Reducing Aperture Library size

Sorry if this has been dealt with before (I did a search and found nowt).
I'm fairly new to Aperture, and my Library has grown to 14GB (14,000 files). All files are referenced on an external drive (31GB of referenced files). I use a MacBook Air with SSD, so I start with 56GB after formatting. There were lots of duplicate photos (because I merged my iPhoto library with some offline archives I had). So, it was time to get rid of the dupes.
I deleted about 3,000 photos, but the library didn't get any smaller. I deleted all of the previews, but that only freed up 2GB. When I regenerated the previews, it went back to 14GB. After recovering from a prolonged bout of consternation, I searched the web. It appears that thumbnails are not deleted when photos are removed. This strikes me as a bug, or at the very least, poor design. So, I went in and removed all of the thumbnails as described here:
http://brettgrossphotography.com/2008/04/24/aperture-library-slimming-the-size
After regenerating thumbnails and previews, my library was down to 6GB!
My question is: how do people on this forum deal with this unnecessary library bloat? I typically only keep a few percent of the photos from each import, so my library volume will again outpace the actual number of photos.
One possible approach is to create a new Aperture library from a vault. Because my files are referenced, it should create a new library from scratch and then generate the thumbnails and previews. Has anyone tried that? Seems preferable to opening packages and manually deleting files.
-Rick

After a weekend of investigation, here's some more info on Aperture library size:
1) I deleted another 1,000 or so photos, updated the vault, moved the library and then restored from the vault. The library size went from 6GB up to 7GB!
2) Looking inside the old library and the restored one revealed:
a) AP.Thumbnails files in the restored library were generally twice the size of the ones in the old one.
b) Looking at the AP.Thumbnails files with File Juicer revealed that the restored library had created thumbnails of the master files as well as the versions. The original library had thumbnails for some master/version pairs, but nowhere near as many.
3) I then deleted all of the AP.* files in the restored library, and got Aperture to regenerate the thumbnails. This reduced the library size to 5GB. The AP.Thumbnails files were much smaller.
So, my conclusion is that the best way to trim your library is to go in and delete all of the AP.* files, then regenerate the thumbnails. Restoring from a vault is not as effective.
Anyone have any intuitions as to why Aperture generates thumbnails for master files when there is an edited version? I'm fairly new to Aperture and have yet to see Aperture display thumbnails of masters if there is an edited version.

Similar Messages

Reducing imovie library size

Hello
Here is my Problem
I have an external hd with 500gb full with only imovie. It has been backed up with time machine to a larger hd together with my imac backup.
I have already deleted unused footage and now have only the minimum footage for watching old projects plus all footage from current projects. But I am still running out of room and would like to delete all the old projects so they are no longer in imovie. I Always make camera archives so if I ever need the original footage i have it.
What i would like to do.
I want export all the finished projects on to my computer. I have done some already but am not sure of the best way. Exporting full quality AIC format I am getting 1gb per minute of video, this is going to take up way to much space on my computer. I have tried to export to itunes in full quality, this gives better results on the file size, but I am worried if a put all my home video in itunes things will start getting slow.
How can I export my video without losing quality and not have the huge file sizes? and where is the best place to store it? itunes or just in files?
Hope I can get some help

i've heard people have been able
to reduce their library size to only 30% of the size
of their referenced files...
When the originals are high-res RAW files or TIFFs, sure.
Even with Previews turned off and deleted, Aperture still contains three or more* small thumbnails for each Version - the smaller ones are what you see in the browser pane and the 1024px one is what you see when laying out books, light tables and the detail pages for web galleries. These thumbnails take up ~400-600Kb each, so 1GB for 1300+ thumbnails (plus extra versions and masters) is about right.
Ian
*If you've made adjustments to an image then you end up with more thumbnails as you can still view the 'master' unadjusted image by hitting 'M'.

IPhoto vs Aperture library sizes

I installed the Aperture tral, left the photos in iPhoto and created a book. Didnt add any new pictures to either library. I then deleted the trial and purchased Aperture from the app store. Copied over the photos from iPhoto. iPhoto had 1 book and Aperture 1 book. The iPhoto library size is 110Gb and the Aperture library size is 90Gb, a 20Gb difference. It appears that all my photos are in both libraries. So no issues. I was surprised and the 20Gb diffeerence. Comments or thoughts if there is an issue pending that I may not be aware of.

Hve you synced with an iPod, ipad or iPhone? The cache for these devices can easily account for that amount of disk space.
Regards
TD

Question about Aperture library size

I am storing my photos on a secondary drive. However, my Aperture library is just as large as the original source folder even though I am not copying the images into the library.
Shouldn't the library be smaller since it only references the images from another location?

If you changed the size and quality of your preview settings, it's not enough to just "Update Previews". You will have to DELETE the old previews and generate new ones.
(That's what my findings where)
To my understanding, previews are used
- if you use the Aperture "Quick Previews" functionality
- for synching with your e.g. iPhone
- in the Media browser dialog of e.g. iWork applications
(am I correct and complete?)
In my first days of Aperture 2 I increased the size to unlimited and the quality to 12, since "of course" I wanted to see the best possible quality of my pictures.
Now I learned that previews are not used in normal Aperture workflows, so I reduced the size to the lowest possible value of 1280 and the quality to 12.
This way I reduced the size of my library (30k JPEG photos, all referenced) from 108 GB to 33 GB.

Aperture Library size different after restore from TM and rebuild Thumbnails

I have just completed an erase-install-migrate from Time Machine using Setup Assistant.
The size of the managed Aperture Library originally was 397.8Gb
After completion of the migrate back in I opened Aperture and as expected it rebuilt the thumbnails (TM does not backup the Thumbnails).
After doing this I tested the Library as far as possible and all seems well, and the number of photos is exactly the same as before (49,883).
However, the size of the library is now 357.8 Gb.
The only logical explanation (to me) is that the restore process has eliminated previews and thumbnails from photos which I have deleted over the years.
I still have a backup of the original (397.8Gb) version which I could put back with the Finder, but if the restored library has cleared years of redundant previews and thumbnails I would prefer to stay with that.
All done with Mavericks and Aperture 3.5.
Any insights very welcome.
Thanks

Just had the idea of looking at sizes in the Library package contents, and the explanation for the change in size is due to three things:
Thumbnails old: 44.95 Gb
Thumbnails new: 15.13 Gb
There is also an iPod photocache of 14.6 Gb which is not yet present in the new.
However Previews old was 27.95 Gb and Previews new is 33.18 Gb, so I assume some previews were smaller in the original Library.
Masters is 304.3 Gb in the original and new libraries.
I am beginning to feel more confident about the new library.

Aperture library size vs iphoto

My aperture library and iphoto library have the same photos in them. Photos seem to be the same size and quality (I imported all photos from aperture into iPhoto). iPhoto's library is 20GB, Aperture is nearly 60. I'm guessing that while Aperture might be a hair bigger because of the previews (default settings there), 3x the size means something is wrong.
Is there a way to rebuild the Aperture library without losing all my albums/libraries?
While 60GB isn't the end of the world, I'm trying to move my photos to my laptop. And between photos and music, I'm really pushing my hard drive's capacity. That 40GB difference is going to mean I'll use iPhoto (09) vs Aperture (2), and I'm still partial to Aperture.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Message was edited by: unleashed

Thanks everyone for their help. Redoing the previews helped. I think I had the previews set to "do not limit" on my dekstop and had just pulled the aperture library to my laptop. Redoing those previews took 20GB off my library size.
I see where you're coming from with the referenced images, but for now, it just keeps things simpler for my to keep it all managed. It's a brilliant solution though, if I need to in the future I might go that route. Especially when you think about possibilities with having the referenced images on Time Capsule or something. I don't take that many photos, and I upgrade my computer every year or two. I'm hoping the laptop hard drive space will expand gradually with my photo and music library, and by the time I have to worry about it, there will be another solution.
As far as how I went from Aperture to iPhoto (Ernie), I did (from iPhoto) file > show aperture library > then pulled them all in. I know there are issues with this though, you might check the iPhoto forum if you have trouble, there are work-arounds I believe.

Aperture library size 0

My aperture library is obviously corrupted. In the finder, it shows up with size 0 bytes. However, something seems to be there because the finder becomes very slow when browsing to the containing directory and it takes Aperture several minutes to show an error message when I try to open it. Showing the package content does not work, either. Any suggestions what I could do (apart from restoring a backup)? I did nothing special to the library, so I assume an Aperture crash might be the reason for the damage.

Ack.
Too much time with the voodoo that is Photoshop optimization has infected people. Thankfully, Apple's applications don't need the same micro-management; which really for Adobe's application serves nothing more than employing people who defend their unnecessarily complicated products.
Seriously, the difference between block sizes will make like 1 ns of difference in loading an image. You're not going to notice a difference, speed wise.
Leave the block size at its default, is my recommendation.

Aperture library size vs iphoto size

Good Morning. I imported my iphoto library to aperture and plan to dump the iphoto library. There is a significant size difference in the two libraries so I am worried that the aperture library didn't import something although all my photos appear to be there. The iPhoto library is 168 gb but the aperture library is 120gb. Is there something different about aperture that makes it a more efficient storage space? Thanks Dave

Terence,
When I originally imported iPhoto into Aperture I selected the leave in original location. If I want to make Aperture stand alone now, all I have to do is consolidate the masters correct? After, which I could delete the iPhoto library, or should I just leave things as they are and not worry that the iPhoto library holds the masters? Seems like this is just a user preference as I have not seen anything state one way is better than the other.
Thanks

Aperture Library Size slowing iMac even when Aperture is closed

I recently purchased an iMac 22 quad core running Lion, with all updates. It currently has 12GB of Ram, and 190GB free on the hard drive.
The iMac would load programs like Outlook within a few seconds and was very fast.
I purchased Aperture and migrated about 38,000 images, using the exisitng file structure from my PC. This took about 12 hours yo process, update images, etc...
Even if Aperture is closed, all programs now load much more slowly. Outlook can take 20-30 seconds to open, and lists of email and contacts now take as much as a minute to load.
This is only true for the user account with the Aperture library, as programs for other users seems to work fine.
I tried running disk utilities, restarting machine, but no difference.
Activity monitor shows no unusual memory, CPU or disk activity.
I started a new user account, and all worked fine again...until I again created an aperture library, and again, even if Aperture is not started, everyting else runs slowly.
Is there a file indexing feature that is overwhelmed by the addition of a large aperture library? (Deleting the Aperture library doe snot solve the problem-only startign a new user accountdoes).

dphughes wrote:
...in both cases maintaining referenced files stored outside the catalog/library. The Aperture library is 500% the size of the Lightroom catalog - even with restricted preview sizes and no vault.
If this is true, there must be a logical explanation that is giving Aperture users some benefit for the increased Library size. Sorry been a long time since I looked at Lightroom. Does it store the same size previews and thumbnails as Aperture? Since you are using referenced files and Aperture is using non-destructive edits and even new versions do not create duplicate files (only a new set of pointers to the referenced masters), one would think previews and thumbnails must be handled differently. Since you use both, what could it be?
The Aperture Vault is a separate library than the Aperture Library so having a Vault of course should not impact the size of the Aperture Library.

Vault size vs APerture library size and related questions

My aperture library is 50GB for some 65,000 referenced pictures...how does this compare with others? To me, it seems a bit big.
Also odd. The vault backup of my libarary is 9.1GB ONLY! How come?
I think that all of my pictures are referenced.....is there an easy way to check?
If I make a new fresh library and restore from the vault, what will I loose, if anything? Will I need to reconnect pictures or anything?

that seems about right to me. what's taking up space are previews and thumbnails. afaik, the vault doesn't hold any of those, only the database, albums, projects and configuration files.
if you restore from a vault, all the previews and thumbnails have to be rebuilt. you can save a little space that way, because the thumbnail files don't shrink when you erase photos or move them to another project, but personally i don't think it's worth the time and effort.
j

Aperture library size

HI all,
Can someone explain to me why after importing a 139Gb iphoto library into Aperture, the Aperture librbary file is 250Gb?
If I look at the 2 database they both have the same amount of originals and versions.
Is there any great advantage importing the iphoto library over just having Aperture open it as is?
thanks in advance.

and do I really need an aperture database if aperture can use the iphoto library database?
If you do not have any other libraries, that you would want to unite with your iPhoto libary, there is no need to convert the library by importing. The format is compatible.
iphoto previews folder (1.82 Gb)
aperture previews folder (123.3 Gb)
how do I reduce the size of the previews folder?
How many image versions do you have? That is an amazing difference in size!
You change the size of the "Previews" in the Aperture Preferences, the "Previews" tab. Generally it is recommended to set the pixel size of the previews to the screensize of your largest display and to pick a good quality setting. Compare the settings in the Preferences panel with your screensize.
After you changed the settigs for the Preview size and quality, delete the previews and update them.
To delete the previews select your images in the Browser, ctrl click, and use the command "Delete previews". Then check, if now the size size of the Previews folder is smaller.
Then create new previews by using the command "Update Preview". If that is not available, hold down the options-key and select "Generate Preview".
Regards
Léonie

Best way to manage Aperture library size for hard drive space?

For a couple years, I have been using Aperture 2 and then migrated to Aperture 3. All this time I have worked completely on my laptops internal hard drive and with one library. My library is now 80gb and hard drive space is becoming an issue. Now I am trying to decide the best direction to take for reducing my internal hard drive space. My biggest storage culprit are my kids sports team pictures. I have taken thousands and thousands of pictures of kids that I don't need to keep in my internal library. I would like to pull my kids out of those pics, keep them in my main library and archive the rest out. I'm looking for advice for the best process.
I put an external drive on my Airport USB drive and put my library in a new vault last night. I know it is much slower than going direct to USB on computer. With wireless N it took about 12 hours to backup the 80gb library to a new vault on this Airport drive. Are there any issues with using the Airport USB other than speed? I know apple has issues with using time machine on this kind of setup but I don't know if Aperture has any of the same issues. My thought is that I might use this drive for additional libraries as well.
Thanks
-Erik

Once I move files to external storage as a "referenced master", is there a way to move some of them back to main library on the internal drive? I'm going to move all my team sports pictures to external but would like to keep the pictures with my kids on the internal drive where they are at. But if I unintentionally move some of my kids to the external drive, how do I "un-reference" them and move them back?
Thanks for the help!

How best to reduce iPhoto Library size?

1. Can I delete big HD movie files from iPhoto (that were uploaded from camera) after I have run iMovie so they are now iMovie Events, without any subsequent impact (ie, deletion of) my iMovie Events?
2. How can I find out size of iPhoto Books to see if it's worth moving them (and all those photos) to a second Library on an external drive?
I have 100GB in 15K photos & 227 movies, but Finder says iPhoto Library is 134GB. That implies that the Book Projects are big and self-contained rather than pointers, but I think I read somewhere that if I just move photos from this Library to a second Library, it will "break" the books still left on the first Library?
A search found an old link to Old Toad's application note about duplicating/moving Libraries on web.mac.com but that's no longer available. Is there a new link?
Thanks.

1. Can I delete big HD movie files from iPhoto (that were uploaded from camera) after I have run iMovie so they are now iMovie Events, without any subsequent impact (ie, deletion of) my iMovie Events?
You really need to ask that on the iMovie forum. It's very possible that it just links to the material stored in iPhoto.
2. How can I find out size of iPhoto Books to see if it's worth moving them (and all those photos) to a second Library on an external drive?
Book projects are not large. They are entries in the database only. They take up negligible amounts of space.
There is no way to move a book from one Library to another.
I have 100GB in 15K photos & 227 movies, but Finder says iPhoto Library is 134GB.
The iPhoto Window reports the nominal size of a folder if you exported everything from iPhoto at the Current setting.
The Finder reports the size of the Library Installation. This includes: Original shots, Preview of Edited shots, thumbnails, database files, cache files and so on. All of these are required for iPhoto to work. There is no material in the Library that can be deleted.
If space is an issue you can run a Library from an external disk:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto 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.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Aperture 2 library size is huge !

Hello,
I am importing my iPhoto library into Aperture and its HUGE ! My iPhoto library is 27,17GByte and the Aperture library has already grown to 37,7 GByte and still growing. Is this normal?

Yes it is normal, but there's a lot you can do to get the size back down.
In iPhoto, when you make an edit (including things like rotation), another full-res duplicate is produced and the original is preserved as invisible. In Aperture, previews are used instead of full-res duplicates. You library is growing because you now not only have the duplicates, but previews for the duplicates too.
If you get rid of the duplicates this will significantly reduce your Aperture library size; it takes a lot of time, you either need to get rid of the originals, or you need to get rid of the edits and accept that you'll have to re-edit them.
That will shrink your library down incredibly, but my best advice is to reference your masters on an external hard-drive, rather than have them stored in the Aperture library itself. I think of my Library as being a place where all the information about how to interpret the images is, not where the actual images themselves are. The only exception to this is when I want to take 1 or 2 particular projects into college with me on my Macbook, then I'll have those files living in the library; but other than they're all referenced.
I hope this is helpful.

Yikes! 298GB Aperture Library?

Wondering why the internal drive on my iMac had suddenly filled up, I discovered that the Aperture library file had grown from 50 GB to nearly 300 GB in just a few days. Granted, I have 40,000+ photos in Aperture, but the dramatic increase in the file size occured without my adding any additional photos to the app. I do remember Aperture spending a considerable amount of time processing...something. Previews? Would this have caused the dramatic increase in the library size? Any way to have Aperture reprocess the previews at reduced Preview quality ("Best" right now) and get some of that drive space back?
Reading the User's Manual, I wondered if I couldn't reduce the library size by converting the Master files to Referenced Masters, since I have all of the loose photos already organized in folders by event and year on the internal hard drive. Is this possible? Woud it reduce the size of the Aperture library file?
While reading the User's Manual, I learned about vaults. I decided to set one up, but immediately got a warning that 40,000+ files were Masters and would be backed up in the vault, but 587 were Referenced Masters and wouldn't be backed up. Now I'm wondering if there is an easy way to find out which photos are Rererenced Masters. Browsing through 40,000 photos to find 587 with a badge is a task I'd rather avoid. Is there some easier way to find them, perhaps via a Search parameter?
I'm now considering moving the loose but organized photos to an external drive -- freeing up some 300+ GB -- and converting the 587 Referenced Masters to Masters and backing up the Aperture library file on the internal drive to vaults on external drives. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
Thanks!

As to your other questions:
I did notice that Aperture was spending a considerable amount of time processing...something. Previews? Would this have caused the dramatic increase in the library size?
You can check the storage required for your Previews by opening the Aperture Library package:
Ctrl-clck the Aperture Library and look at the folders: Masters, Previews, Thumbnails and check the sizes. If your Previews are set to a reasonable size - jpegs sized to fit onto your largest screen, than the "Previews" folder should be considerably smaller than the "Masters" folder.
Any way to have Aperture reprocess the previews at reduced Preview quality ("Best" right now) and get some of that drive space back?
Change the Previews size to the size you want in the Preferences, then select all your images and ctrl-click them. Hold down the "options-key" and select "Generate Previews" from the pop-up menu.
That will rebuild your Previews.
Reading the User's Manual, I wondered if I couldn't reduce the library size by converting the Master files to Referenced Masters, since I have all of the loose photos already organized in folders by event and year on the internal hard drive. Is this possible? Woud it reduce the size of the Aperture library file?
Yes, referencing your masters will reduce the size of the Aperture library, but there is no point in referencing them in the internal, system volume. The amount of storage needed will be the same, whether the masters are inside or outside the library. The only effect will be that your masters are less protected ouside the package.
Referenced masters are best to be used with master image files on external volumes, to free space on your system drive.
I'm now considering moving the loose but organized photos to an external drive -- freeing up some 300+ GB -- and converting the 587 Referenced Masters to Masters and backing up the Aperture library file on the internal drive to vaults on external drives. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
That does sound reasonable to me. Hopefuly other forum members will have additional suggestions for you.
Cheers
Léonie
Sorry for sending my answer in small installments, but Lion is continually dropping the network connection ...

Reducing Aperture Library size

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