Storing in Aperture Library

If I import a huge folder of photos into Aperture, and I just use the default "Store Files in Aperture Library", does Aperture copy the photos imported into the library, or does it move them?
By using this defaulted selection, the "Move Files" and "Copy Files" buttons are greyed out, and neither is selected. I can not find anything anywhere that answers this question, and it's driving me nuts. (The reason I need to find the answer is that I started an import using the default, and had to interupt it, and I can't tell if it just copied the files partially or moved them...)
If someone could please help me, I'd appreciate it!

i guess i don't understand your question then. you asked if Aperture copies the images or moves them into the library. if you've imported the images into your Aperture library and they're not referenced then, YES, aperture makes a copy and does not MOVE them into the library. this is evidenced by the fact that your original folder full of 150GB of images are still there in the original folders, correct? the images also appear in your Aperture library.
you could verify this by, lets say, making a copy of ONE of the original images. place that copy on a CD or another hard drive. then delete the original in the original folder. if Aperture still sees the image, then the copy is in the library.
this is no different than what Aperture does with a Compact Flash card when it is imported. the images are copied off the card, into the Aperture library. when i remove the card, the images are still in the Aperture library because they've been copied. if the images had been MOVED (off the card) when i put the card back in my camera, the card would be blank. and it is not blank. all the images are still there. i have to format my card in this case to delete the images.
unless you're working with your images as referenced images, Aperture copies the images into the library.

Similar Messages

I imported some 24P HD videos from my DSLR to Aperture but these videos do not show up in iMovie '09 for editing purposes. Although my previous 24P HD Videos from iPhoto '09 show up. Why can't I access these videos stored in Aperture library?

I imported some 24P HD videos from my DSLR to Aperture but these videos do not show up in iMovie '09 for editing purposes. Although my previous 24P HD Videos from iPhoto '09 show up. Why can't I access these videos stored in Aperture library? I assumed that like the videos in iPhoto, I would be able to access the videos in Aperture through iMovie. Come on Apple! I am starting to get frustrated with your products here. And this is saying a lot when I have been using and loving apple products for the last 4 years.

Hi. My camera is a Canon 600D. And yes my videos are stored in the Aperture library and they are not referenced. Even then I tried to select all the videos in Aperture and clicked 'consolidate masters' and there was a messge that said all 'none of the files are referenced',... so they didn't need consolidating.
I also tried preferences> export> external video editor > choose > iMovie. And then right click on the video to edit with imovie. Even then the video didn't show up in iMovie. It seems like the only option for me is to import the videos directly to iMovie which means there will be two versions of the same file stored in my computer eating up space.
APPLE. What are you doing?

Moving images not stored in Aperture Library to Aperture Library

I have some images not stored in my Aperture Library that I would like to have stored in my Aperture Library without having to reimport. I have already made adjustments to them. I just realized that when I imported them I did not have the setting to put them in my Aperture Library selected.
What a day... : (
Thanks all.

The albums organization remains the same, simply select the images in the browser and go to File-Consolidate Master. That moves (or copy) the master file to the Library. The links to albums are updated automatically.

Aperture library on network / server

Hello -
Just wondering if anyone has any advice / experience on storing the Aperture library on a network drive. Would this affect performance ?
Also - anyone tried using Aperture with a Mobile Account in Snow Leopard Server?
Thanks,
Andrew

This is a very bad idea. If the network protocol you are using does not support the file names that Aperture uses in its library, your library will get corrupted and you could possibly lose photos. Here's an example of one of the folder names in the Aperture library:
2009-10-28 @ 08/45/03 PM - 1.apimportgroup
I can see that causing lots of troubles with the forward slashes.
Also, Aperture is not multi-user and I don't believe it locks the library (why would you need to, for a single-user app?) so if you tried to concurrently access it from multiple machines you could have issues.
The only way that would work for a network library is if you created a disk image on the network share and formatted it as HFS+, and then mounted it on the client and stored the library there. That will work (I've used this for my vault, actually). Still, performance will NOT be as good as locally attached storage. GigE has a theoretical max bandwidth of ~1 Gbps but it's not in practice going to be as fast as a 7200 RPM drive that can do 80 MB/sec without really working too hard.

Access Aperture library over wireless?

This might be more of a general Mac questions, but thought I would start here.
My Aperture library is on my iMac. Can I access this from my MacBook over my wireless network to do basic stuff like reorganize folders/projects, assign keywords, etc? My MacBook has Aperture. loaded also.

Sorry -- it is neither recommended nor advised. From this Apple support page:
Also, it is strongly recommended that the Aperture library be stored on a locally mounted hard drive. Storing the Aperture library on a network share can also lead to poor performance, data corruption, or data loss.

Aperture library on NAS: Aperture keeps asking where it is

Hi all
I have both the library as well as files (separately, referenced) on a NAS (Synology), and that generally works well.
The only thing that keeps bugging me is that most of the times upon starting Aperture, it keeps asking where the library file was. It is even more strange, as the library path displayed in the error window is exactly correct. What I need to do is then to show Aperture the library path, whereafter Aperture starts normally.
Anyone know how to avoid the sysyphus work? Anyone experiencing the same?
Thanks
Simon

For the time, I guess I keep the unsupported solution that works 99% of the time,
You might want to seriously rethink that. Your NAS is essentially a headless computer using (usually) a version of Linux. So you trying to save a complex ecosystem of files created for and by a Mac onto a computer with an entirely different OS and file system structure. And then, doing that over a network share. That article Léonie links to is quite specific:
Storing the Aperture library on a network share can also lead to poor performance, data corruption, or data loss.
So, you're risking not inconvenience, but corruption and data loss. That you've not suffered this up to now is fortunate but it would be unrealistic to expect that good fortune to continue indefinitely.

My aperture library won't open - it's stored on an external R6 pegasus drive?

Have been through the various other threads and followed most of the ideas - repair disk permissions, plist delete, rebuild database.
The application works ok and when it is not trying to access the library stored on the pegasus it works fine - I guess the librray on the pegasus must be corrupted some how but can I get to the unerlying files and re-import?
Help!?

Yes it's Mac OS extended. I've had it working before but since the file size became so large (200GB+) it has started to have problems. I just tried it with another laptop where I installed a new version of aperture and it said that the library rebuild had been interrupted. It restarted the rebuild and now I can get access but I'm worried about the stability going forward and every time I try to move the aperture library (by copying it to another external drive) or update the vault it just hangs.
So I'm not sure whether this is an imac issue, an aperture issue or a problem with the compatibility of the pegasus storage (I suspect the latter)?
Any thoughts on what to do or just cross my fingers and hope it doesn't happen again??

How do I start storing photos on a new external hard drive without adding a new aperture library?

I have used up all my storage on one of my external hard drives. I want to start storing on another. How do I do it so I do not have to make a new Aperture library. I think having multiple libraries gets too confusing.
Thanks!

Keep your Aperture library on that external drive, but relocate original image files to another drive.
See: Aperture 3 User Manual: Working with Referenced Images

Can RAW images from Aperture library stored in an External HD?

I last night[I thought I did] stored projects from aperture library to an external Iomega Mac version HD.[Partitioned the Iomega into two One large225GB for Time Machine and small 125GB for just back up folders]
Then I have reinstalled my Mac OS.
Now I connect the HD to my Apple Mac Book Air and see the saved images on the external HD but not highlighted and not there for available to open in my Aperture Apps?
I also tried to import selectively the Aperture images from my Time Machine back up and that too failed.
I on opening the Aperture selected "Import photos form a Disk" but that failed too.
I have also saved to the same external HD some modified photos saves as JEPG and they open ok.
When I reinstalled the OS and registered in a different name, would that make any difference to importing Aperture projects saved on an external HD?
Can anybody suggest a way to open those Aperture project folders that I have stored on my External HD?
Regards

Projects are entirely maintained in the Aperture Library. You can use 'referenced masters', in which your masters don't reside inside the library (and the library merely keeps track of where you decided to keep them.)
When you import new photos, Aperture updates some information in the library so that it knows the photos exist, where they reside, what sort of changes you've made to them, etc. You can't just plop new images into an external folder and expect Aperture to notice them. Think of this as "formally introducing your photos to Aperture" -- via the import process. Aperture wont deal with any photo you haven't introduced to it.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the alarm bells and red flashing lights that went off as soon as I read you were keeping your photos on an external drive partitioned for Time Machine and backup folders. Bad bad bad.
There are two types of disks in the world: (1) Those that have failed, and (2) those that are going to fail. Sadly, even backup drives are not an exception to this rule.
Never keep the "working" copy of your data on the same physical drive as a "backup" copy of your data. When the drive fails (and someday it will) you'll just lose all your copies of your work -- so much for having a backup. Drives are very cheap these days. Just get another one and dedicate your backup disks just for backups.
As you have a MacBook Air (and thus only a single USB 2.0 port) you might want to look into "Network Attached Storage" (aka NAS). This way you don't have a tangled mess of a USB hub hanging off your Mac with several disk drives also hanging off the side of your Mac. The disks just live on the network - as though they're remote file servers. If the network is connected via Gigabit ethernet, the effective throughput to read/write those drives is about 3x faster than a locally attached USB 2.0 drive (no kidding!). You might think this is really expensive -- but you'd be surprised. I was checking prices at Other World Computing recently (an online store of products targeted to Mac owners) and noticed you can buy an empty NAS enclosure (meaning you buy the disk to go inside it) for as cheap as $25! An enclosure with 250GB disk pre-installed and Time-Machine compatible was about $120. To put this in perspective... I recently paid about $150 for a B+W Circular Polarizing filter. So all this technology costs less than one decent lens filter for my camera.

Where are Aperture Library icons stored?

After installation of Mountain Lion, all Aperture libraries have lost their icons. They are completely blank (clicking where they should be does nothing). Clicking a library name shows a gray area where the icon should be. Get Info shows the icon is blank. I found the Aperture library icon in the contents of the Aperture application so if that is where the icon is stored for libraries, it is not being used. I can paste iPhoto library icons in each of my Aperture libraries but it would be better if the libraries had their own icons back. A newly created library also does not have an icon.

The Aperture Libraries use a generic icon created by the Finder. This icon depends on the kind of the library and is not stored in the Aperture library package. But if you set a custom icon, you will see a file called "Icon?", when you browse the Aperture Library package from the Terminal, for example:
Listing my Aperture Library "Leuchtfeuer" in the Terminal: This library has a custom icon.
ls -aix ~/Pictures/_ApertureTestLibraries/Leuchttuerme.aplibrary
769261 .
5451826..
769262 Aperture.aplib
9311240 ApertureData.xml
769265 Attachments
769266 Database
9330718 Icon?
772295 Info.plist
5445089 Library.data
5445085 Library.iPhoto
5445087 Library6.iPhoto
772296 Masks
772297 Masters   .............
Sometimes the icon will not show, if the custom icon file has the wrong permissions. Then the icon should show again, if you delete the "Icon" file, for example:
      rm ~/Pictures/_ApertureTestLibraries/Leuchttuerme.aplibrary/Icon^M
did reset the icon to the default icon.
To enter the path to the icon file, only type "Ico" and then the tab key for command completion. The filename contains special characters, as you can see by the ^M in the example above.
Since all your libraries have corrupted icons, I'd try to repair the permissions on your Aperture libraries or to repair the libraries, before starting to patch library packages however, see "Repairing and rebuilding your Library"
Regards
Léonie

Having trouble backing up Aperture Library to an external hard drive

I'm using a brand new 27" imac and simply trying to back up my Aperture Library from my finder menu to my external drive. My Aperture Library currently is about 65gb. The file starts transferring (takes about an hour), and about 2/3 of the way through it, I get an error message that states "The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “Aperture Library” already exists." The operation stops, and the file size of my Aperture Library on my external drive ends up about 45mb approx, only partially transferred, so not a full backup. Happens every time. I have deleted everything and reformatted my external drive and still get the same message. When I try to create a vault and back it up on my external drive, I get an immediate error that states "The new vault could not be created because the file system of the destination volume is unsupported". Any ideas how to address this? All I really want to do is have an off-site backup of my full Aperture library.

You will have this problem using that format, the Library needs to be on a disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can reformat the drive. Or you could try creating a disk image formatted correctly and putting the library on that, then storing that on the MS format drive.
Regards
TD

ITunes doesn't see Aperture Library - iMovie doesn't see Aperture Library

Issues:
Nearly all of my videos in the Aperture/iPhoto library do not show up when I select iPhoto library option in iMovie and iMovie is unable to locate them in any other way. Sometimes the option to select the iPhoto library is completely missing.
iTunes does not recognize my Aperture library, and I get the following message:
"Your Aperture Library could not be found. Open the preferences window in Aperture and enable the preference to share previews with other applications." After reading through forums and multiple Genius Bar appointments here is most of what I have done:
Created multiple new Aperture libraries, selected them in Aperture, rebooted, switched back and forth - Note: iTunes DID recognize the new blank libraries
Booted Aperture with the Command + Option keys and run all three options to repair permssions and even rebuilt the database
Booted Aperture with the Option key and selected the library I was using all along (this worked for someone in a forum)
Opened iPhoto (not Aperture) and selected an option to share photos
Run "Verify Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Run "Repair Disk Permissions" many times under Disk Utility
Reinstalled OSX
Reinstalled Aperture
Reinstalled iTunes
Reinstalled iMovie
Run a virus and malware scan (no issues)
Verified that Aperture was set to share previews and had a Genius go through all of my options to ensure they were correct in iTunes, Aperture, and iPhoto
Have ran "Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs" from the Command + Option + R recovery partition multiple times. Each time it just hangs for hours, the latest attempt ran for over 24 hours before I finally stopped it.
Oh yes, and I found and deleted the file com.apple.iApps.plist
None of these things fixed either of my issues. According the the Genius at my last appointment, now I have to call Apple Care and pay to get support. I must have misunderstood what the Genius Bar was about when I bought my Mac and why I purchased the One to One training. Before I call Apple Care, I was hoping someone might have run across this and can help me.
I asked the Genius if I now need to just create a new Aperture Library and move all of my content to it (that was the last resort for someone in a forum); however, he was concerned that even if this might work that I probably have deeper permission and/or other issues that need to be addressed and that doing so would not fix the root cause.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this issue.

Understood. I thought perhaps the period meant that I was finished and just needed to call Apple Care and fork out the fee.
The formats are primarily .MOV straight from the iPhone. Since going to a Mac, I have pretty much given up on using my Sony Handycam for family videos due to the pains of having to locate, identify, convert, and export AVCHD video to watch on Apple TV. It is just too easy to take video with my iPhone and import it and immediately watch it, although the quality is nothing close to a dedicated video camera, especially indoors and in lower light. All of the video formats in Aperture are supported and most all of my older home videos and Sony Handycam videos are sitting on an external drive (hoping that one day I will have the time to figure out a decent workflow to access them after I work all of the bugs out of iMovie). Great thought though.
All my content is managed. After a handful of One-to-One sessions at the Apple Store, I finally learned that you could not reference videos in iMovie and had to either have them in the iMovie Events directory or in iPhoto (at least that was what she said). Their solution was to import the videos into iPhoto so they could be easily accessed in iMovie. After I had issues mentioned in this post their solution was for me to purchase Aperture that could handle larger libraries. This was supposed to fix the issue and allow iMovie to see my videos. When that didn't work they said that I needed to purchase Final Cut Pro. I'm just a Dad who wants to make a few memorable home movies for his family and I don't think that I should have to purchase a $300 application, especially after paying a premium for my Mac and the iLife software, which I am deeply regretting. But I digress.
I have repaired permissions again and am in the process of repairing the library and will rebuild it again if that doesn't work. It is taking longer so I won't be able to post the results until a later time. Definitely worth a shot to try this again.
If this doesn't work I will take the time to create a new Aperture library. Like I previously mentioned, this was the last resort for another gentlemen who had a similar issue. After doing this it might explain why the "Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs" from the Command + Option + R recovery partition is getting hung up and not working. I'll post the results at a later date. If I could save just one person the time, gas, and stress I've experienced it would be worth it.
One additional question? I read a gentlemen's post that passionately argued against ever using iPhoto, Aperture, or iMovie to ever manage video files. He suggested using folders and a file naming system similar to what I used when I was on a PC using Adobe Elements. Do you have any thoughts on that?
For my situation, I have two concerns:
I'm afraid this would not allow me to watch the videos on Apple TV as simply as I can now (although I don't know this to be the case for certain). If the videos aren't in my photo library, I'm not sure how I would be able to access them through Apple TV.
Since I'm a proud Dad I have hundreds of video files spanning many years, so I also don't want to lose the ability to quickly peruse my event library and find content that I want to import into a project in iMovie. At one point I imported some video files to edit that weren't stored in iMovie, and I could only see the file name and date and had to guess if there was content on it that I wanted. When you have hundreds of clips like I do that isn't practical.
He argued that these programs were never meant to manage content and worked much more efficiently using this method. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again.

New to Aperture - Library vs Reference files

I'm coming to Aperture from Picasa, which replicated and managed my folder structure as it appeared on my hard-disc, which was nice.
Am I better off importing images into my Aperture Library, or managing the folder structure how I want and just having Aperture work with the reference files?
I'm not a pro-photographer, just a pretty basic user, so will not have loads of large raw image files. What's the benefit of using the Library over using Reference files? I've tried Google-ing but everything I've found just addresses folder/project management within Aperture.
If I use the reference option, can Aperture manage my photos on my hard-drive in the same way Picasa could (ie if I moved a photo from one folder to another in Picasa, it also moved on my drive)
Thanks

Hi TxH,
Welcome to the user-supported Aperture discussion group.
I'm coming to Aperture from Picasa, which replicated and managed my folder structure as it appeared on my hard-disc, which was nice.
If you use Aperture for even a little while, you'll realize that the structure of your photos in your hard drive is not as important as how you organize them in Aperture, especially when you start making albums, which merely contain a pointer to the image in your library. You can have a picture in many albums, but your library (and therefore hard drive) only contains it once.
Am I better off importing images into my Aperture Library, or managing the folder structure how I want and just having Aperture work with the reference files?
That's a matter of opinion. Some people are very opinionated that using referenced files is the only way to go, some are opinionated the other way. Sometimes there really is a better solution for you depending on what you are doing.
What's the benefit of using the Library over using Reference files? I
You will find loads of conversation if you search this discussion group for "managed" and "referenced".
You will always have a library. Your managed pictures will live in the library and you won't have direct access to them through Finder (and you should not want direct access to them for the most part). Your referenced pictures live wherever you tell Aperture to take them from, but the bookkeeping parts of the Aperture library/database are still stored in the Aperture library package.
Benefits of managed include: you don't worry about where the files are; Aperture backs them up if you use its vaults; they are always with you.
Benefits of referenced include: you know exactly where the files are; your Aperture library is significantly smaller than if all your photos were in the library; you can find them with Finder if that's important to you (and a lot of people think it's important to them but then realize they only think that because they're really not using Aperture to its full potential).
If I use the reference option, can Aperture manage my photos on my hard-drive in the same way Picasa could (ie if I moved a photo from one folder to another in Picasa, it also moved on my drive)
Yes. I've never used Picasa, but Aperture allows you to "relocate" your photos in order to manage their external directory structure. You can also choose to "relocate" a managed master to make it referenced.
nathan

Sharing Aperture library with another user on the same mac

Hi
I just upgraded to Aperture 3.3, on a MBP running Lion (10.7.4) - I am trying to share the library with my wife so that each of us can retain our separate accounts and preferences and be able to edit/print/add pictures to the library
I've seen some other posts, suggesting creating a separate directory outside of /Users which I've done: I've created /ApertureLib and moved the library there. I made sure I set permissions for owner, group and others to read/write/execute
When i try opening the library through my wife's account it tells me that "the library is being used by (null), you must first quit (null) to use this library"
I added sticky bits, tried to set ACLs, no dice...
any suggestions?
Thanks!
PS: all of the image files are actually stored on a NAS box and mounted via AFP. I tried moving the Aperture library to the NAS box but the performance was atrocious. so I kept the library on Macintosh HD and just reference the picture files from the NAS share.

PS: all of the image files are actually stored on a NAS box and mounted via AFP. I tried moving the Aperture library to the NAS box but the performance was atrocious. so I kept the library on Macintosh HD and just reference the picture files from the NAS share.
That is the safest solution. The Aperture library should reside on a local volume, MacOS X extended formatted. Your NAS probably is neither local nor formatted MacOS X extended, see
Aperture: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library
I am trying to share the library with my wife so that each of us can retain our separate accounts and preferences and be able to edit/print/add pictures to the library
Aperture is a single User program. Only one of you can use Aperture at a time. So you hvae to quit Aperture in your account, before your wife can launch it from her account. Also make sure that iPhoto is not using the library.
One big problem with sharing a Library are permissions and ownerships. When you make changes to an Aperture Library and add images, you are the owner of the added images. The safest way to share a library therefore would be to put it on an external volume or onto a separate partition of your hard drive. Then you can set the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag and share the data with out permission problems. To set this flag on a volume, select it in the Finder and use "File > Get info" from the Finder's main menu bar (or press cmd-I).
Regards
Léonie

Can multiple users share Aperture Library over network

I'm considering moving over to Aperture because iPhoto is starting to show the strain under the number of RAW pictures I'm uploading. My current iPhoto library is stored on my NAS and is shared between my RMBP and MacMini. If I make the transition over to Aperture will I be able to have the same set-up?
Thanks
VP

iPhoto is starting to show the strain under the number of RAW pictures I'm uploading.
What do you consider to be a "strain"?
Poor response time? I suspect, that will be more due to the network access on a NAS than to the library size.
You might try to put your Aperture 3 library on a NAS, but it is not recommended by Apple, see:
Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library
You will have to ensure,
that you do not open the Library from both your Macs at the same time,
and you will have to ensure, that the library is only on a disk formatted "Mac OS X Extended". SInce your NAS has a different formatting, put the Aperture library onto a disk image on the NAS. You will have to mount this disk image, before you access the library, like recommended here for iPhoto, see: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198
But as I said, if poor performance should be your main reason for switching from iPhoto to Aperture, you will not gain much, if you keep the library on a network attached volume, unless you have a very fast network connection.
The best performance you get in Aperture with the library on the fasted drive you have. I keep my Aperture library on the internal SSD and the original master image files (the bulk of the data) on a second internal drive.
Regards
Léonie

Storing in Aperture Library

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