Running Aperture and Slow Performance on MacBook Pro

Question

I am running a MacBook pro w 4 GM interal memory, lost of HD space, and OS 10.8.4.  Often when working with Aperture system performance seems very sluggish to the point of becoming unuseable.  Export of 20 images to mail can take 10 min.  It just becomes so slow as if strangled for memory.  I find I shut down other apps but don't think this should be necessary with current OS technology.  Any suggestions?  Thanks

Answer 1

Have you checked what it going on, when Aperture becomes sluggish?
I'd recommend to launch some diagnostic tools, if you have not already done so:
Aperture's own "Activity Viewer": From the main menu bar: Window > Show Activity
This will tell you, how Aperture is spending its time : rendering, previews, scanning for faces or places, raw processing. Inparticulur, check, if Aperture is hanging while processing one particular image or video over and over again.
The Console window: Launch it from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Look, if you see error messages or warnings in this window, when Aperture starts to hang.
The Activity Monitor: Launch it from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. This window will tell you, which processes are using the cpu, the RAM, and doing page outs to the disk. You can see, if other processing are competing with Aperture and slowing it down, orif Aperture is starved for memory.
How large are images? Do you have very large raw files or scans, or are your photos moderately sized?
Is your library on the internal drive or an external drive?
Do you see this slowness only with your main Aperture library, or also, if you create a new, small library with a few test images?
Regards
Léonie