are your Aperture and iPhoto versions?
Why are there two new libraries after merging an Aperture library and an iPhoto library? Merging two libraries should create one merged library, or am I missing something?
WIth Aperture 3.3 or later and iPhoto 9.3 or later: If you want to merge an iPhoto library into an Aperture library, you would open the Aperture library and then use "File > Import > Library" and select the iPhoto Library to merge the iPhoto Library into your Aperture library.
The Aperture library should increase in size to accomodate your iPhoto images, but the size of the imported iPhoto library should stay the same.
Also, I read that the iPhoto library may contain "originals" and that only versions merged over into the new Aperture (post merger) library. Is that true? If so, what can be done to move over the originals to whicheveer library survives?
That will depend on the iPhoto and Aperture versions you are using. With any Aperture version later than Aperture 3.3. both the originals and edited versions will be imported into Aperture, when you import an iPhoto library as library to merge it into the Aperture library. Only if your iPhoto library is referenced (the original image files not included in the iPhoto library), then Aperture will also reference these original files and not import them into the Aperture library. YOu can consolidate the originals later in aperture.
But we need to know, how exactly you merged your libraries to be able to understand, how both libraries increased in size. Did you not use "File > Import > Library"?
-- Léonie

Unify aperture and iphoto libraries: the book (tricky) issue

I had been in the process of migrating from iPhoto to Aperture for a while now.
I imported iPhoto library in Aperture few monthes ago and am now using only Aperture.
Everything is fine for two things:
- I could not import the books (format is not compatible), so i had to keep the iPhoto library
- I didn't want to duplicate the orignals , so they are still in iPhoto library
With Aperture 3.3, the library could be unified with iPhoto
I would like to move all originals to Aperture library and still be able to open from iPhoto (so far, easy) but also keep the iPhoto books (which as far as i know are still incompatible with aperture books formats)
In other words, i want one aperture library, including masters, and I want to be able to open it from iPhoto, and still keep the old books (that were built from the initial iPhoto library) in iPhoto
Any clue ?

Hi Leonie,
You're really full of resources (not sure if this french expression translates well in english, but you get the idea) !
I finally found a way, not the most elegant one, but it's working:
0. Open each book in iPhoto. Delete in the book non-used photos of the book (in project list, choose book, then choose photos in the toolbar in the bottom, display non placed photos, delete). Now books projects only contain photos actually used in the book. (this step may not be necessary, but it speeds the process)
0. bis: Backup your Aperture library. don't forget to stop also any automatic backup process (like time machine)
1. Open the iPhoto library with Aperture (remember i had already migrated to Aperture 3,3 & iPhoto 9, which makes the libraries compatibles)
2. Export each of your books as a phototheque (right click on the book in the inspector navigator/ choose export impression project as a phototheque). Give specific name, for example "project x"
3. Open first created book phototheque in aperture
4. Tag photos of the phototheque with a specific keyword, for example "book x"
5. Close phototheque for "book x" and resume on step 3 for other phototheques
6. Open default aperture Library
7. Import first phototheque, merge with Aperture Library
8. Normally you get duplicates, especially if you have added metadata or edited the photos in aperture since you created the books in iPhoto. At least that's what happened to me
9. You can now grab the recent metadata on the one that was already in Aperture and apply it to the imported one. To do that, create a smart album with the keyword "project x"; then move all new imported events from iPhoto to the event where they belong in aperture. Then in the smart album, for a specific picture when you choose "display in the project" (i have defined a shortcut) you are in the event where the duplicate photo also sits. Choose cmd shift C on the photo with metadata, cmd shift V on the photo with the tag "project x" to transfer the metadata. You can delete the first one, except if you had edited the original differently in the book and in aperture and want to keep both. You still have to re-enter the faces on the imported one
10. You can erase the tag "project x"
11. Go back to step 7 for other books
12. Check you can see your books in iphoto when opening aperture library with iphoto. You can now consolidate the aperture library and migrate all referenced iPhoto pics inside the aperture library
13. you can erase iPhoto Library and other books phototheques created in step 2
You now have one unified library, that you can use in aperture and iPhoto, with your old iPhoto books in it.
(you also have lost a few hours...)

What is the best way to consolidate Aperture and iPhoto libraries onto an external drive? I am just starting out and not used to Aperture filing system.

I would like to use the drive as storage/aperture backup rather than use it to back up my whole Macbook. Would like to keep the majority of the photo files on the ext. drive and be able to add files there directly. BUT, when workng in aperture would like to be able to select some from the ext. drive and work them on the laptop directly without having to have the ext drive attached.
So do i, have the aperture library path mapped to the ext drive, and then import the iphoto library? and then how do i add additional from the camera? Or, do i move everything together (imported iphotos and new from camera) in Aperture on the Macbook first, and then transfer that library to the ext drive?
For the life of me I can't figure out how to do this in a way that seems logical. Vaults? Masters on ext drive, versions on the macbook? Consolidating libraries? The endless possible answers are baffling me.
Thanks for any help!

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

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 photos in my iPhoto Library. Can I import only certain events from iPhoto into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library?

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 + photos in my iPhoto Library. I see that I can create a unified library between the two. I am wondering if I can import only certain events from iPhoto (like only 2014 events) into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library? Are there any benefits to bringing the whole iPhoto library over to Aperture (iPhoto is SO SLOW for me, I wonder if it is because I have so many photos). Or, any detriment to only bring a few events over?
And, if I don't merge the two libraries, I assume that means I cannot do it at a later date?
Help. My local Apple store has had very few Aperture workshops, and the next one is like 2 months away.

Thank you so much for this information. Here are some responses/comments:
Disk space - it says 114.43 GB out of 499.25 GB free. I have no idea if that is enough.
iPhoto version is 9.5.1
Again, I am not sure how to know if I have 3rd party software...but I don't think I do. Is 3rd party software anything non-apple?
I will try rebuilding the library. if that doesn't help, maybe I need more memory...? That is what Apple suggested, but that, of course, means buying something else. I've already bought APERTURE, on their recommendation...
It wasn't, and they told me it was slow because I had too many photos for iPhoto to handle and that I should buy Aperture. Which I did.
What is your iPhoto version? Are you using the most recent version 9.5.1?
iPhoto can handle 20000 photos, no problem. Your computer can be slow for several reasons:
The most common problem for slowness - insufficient disk space. Don't let your free disk space drop below 20 GB of free space, better more. If the operating system does not have enough working space and the applications you are using, you will notice a very lagging behaviour.
Older or incompatible softweare can cripple your mac. Do you have any older third-party software installed, that might have installed incompatible kernel extensions?
Aperture might be slow or keep crashing, if you imported a corrupted image or incompatible video, that cannot be processed. Then Aperture will try over and over again to create previews and never succeed. You could test for this situation, by launching Aperture with the Shift-key held down. This will defer the generation of previews. If Aperture will launch and work better this way, you probably have some bad media in your photo library.
Another problem to check for is a corruption of your Aperture/iPhoto library. You have run the First Aid Tools to repair the iPhoto Library, but have you ever tried to rebuild the library? See this post by Old Toad: Rebuild iPhoto Version 11

Merge two iPhoto libraries into an Aperture library for my Macbook Air

Hey,
I've searched around a bit for this but can't seem to figure out how to to it.
I'm trying to manage my ~140GB photo library on my Macbook Air which has 128GB of HDD. On top of that, you can imagine that most of that 128GB is filled with system stuff.
My objective is to keep most of my library offline from the Macbook Air, but still keep it all together.
I kinda went "all-in" with iPhoto a few years back to organize my photos so gave up on Aperture. I'd always wanted to move to Aperture or Lighroom but the migration appeared to be a complete disaster. Now with "transparent" compatibility it seems like a no brainer to get the best of both worlds.
I thought that Aperture allowed you store files on external hard drives but still have "thumbnail" access to them even when the drive wasn't connected. Or did I misread that? (Is that Lightroom?)
Anyway with the new update I thought that I could merge my available iPhoto libraries into one Aperture library that I could always have access to, while offloading the actual photos somehow to an external HDD.
This would be a real winner for me. It seems tho that an iPhoto library stays an iPhoto library. So while merging might be helpful for someone with a big hard drive, it's completely useless for me as if anything, I need to split. Or create more. Or some other form of adding complexity.
Any ideas here?

Figured this out on my own.
Make a backup of everything - Aperture seems to require rebuilds and stuff and stories abound of "things going a bit wrong."
Did you make a backup? If you don't want to or can't, I wouldn't do this. After all, it's your photos!
Setup your Aperture library on a USB drive.
Update iphoto to the newest version. Open all your libraries in iPhoto to update them. This may take awhile depending on library size.
Import whatever iphoto libraries you have to Aperture. This make take awhile (hours!) - if your stuff is more than say 25 gigs I'd recommend setting it up for overnight.
Once everything is in Aperture - check its all working right. Then go ahead and maybe make another backup
Then migrate your photos out of the library. This takes all the originals and stores them elsewhere, called "offline". Once they're there, you can't move them around, so pick a good spot!! This also takes forever.
Once this is done your Aperture library should be smaller and just copy it to your MacbookAir
I'm still working on this as it looks like something went funky and I have to rebuild my thumbnails, another overnight processing thing. Like I said, keep a backup But I have a slimmed down Library on my Macbook Air now which is what I wanted.
This whole thing is kinda a mess and while it's feasible Apple hasn't made it easy. There's also some crazy stuff Aperture does with thumbnails and "previews" so that they take a bunch of space up (in my case almost as much as my photos), so you might have to work with that.
The guy at Apertureexpert.com is a genius.
Check out this post for more on slimming your Aperture Library:
http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2010/1/20/reducing-library-sizedramatically.h tml
Edit:As a side-note I put some HTML in my message and it looks like it isn't used in the forum - why does Apple bother having the formatting tools if they don't work? Kinda like the close-door button on an elevator?
Edit2: Haha it shows up in the answer but not in the normal thread. Strange, eh?

Merging pictures from several iphoto libraries in aperture

I have 5 separate iPhoto libraries becaue of the large amount of picture. Now I want to consolidate all 5 star ***** rated pictures of all 5 iPhoto libraries into one "Aperture Project".
When I switch Libraries in Aperture I can's see the Library anymore where I want to consolidate some of the photos.
There should be a way that I can drag pictures for one iPhoto Library to a Project folder in Aperture, switch to a differen iPhoto Library, drag more photos to the Project folder in Aperture, switch to a third iPhoto Library, drag more photos ...... etc.
Is this possible in Aperture?
Thanks for any suggestions.

There should be a way that I can drag pictures for one iPhoto Library to a Project folder in Aperture, switch to a differen iPhoto Library, drag more photos to the Project folder in Aperture, switch to a third iPhoto Library, drag more photos
You open one library in iPhoto and one library in Aperture, and even drag images from iPhoto to Aperture, but unfortunately this way you can only drag the previews of the edited versions to Aperture, so you would lose image quality.
Why not open each iPhoto Library in turn in Aperture, export your five***** rated images a a new Aperture Library, and then merge this new library into your main Aperture library by importing it? This way you will import the original master image files as well as the adjustments and ratings and don't lose any image quality in the transit.
Regards
Léonie

Sharing Photo's between Aperture and iPhoto and syncing to iPads, etc

Here is my problem.
I have 5 Macs (1 iMac, 4 laptops.) There are 4 people in my family and we have the family pack of iLife. The iMac is where everything sits with a time capsule and Drobo hanging off of it - about 6 TB's of data. Each Mac sync's with a variety of iPods, iTouchs and iPads. All linked to a user. So for example, all my oldest son's devices sync with only his laptop.
Well, I finally fixed my media (songs, movies, TV shows, etc) problem by leveraging home share in iTunes and authorizing all my Macs. But not so lucky yet for Photo's.
Here is the my photo dilemma.
I like Aperture for the editing and ability to handle large libraries better. So I have Aperture installed on the iMac where everything sits. iPhoto is also installed on the iMac and iPhoto is on all 4 other laptops. Prior to moving to Aperture, sharing photo's between computers was relatively easy using sharing in iPhoto - although it appears sharing in iPhoto is different than home share in iTunes. I converted my iPhoto library on the iMac to Aperture - now sharing is a pain in the neck.
Ideally, a Home Share like feature would be built into Aperture and iPhoto with another feature that would allow you to "check for new photos" on the laptops and pull them into Aperture - but wishful thinking right now.
So my while my 2 new iPads are awesome - they are basically useless for Photo's as they are synced to 2 laptops that use iPhoto, but all my Photos are in Aperture on the iMac.
Thoughts anyone????
Thanks

What was the question?
Regards
TD

Do Aperture and iPhoto automatically merge in 3.3?

Because I would really like to keep them separate.
I like to use Aperture for editing and then when I am finished I select a few favourite shots and store them in iPhoto and use it as a sort of quick portfolio if I ever want to look over my favbourite work.
Will upgrading force them to merge or can I continue to keep them separately so I don't have to wade through all the edited files to get to the few I want to show off?
Chris

Because I would really like to keep them separate.
No, the libraries will not merge automatically. But they are now compatible. You can open each iPhoto or Aperture Library in the other Application and work with it. The edits will be seen by the other Application, if you switch to the other one. But you still can keep separate libraries for Aperture and iPhoto. They will not be merged unless you import your iPhoto Libraries into the apertre Library.
This is true for Aperture 3.3. and iPhoto 9.3 and later. You need MacOS 10.7.4 or later.
Regards
Léonie

Merging multiple Aperture libraries

I would like to merge multiple Aperture libraries. Some images occur in more than one library. Does anyone know what the merge process does with duplicated images? Thanks for any tips

Graham Bowyer wrote:
I would like to merge multiple Aperture libraries. Some images occur in more than one library. Does anyone know what the merge process does with duplicated images? Thanks for any tips
To me it's helpful to clarify what is meant by "duplicated images". To the Library, every Image is a record in a list of records. Some of these records may be identical. Being identical means they contain the same information. They are usually not linked in any way. Often, there may be Images that look identical, but have different information or other differences (size, date-stamp, file format of the Original, a copyright notice, bit-depth, etc., etc.). The computer does not know that Images look alike. To it, every Image is a record, and that's that.
Merging Libraries combines the two lists of Images into one bigger single list of Images. If one of the merged Libraries was created by "export as Library" from the other, Aperture will attempt to "merge" each Image from the second Library that matches an Image from the first Library into one Image in the merged Library.
Other than that, no attempt to eliminate duplicates is done during a merging of Libraries AFAIK.
As Léonie says, this is still new, and you should _at least_ make back-ups prior to doing anything, and are advised to try anything with smaller test Libraries before committing your main Library to any action.

All my Aperture and iPhoto photos disappeared

I was getting ready to upload photos to mpix. I was exporting photos tweaked in Aperture 3 from iPhoto. Because the picture file to which I was exporting was full, I cancelled the export and deleted the photos in the picture file (about 790 photos). These had been imported from iMac through drop box. I then resumed the export of 45 photos from iPhoto and noticed some were gone. Not sure of the sequence next, but checked Aperture and it seemed like all my projects and photos (about 9000-11,000) were gone. Went to trash and moved dragged the photos out of the trash to the pictures drop down file in finder. I then restarted the computer and tried to open iPhoto and it seemed there was no iPhoto library there at all. Very strange.
I have not backed up my macbook pro for about a week.
Can I restore my aperture and iPhotos library?

I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager and was able to recover all the photos and albums, but not the slideshows and a recent calendar. I would like to understand what happened though and how to avoid it in the future. So here are the answers to your questions.
"When you say the "picture file" was full, to what are you referring?" Several weeks ago, I had transfered a large volume of photos from my older iMac using the drop file with the computers networked. I did not delete them from the drop file after importing them into my IPhoto and/or Aperture libraries on my laptop. After this import, neither my iPhoto nor my Aperture libraries on the laptop were comprised totally of these imported photos though.
"An external drive?" Although I also pulled some of the photos I had imported earlier from an external hard drive, I did not delete the files or otherwise connect (through a firewire cable) to the hard drive when I deleted the photos to prepare to upload the ones for printing.
Over the weekend when I went to export photos to this same file I decided to delete the hundreds/thousand or so, that were still there, so that I wouldn't have to search through them all to upload them to an online printing service. After I deleted the photos in the drop box file, when I went back to iPhoto I notice some photos were gone. Where they had been in the album I had created to print, were the empty dashed line outline box. I don't remember if I restarted the computer then or after I checked Aperture, but at some point, thinking that might restore things, I restarted the computer. After restarting, that's when iPhoto was just completely empty. No photos at all. When I checked Aperture it was the same - all the photos were gone.
"And when you say the photos are gone, when you open Aperture, does it look like a brand new library? No images, projects, albums, etc.?" Correct.
"Were the images in your Aperture library referenced from your iPhoto library?" Some but not all. Some were downloaded directly from my camera to Aperture; some were imported directly to Aperture from the drop box. Some I did import first into iPhoto. Also some of the photos originally imported to Aperture I then moved to iPhoto to make a calendar.
I am very concerned about this. Is it a software defect? Did I do something wrong? Is there a more efficient and less unstable way to get some, but not all of the photos from my iMac onto the laptop?
Thanks for your help.

Show Aperture library and MULTIPLE aperture 3.0 libraries

In iPhoto'09 it is possible to File -> Show Aperture library. This seems to open the library most recently opened in Aperture 3.0. Is it possible to use "Show Aperture Library" and open a different library, if you have MULTIPLE aperture 3.0 libraries? If so, how? Thanks.

Thanks. I was afraid I might not be able to easily change this, but...
Which preference file are you referring to? I have several Macs on a home network with a NAS. What I am really trying to do is let other Macs on the network use their versions of iPhoto to browse an exported portion of my Aperture Library.
I am wondering... I can easily place an export of part of my Aperture 3 Library on the NAS. If I open that NAS Library in Aperture briefly to write the preference file. Then copy the path and preference file to the other Macs, before reverting Aperture back to its normal local Library (which is what I use). Would this:
1. Allow the other Macs on the network to find and browse the NAS Aperture Library Export?
2. Cause the non-Aperture Macs any problems. (They couldn't overwrite the Aperture preference file, as they do not have Aperture.)
3. Any other issues?
Thanks for your help.

Merge multiple Aperture and iPhoto libraries into Photos?

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