Referenced library

Hi all,
I'm trying to use a referenced library system, so when importing in a library I leave the photos on external hard disks (Store files: In their current location).
In Aperture preferences I have not checked "New projects automatically generate previews".
So now I have built some Aperture library in my mac.
My question: it's normal that these libraries are a lot of Gb also if I don't have imported the photos inside the library and I'm not generating previews files?
Many thanks!
G5 Mac OS X (10.4)

If you unchecked the box 'new project automatically generate previews' in the preferences Aperture will not create previews in new project but the existing project still have theirs.
Select an existing project and then click on the wheel on the top right of the projects panel and untick 'maintain previews for project'. Do that on every existing project. Then go to All images, select them all in the browser, ctrl+click on one of them and 'delete preview'. That will remove any existing preview.
Aperture stills generates a thumbnail for every image and will take room in the Library but shouldn't be too much.

Similar Messages

How can I move my old iPhoto library into a Referenced Library format and use that as my default?

Hi, I have been using iPhoto for photo management where all the jpegs have been living, in organized events by date and subject for some time. I recently upgraded to aperture and am using the same iPhoto library. The issue I have is that I use Carbonite for my cloud back up and I am able to look at the pictures I have on my PC with the same folder organization I have them on my PC hard drive. This is apparently not possible for iPhoto library. The only way to access a picture on the iPhoto library in the cloud is to go through the master and hope you can find the specific picture since they are not organized in a comprehensible manner (like events or folders) in there.
So the only solution I can think of is to move the current iPhoto library to a referenced image library and use that as my default library from now on. This way I get cloud access and the events will hopefully turn into folders with dates and subjects that I can continue to keep organized to satisfy my OCD tendencies.
So the question I have is that:
1. How can I make a reference Library for Aperture/iPhoto?
2. How do I move the current library to the Referenced Library in an Organized manner? My wish list would be a series of folders labeled with the date and the subject, like I have in my iPhoto library right now.
3. If there is any alternative, your suggestions and recommendations would be much appreciated.
My computer: Mac Mini (Mid 2012), Lion, 16GB RAM.
Thank you kindly,

Or is there a way to go through aperture to make a new reference library that I can move the masters into later?
you do not move the masters into a references library - you turn your current library into a referenced library. As Terence Devlin said:
File -> Relocate Masters
What you should set up:
Select a folder, where you want to store your referenced files - probably on an external drive.
Decide on a hierarchical folder structure inside this folder - that is completely up to you.
Select a project from your library and use the command "File -> Relocate Masters/Originals" to move the original image files to the folder where you want to go them to. Only take care not to send two projects to the same folder.
Alternatively, if you do not care about the folder structure Aperture will use, select all images at once from the "Photos" view and let Aperture decide how to assing the folders - in the "Relocate Originals" dialoge you can specify a subfolder format.
Regards
Léonie

How do I move a referenced library to new MBP?

I have a 500GB external drive containing scanned files of slides I inherited from my dad. (photos he took from 1940 - 2005).
I created an Aperture referenced library that works when I attached that external drive.
I'd like to move the files to a larger drive so that it can also hold my other Aperture and iPhoto libraries.
Can I safely move the original/referenced image files to a larger 2TB ext drive and retain the Aperture links etc?
What issues will this likely cause in Aperture? How do I avoid or correct such issues?
I have also just purchased a 2014 Macbook Pro 15, with the most current version of Mavericks and Aperture software.
The Aperture library was created on my 2009 MBP running OS 10.8 (not Mavericks)
Can I just drag and drop the existing Aperture library from the old MBP to the new MBP? - even though they use different OS?
Thanks in advance for any step by step guidance or advice.

The most secure method of moving Referenced Originals is to do this using Aperture. Select all the Images whose Originals you want to more, and run "File ▹ Relocate Originals", selecting the new drive as the destination. Be careful with the settings in the Relocate dialog. 500 GB of date will take hours to move.
You should be able to copy the Library to your new machine and run it. Once opened, you may not be able to open that copy of your Library on your old machine (and you may have to wait many minutes for Aperture to close the Library the first time you close it).
Do each of your two tasks (moving Library, moving Referenced Originals) separately, and confirm the success of the move prior to doing the second.
What you are doing is straight-forward. Just make a complete back-up of both your Library and your Referenced Originals before you do anything, and don't delete or over-write them until you have confirmed that the Library works correctly and that the Referenced Originals are where you want them to be and are correctly linked to the Images in your Library.

Can you use iPhoto as your referenced library in Aperture 3?

Hi folks, new to the forum here and I've searched around older posts for an answer to this dumb question but can't seem to find it. Any insight much appreciated.
I'm a relatively new mac user, migrated over just under 5,000 photos from Photoshop Elements on the PC to iPhoto on my new iMac and very happy with it. I was going to get the new PSE for Mac to use as my editor with iPhoto, but now that Aperture 3 is such a ridiculously good price on the App store I've been testing that out and I love it!
So the question is, as I start to get more serious about my photography I would love to be able to use Aperture for everything - but the rest of the family just want the simplicity and great interface of iPhoto for the family shots. Can I / we keep importing, storing photos in the iPhoto library, and everyone else just uses that for the cropping, red-eye removal etc., but I can access the library in Aperture (sort of like a referenced library) make changes, add versions etc. without messing it up?
Hope that makes sense, and again, apologies for what must be the millionth time this question has been asked.
James

In a word, no.
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.
Regards
TD

OK to use Aperture to maintain iPhoto Referenced Library

I have Aperture and iPhoto. We are an OSX and Windows household. But thanks to the Windows 8 debacle, my wife (the diehard Windows user) has abandoned her PC with all regard to photos and videos (viewing, editing, sharing). Now, I use Aperture most of the time, but my wife uses iPhoto 100% of the time. I manage all the imports with Aperture. (I currently have one referenced library that I use in Aperture of all files and a second default iPhoto Library that is managed but only has post-2010 files in it. Both created in their respective programs, if that matters.)
Coincidentally, we are also at a point where we need to quit adding photos/videos to the PC or we'll exceed its backup capacity.
Now that she is using the iMac, I would like to get the Library organized and minimize my workflow and eliminate duplication. I do not have enough contiguous disk space for single managed aperture library. I have avoided proceeding because iPhoto and referenced files are not recommended by most of the experts here, for well founded reasons. However, now that both apps can use the same library, and Aperture handles referenced libraries so much better... why not go referenced now? I can leave the pre-2010 files on the PC, and keep all the post-2010 imports on the iMac, all in one Library. The fact that nobody is getting into the files on the PC virtually eliminates all the problems I've had in the past.
Is there something I'm missing?
Thanks for any thoughts on this, or hidden gotchas.

No assuming that you have the latest version of both iPhoto and Aperture so there is total interoperability between them
LN

How do I update a referenced library on a backup ext HD?

I have a referenced library on an external HD. I have backed up this referenced library to another ext HD. How do i keep the backup HD up to date?
Thanks, Susan

Most people use a third-party app that clones drives. Two that are widely used and often recommended are Carbon Copy Cloner, and SuperDuper. There or other work-arounds, but those two work, work well, are simple to use, and are worth more than they cost.

IPhoto and Aperture referenced library issues

Hi,
For the last couple of days I've been busy trying to get my iPhoto/Aperture library to work properly. I recently created a referenced library using Aperture because of lack of space on my internal ssd. I can see all of my Projects, thumbnails, metadata etc. in both iPhoto and Aperture when my external drive is disconnected. However, there are two major issues:
1) Most of the video thumbnails are broken, both in Aperture and iPhoto. By double clicking a thumbnail of a video (.mov, .avi etc.) it sometimes starts playing (with the external drive connected), sometimes it doesn't, totally inconsistent. I can export the video and it works just fine.
2) While using iPhoto with the external drive disconnected, all Events are there, the thumbnails are there, everything looks ok, but I can only view some of the previews/photos after double clicking the thumbnails. A dialogue opens up saying "The volume for [imagefilename] cannot be found. Insert the disk or connect to the server volume..", but I can actually see the full size preview behind this dialogue. By clicking "Cancel" the photo dissapears and is replaced by a black screen with a grey exclamation mark. This does not occur while using Aperture, I can see all of my previews in full glory when the external drive is disconnected. However, with the external drive connected everything works in iPhoto (except above mentioned issue with videos).
Please boys and girls, I need your help on this one!
System information
OS: Maverick 10.9.1
Aperture: 3.5.1
iPhoto: 9.5.1
Thanks!
//Michel

1. Are these videos different formats? Or the same?
2. See my answer to your duplicate post.

IPhoto '11 referenced library problems

I have a huge iPhoto library containing 40 000+ images, as well as a large amount of metadata (comments, Faces,...). Since I need to read-access the image files with other software, I use a referenced library.
Everything was fine until the day I decided to upgrade for a larger HD. So I simply restored full content of my old drive on the new drive using a TimeMachine backup. Nothing else was modified (no directory structure changes, not even the volume name).
Since then, the problems. Essentially, references to the original files are lost: Thumbnails are OK, but upon accessing the larger view, iPhoto asks me to locate the file... After having done so, other pics would load nice, but nothing would stick upon a quit and relaunch of iPhoto... (Funnily, this happens only for pics that were imported *after* I upgraded from iPhoto '08 to iPhoto '11).
I tried many things: rebuilding the database, rebuilding the database on the older drive prior to backup, etc... Nothing would help.
So, my questions:
* Whad did I do wrong?
* Is there a way to "repair" file references? (That should be a fairly obvious functionality of database rebuilding)
* Is hacking into the Library.apdb file part of the officially supported solutions?
Obviously, recreating a new iPhoto library is not an option for me, due to the amount of metadata in my library that I don't know how to transfer. Also, I don't consider upgrading to Aperture, which is just too complex and loaded of features which are totally useless to me.
Running Lion and latest iPhoto update.
Thanks!

YES!!!
I finally managed to recover my iPhoto library!
But it was not easy. I had to hack into the database file to put up things right.
After a significant amount of trial-and-error, here is the procedure I came to, which finally worked for me (use at your own risk):
0. Make sure you make enough backups so as to revert to the previous state if something goes wrong!
1. Make a copy of your iPhoto Library [Show Package Contents]/Database/apdb/Library.apdb to your desktop.
This file contains most of the data involved for managing your iPhoto data.
2. Open this file using a SQLite database manager.
I used Navicat 9.1, which has nice import-export features. For direct editing, Base 2.0 is may be easier.
3. Open the table RKMaster.
This table contains all records for the individual pics of your library.
4. Correct the path of each of your pic files in the imagePath column to their current filepath.
This contains the path of your pic files at the time they were imported, and is not updated by iPhoto even though you have moved your pic files somewhere else.
If you have several thousands of paths to correct, a good idea is to export this column to a text file (also including the modelId column for referencing), and to correct paths using the substring Search&Replace function of your favorite text editor. Be sure to re-import the corrected data properly using the modelId column as references.
5. If needed, correct in the same manner the content of the fileVolumeUuid column to the value of the drive currently containing your picfiles.
If needed, obtain this value considering a pic which was recently imported from that drive.
6. If your drive name was modified, also correct its name in the name column of the RKVolume table.
Identify the proper record by considering its uuid previously obtained.
7. If you're happy with your work, quit the database managing program and put Library.apdb back in its original location inside your iPhoto Library.
Keep the older somewhere in case something goes wrong.
8. Run iPhoto to see if your work is successful!
At this point, you might consider rebuilding the Photo Library (hold alt-cmd while launching iPhoto) and choose Repair the iPhoto Library Database (Be sure to leave the Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup unchecked!). This might correct some possible unconsistencies resulting from your edits. Also, a good thing might be to rebuild all thumbnails. If iPhoto does not bug you for locating files during that process, you have possibly done your work right! If not, back to step 1.
As said, this worked for me, with no visible inconsistencies or side effects to be noticed in the behavior of iPhoto (at least for now). But possibly some knowledgable people might comment and improve that process, and some database script guru might also help automating this. Please comment.
Lessons learned (How I understand the things as far as I know):
A. Library.apdb stores the initial drive and path of the pic files at the time they were imported. This is not modified as the files are moved around.
B. Some other data (BLOBs?) is used to track the files at their actual location. Therefore, it seems OK to move the pic files after they were imported.
C. Unfortunately, this other data is broken if the file is recreated (even with same content and location), for example with a file-based backup and restore (Time Machine).
D. In that case, iPhoto is unable to recover the file if its current drive and path does not match the one when the file was imported, stored in the database. Also there is no mechanism in iPhoto to correct this data.
E. Therefore, it is very important to import pic files in iPhoto only when these are already in their final location! If not, your iPhoto Library won't survive a TimeMachine backup and restore! (Possibly, a block-based drive backup could work... I don't know).
F. ...And Apple should really, really fix this issue! (By correcting the stored filepath and drive to the current file location at least when the database is repaired, and by offering at least some basic file reconnection options).
Hope this helps...
- Pascal

Aperture & iPhoto referenced library issues

Hi,
For the last couple of days I've been busy trying to get my Aperture library to work properly. I recently started using a referenced library because of lack of space on my internal ssd. I've generated previews on all of my 40000 photos. I can see all of my Projects, thumbnails, metadata etc. when my external drive is disconnected. However, there are two major issues:
1) Most of the video thumbnails are broken, both in Aperture and iPhoto. By double clicking a thumbnail of a video (.mov, .avi etc.) it sometimes starts playing, sometimes it doesn't, totally inconsistent. I can export the video and it works just fine.
2) While using iPhoto with the external drive disconnected, all Events are there, the thumbnails are there, everything looks ok, but I can only view some of the previews/photos after double clicking the thumbnails. A dialogue opens up saying "The volume for [imagefilename] cannot be found. Insert the disk or connect to the server volume..", but I can actually see the full size preview behind this dialogue. By clicking "Cancel" the photo dissapears and is replaced by a black screen with a grey exclamation mark. This does not occur while using Aperture, I can see all of my previews in full glory when the external drive is disconnected. However, with the external drive connected everything works in iPhoto (except above mentioned issue with videos).
Please boys and girls, help me out with this!
System information
OS: Maverick 10.9.1
Aperture: 3.5.1
iPhoto: 9.5.1
Thanks!
//Michel

I don;t use iPhoto much so I'm no expert but looking at other posts asking a similar question sems to indicate iPhoto is not capable of doing this.
See Can iPhoto view pictures on a disconnected external drive in a unified photo library? for one example.
Again if Aperture is working correctly on the referenced images on the disconnect drive and iPhoto is not you will need to ask the iPhoto folks.
regards

Deleting original images in referenced library

Stupid question - but how do you delete original images in a referenced library? I have used the function "File>Delete original image and all versions" and I thought that this had permanently deleted some originals that I didn't want - but when I look in finder, they're still there on the hard drive, they just don't display any more in Aperture. I can't believe you have to go and find the original file in finder to delete it...? What have I missed?
Thanks!

OK, have worked out that when I empty the aperture trash I need to tick the little box that says 'move referenced files to system trash' or something like that...
So...next question: how do I get the files that I've failed to delete properly back into Aperture so I can delete them properly - given that I don't know what files they are...

Referenced library on internal SSD boot/applications drive?

I have a referenced library, the masters are on an external drive; right now the library is on another external drive (mini, so most everything is on external drives via firewire 800). I'm swapping in an OCZ SSD to use for my boot/applications drive, together with a few GB's of documents that I frequently use. Taking advantage of the weekend to set up a drive to clone on to the SSD after I install it.
Any advantage to moving my library over to the internal SSD?
As a side question - my library has expanded to about 3 G Bytes. Is there a procedure to "compact" the library, maybe it has accumulated useless data between importing, deleting, making changes and then discarding versions.
Thanks very much.

I have moved my entire homefolder (incl. the Aperture library) to the SSD bootdrive in a raid0 setup. While the overall experience is definitely a lot snappier, I didn't find my workflow much faster than it was before with respect to Aperture. I guess most of the time I'm fiddling around with image-edits that hardly involves HD access.

Is the folder 'Master' in Referenced Library useful? Can I delete it?

Hi,
I've switched from a managed to a referenced library.
I stress that after double checking ALL my photos are now stored outside of the library.
When I show the content of the apertue library package I can see the Master folder still contain 25GB+ of photos.
What are thses files?
Can I delete them?
Thx!

Over time you'll end up with more content in the Master folder. For example, if you edit an image in an external editor, Aperture automatically creates a new original (master). These automatically created originals are always managed. You will need to relocate them after the fact to make them referenced.

Managed vs. referenced library??

I am test driving aperture and have been using Photoshop- Bridge to organize my photos. That is to say I keep them organized in folders which I create for each project. Each folder has a name that means something to me and is dated. I rarely cannot find a specific photo shoot. If I let Aperture organize the library will I have trouble finding the origional Master image. That is what I never liked with iPhoto. Would you recommend continuing to use my files which are on an external drive, as a referenced library, or should I just have Aperture create a Managed library out of my files?? Thanks.

This particular topic is driving me crazy because you all seem to take the opposite sides on this subject.
Here is my current setup and workflow. Can I get suggestions of the best ways to use aperture within these parameters
I have an imac dual core intel about 3 years old (imac7,1). It has six gb of ram and I just installed a new 2 TB internal drive. It currently has about 330 gb used.
I have attached to it the following drives: a 1 TB usb drive for time machine, a 2nd 1 TB USB drive which is a scratch disk for stuff I don't back up, and a 500 GB FireWire 800/400, usb which is partitioned in two. One partition is where I store a cloned back up via superduper and the other is where I have stored some test master photo files while I figure out the best way to use aperture.
I also use backblaze to back up the internal drive to the cloud. I am currently backing up about 250 GB.
I have around 20k photos on the internal drive inside iPhoto 11. I haven't touched those yet.
My photo workflow for new shots is to download the pictures to the external firewire drive then import the jpeg (I usually shoot in raw + jpeg) to aperture as a referenced import then cull the bad shots and then import the masters as referenced also. I also import the jpeg files to iphoto (so they are backed up).
I am going to have backup issues due the new 2 tb drive with the super duper clone (only have 500 gb available to the firewire drive. I could do the back up to the 1 tb usb drive instead and use the 500 gb firewire drive as my external drive for movies and photo masters. IF I do that then I’m going to have to backup everything again to backblaze (takes about six weeks to back up 250 gb). If I do that then I am living on the edge because I will only have one backup of my photo masters. That scares me.
The whole process scares me so much I have touched the iphoto library yet..
Ideas? Remember to KISS.

Managed library size vs images plus referenced library

I have referenced library 18,1Gb and 109,7Gb image folder (all of them in Aperture). If I like to move to managed library, is it bigger or smaller than 128Gb (18+110) and if it is, is the difference significant? Do anyone know that?

Today a Managed-Masters Library for you would be about six times as big as your current Library, meaning six times larger Vaults and/or Library copies that take longer to create. And a Managed-Masters Library would keep growing and slowing the drive it lived on.
If currently your Referenced-Masters Library and the Masters are on the same drive maybe now is a good time to move the Masters to an external drive to maintain the speed of the internal drive with the Library on it. Or if you have lots of space leave Masters where they are until the drive gets about half full.
-Allen

IPhoto managed library imported like a referenced library?

Hi there,
I originally tried to work a referenced library on my new Macbook, changed my mind, deleted all practice libraries and tried to import again. Checked the box saying somethign about 'copy photos to library' in preferences. Now when I have imported it is still looking like a referenced library by using all my folder titles from my old PC filing system. I thought that by going managed, everything would sort into date under events and I would have to rename them and create new folders etc as I needed. I have now tried this twice, deleting the library completely from Trash before starting again to ensure I wasnt pulling up the original one that wasnt correct.
Any suggestions on what might be causing this? Or is this how it should be working, using folder structure from filing system?
Cant figure out how to do a screen shot to show how it looks, but let me know if that is helps and I will learn something else new today.
Cheers,
Cathy

Thanks Larry, I am using the File>Import to Library and then just selecting the 'pictures' folder from the external hard drive. Within that folder there are 2007, 2008 etc folders and then within the years there are 2013-10-01 Event name folders. The folders showing in iPhoto import are the year and event level photos.
Another weird thing that is happening, not sure if it jsut coz this is the first time I have set it up, but it is 'updating thumbnails' on every open - takes ages so eventually I just stay 'finish later' but as a consequence only maybe 50-60% of the thumbnails are visible - the other folders just have a black square representing them. I can open the photos but no thub nails are visible.

Aperture - Converting Managed Library to Referenced Library?

I goofed. I've been using Aperture for a while, and I now realize that by importing my image files directly into my Aperture library on my 1TB iMac hard drive, this managed library is now 430GB... I need to streamline. I understand (now) the benefit of using reference libraries wherein the image files themselves are stored elsewhere (I have a 3TB external USB drive) and the Aperture library accesses/utilizes the files from that location. The big question - how do I convert my current managed library to that referenced library model? If I copy my entire 430GB Aperture library folder from the iMac hard drive 'Pictures' folder over to the 3TB external drive, it's still a managed library in that new external drive location but now with USB access times added to the Aperture work flow... correct?
I'm assuming I need to somehow 'export' my image files to the 3TB external drive, and then tell Aperture to build a reference library off of those image files - correct? If so, is there an specific way to do this? Also, if I create a referenced library as described above, I assume that in the future I will need to import image files from my camera to the 3TB external drive outside of Aperture, and then use Aperture to import them from that 3TB drive into the Aperture reference library via Aperture 'Import'... correct?
Thanks in advance for any insight here.

It's all a lot easier than you expect.
Libraries are neither managed nor referenced, they are just libraries. It's the images within the libraries that can be either managed (stored with the library) or referenced (stored external to it). So within a single library you can have a combination of both (if you have a reason to).
But the simple answer to your question is, select all your photos, and from the file menu choose "Relocate Originals". It will prompt you for where to store them. Create a folder on your external (eg "Masters" or "Originals") and chose a folder structure to store them in (I use the project name for subfolders - but more complex options can be created using 'edit'). Press relocate button and go have a well earned beer while it relocates them for you.
Andy

Referenced library

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