Transfer Aperture Libraries to Lightroom

I am sure I am not alone on this one...
I am prefering using lightroom instead of Aperture. I find it quicker and more intuitive.
Is there any way of transfering aperture libraries into lightroom without having to drill down folder by folder etc after opening packages?
Thanks
nicky

I suggest going to the home page of this forum, going near the top of the page and press "search" (i.e. don't do that on this thread page, as a search is only performed on this thread). Do a search on Aperture.
There have been many threads on migrating from Aperture from LR and, if I recall correctly, a number of strategies offered (I don't recall them right now).
- Pierre

Similar Messages

Are there any limitations for importing Apple Aperture Libraries for Lightroom 5.7 ? What can be the hardware limitation importing large Aperture Libraries like 200 gb ? Or is importing larger Aperture Libraries even possible at the moment for Lightroom 5

Are there any limitations for importing Apple Aperture Libraries for Lightroom 5.7 ? What can be the hardware limitation for importing large Aperture Libraries like 200 gb ? Or is importing larger Aperture Libraries even possible at the moment to Lightroom 5.7 ?

dj_paige wrote:
As far as hardware restrictions, the only one I can think of is that you certainly need enough free space on your hard disk to accomodate the masters from your Aperture library.
IIn which case, ensure all your masters are "referenced" in Aperture, and that you then go to Options in the Lightroom import box and import photos in their existing locations.

Transfer Aperture library to Lightroom

I have to make the switch to Lightroom as my current main camera, Leica M8, is properly supported only by Lightroom.
Now after downloading Lightroom 1.0 I am trying to figure out a strategy how to transfer my old Aperture library to Lightroom. Of course I only plan to transfer originals - I have to accept that all my adjustments in Aperture are gone.
But more importantly what is a good way to transfer the existing folder & project structure of Aperture to Lightroom without too much extra work? The export function of Aperture seems a little bit limited to automatically generate a folder structure on my HD which is identical/similar to my projects and folder within Aperture.
Any idea?
Thanks
Tobias

You are correct, all Aperture settings will not move to LightRoom.
However, Lightroom adjustments are interchangeable with the new ACR 3.7 and ACR 4.0(CS3 beta).
ACR now supports more than 150 cameras, including the Nikon D40 and the Pentax K10D. And though the cameras don't appear on the official compatibility list, Phase One shooters will be happy to know that Lightroom and ACR now (unofficially) support a number of P1 cameras (H20, H25, P20, P21, P25, P30, & P45), and Fuji customers have preliminary support for the S5.
Transfer your data from Aperture one project at a time.
Build a similar directory structure as your project/folder structure in Aperture, then go into each project and export masters to the corresponding external structure.
Exporting masters is quick as it is only copying data.
Just do it, get it over with
Then fire up LightRoom and import.

Find, mix and have several aperture libraries opened?

I had a harddisk break, so I am now with a new disk, same machine, but with backup files stored from Apple on my disk.
Problem, where to find my old aperture library. I did start at new when I had my new machine this year. January I think. And then I have an old library file too, from the older machine from 2008, that one I got. Afraid to do something wrong here, what to do?
Is it possible to mix two libraries in aperture? Its so sad if I have lost all the work with building the libraries from this last year. Think I will call in and ask where to find. Because its only showing the one library I had at first. Not the second. At least I can not find it on the backup search.
Thankfully I had backuped the photoes on an external harddisk. Put it up that way when I transfer the images to aperture.
Hope for some good ideas here.. thanks. And how should we backup aperture really? Hope the developers give us a good solution in next version:)
Tove

I had a harddisk break, so I am now with a new disk, same machine, but with backup files stored from Apple on my disk.
Tove, was your backup a full time machine backup? Or did you have parts of your system excluded from backup?
Problem, where to find my old aperture library. I did start at new when I had my new machine this year. January I think.
What is your Aperture version? The answer to your questions will depend on your system version and Aperture version.
Have you searched using the Finder? Open any Finder window and type ⌘F.
Then press the "+" button to add a search rule. Set it to "Kind" "Other" and enter "Aperture Library".
That should list all Aperture Libraries on your system, if you set the scope of the search to "This Mac".
This screenshot is done in Snow Leopard, it would look a bit different in Lion or Mt. Lion:
Do you remember, in which folder you stored your Aperture library? By default the libraries are located in your Pictures folder. Or did you have it on an external drive?
Is it possible to mix two libraries in aperture? Its so sad if I have lost all the work with building the libraries from this last year. Think I will call in and ask where to find. Because its only showing the one library I had at first. Not the second. At least I can not find it on the backup search.
You can merge two Aperture libraries by importing one into the other.
And how should we backup aperture really? Hope the developers give us a good solution in next version:)
Aperture Vaults will backup the library and create archival backups. Time Machine is very good now for backing up the current version, as long as you do not exclude the Aperture Library from the backup locations. A clone of the drive with the aperture library is a good backup. The important thing is to check the backups, if they are current and working, before something happens and to have more than one backup. I had it happen, that a power failure crashed my mac while I was doing the backup, and both - mac and backup drive were unusable afterwards.
Regards
Léonie

How do I continue to have access to my various Aperture libraries (~1.5 TB) for future use?

I am a professional photographer and run a small business. I have used Aperture since its inception and now have ~1.5 TB of photos in various Aperture libraries spanning several years. How do I preserve all of this work so that i don't lose access to it when Aperture finally dies?
Brad Moore
Brad Moore Photography

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Server
Which version of Aperture are you running? If you have upgraded to Aperture 3.6, you will be able to open all Aperture libraries with the new Photos.app. Aperture libraries and Iphoto Libraries can be migrated losslessly to Photos.
Aperture 3.6 will soon no longer be available for purchase. If you need to upgrade, do it soon.
Since Photos does not have all editing tools Aperture had, you may want to migrate to other professional applications, Lightroom, Capture One Pro. But there is no lossless migration path.

Aperture Phase Out, Lightroom Migration?

Since Apple is reportedly going to phase out Aperture (Per TechCrunch "“With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture,” an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch")" does anyone know a good way to migrate Aperture's libraries to Lightroom?
TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/27/apple-to-cease-development-of-aperture-and-tran sition-users-to-photos-for-os-x/
Adobe: http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2014/06/apple-aperture-news.html
As best I can find, one can migrate Aperture files to Lightroom, preserving some keywords and EXIF, but losing all edits. For a library of thousands of photos, that would mean throwing away months and months of work that could never be duplicated.
Of course, the files can simply be exported as JPEGS, but then the advantages of non-destructive editing are lost. I don't know a way to export to the DNG format, nor export RAW files with edits.
Please tell me I am wrong and my Aperture library won't be frozen in time and I'll have to start over archiving every photo.
Thanks / jim

No reason not to hedge bets and make a move now. Even if the speculation that Photo can recreate your Aperture edits is true, you might not like the WAY it does it. Or other features. Or maybe you've got a new camera and Apple is behind on RAW (like mine). Or maybe you just don't wanna have all your photo edits in one basket.
I doubt anyone is gonna come up with an acceptable tool to import edits. We would have seen that already. But how often are you going back to those edits in Aperture? as opposed to re-editing? Even with some of my old photoshopped stuff and whatnot, and even though I have the tools to do so, some of the newer editing software is so good it's better to start over from the original anyway. And as noted, Aperture will be around for that. My copy is, even though I abandoned it quite a while ago. It's just an old tool you keep around.
So one strategy is that only new imports go into LR (although there are other choices). If you need a bunch of older stuff, you transition that. Otherwise you leave things be. In that situation, if I needed edits and/or embedded metadata, I'd export TIFFs into the finder folder where the masters were, writing metadata to xmp and/or jpgs as appropriate, and import into LR. Note that Aperture is still referenced those and can still find them. So you can either work forward from the TIFF, or redo the edits on the original.
What would be super useful IMHO would be a tool to export the metadata into jpgs and into XMPs for RAWs WITHOUT having to export. You wouldn't get edits, but location info, keywording, captioning, etc would be very very nice to have.
And that brings me to structure. The LR analogue to projects/albums/folders are collections and collection sets. How to replicate that for an existing group of folders, since it doesn't import? (Because LR just mirrors your filesystem folders, it's "import" (almost more like "show") function has no "import folders as projects" kind of deal.) For this I used keywords, since they can be hierarchical, and can be written into the files.
So you when you export a project/album like "2014 Wedding Project/Ceremony Album" you keyword all the photos with that (in LR 2014 wedding project>ceremony album). That way you can find that structure in that form even if it was stored in a finder folder called ~/Pictures/Family Photos. And in LR it's easy to turn a filtered selection into a collection, or use a smart collection. This way you can preserve some of the structure you're used to seeing in Aperture in the LR collection set/collection tab. And if later synchronize another edit or metadata (a very handy tool for use on folders within LR), it can bring up updated metadata and import new files. And if they have the same keywords, you could use a smart collection based on those keywords to replicate "2014 Wedding Project" or whatever.

Aperture 3 to Lightroom

I would purely love to migrate from Aperture 3 to lightroom, but from what I find here, the olnly thing that I can clunkily migrate is masters. I've got 50,000 images in Aperture most of which have Photoshop edits as well as Aperture edits. Aperture just flat doesn't cut it, but there doesn't appear to be a way to get out of it, without maintaining two libraries, one in Aperture for the old stuff and one in Lightroom for new stuff. Unfortunately, that really doesn't cut it for me either. Surely someone has come up with a relatively seamless way to allow users who guessed wrong in the beginning to rectify their errors.

OK, with the info you folks have provided, it looks like there may be a route that has a chance of meeting my needs. I'm really not concerned about preserving Aperture edits, though I am concerned about keeping relationships between externaly edited files and Masters. That's my real hangup. Maintaining the project structure also matters, but not as much. I think, I'll download the LR4 beta today and as I have plenty of disk space to spare I'll mess with both for a while. I have no actual experience with the Relocate Masters command, so I'm not totally sure what it will do, but hopefully it's more than the name of the command suggests. I have a dummy Aperture library (or whatever Aperture calls it) that I used for testing before I moved everything into Aperture. I'll add some stuff to that and use it for testing to see if this process floats my boat. I guess my real question was "Is it worth the time and effort it will take to make this transition?" From the answers I have here, it looks like it may well be worth a shot, and it shouldn't take an excessive amount of time to find out for sure. I already know that I woul very much prefer working in LightRoom, but I don't have the time available for a lengthy reorganization of the system. And running two side by side systems (one for old stuff and one for new) has so many downsides I don't want to even think about it. Any way you slice it, it's going to be ugly, but maybe not as ugly as I had feared. Thanks muchly for the suggestions. We'll see how much of a mess I can make of it shortly.

Aperture 2 to Lightroom 4

I need to transfer my files from Aperture 2 to Lightroom 4 without losing the raw files. When I did it on my laptop they are now all Jpegs. I don't want this to happen on my desktop. Any suggestions?

John Beardsworth has an excellent article on the subject here: http://lightroomsolutions.com/articles/migrating-from-aperture-to-lightroom-where-do-i-beg in/

Will referenced Aperture libraries sync to disk?

I am used to using Lightroom but am considering a switch to Aperture just so I can take advantage of the tighter integration that it provides with other Apple applications and devices. In Lightroom I am used to have a separate library file which then references the files on my disk (wherever I want to have them). I know that this type of management is possible in Aperture (and even iPhoto) by using "referenced" libraries instead of "managed" libraries. However, I'm not sure how you can get Aperture to actually sync with the disk? Is this something that Aperture can't do?
By sync with the disk what I mean is that if I am in my referenced library in Aperture, and decide that I want to move some photos from on folder to another, will it actually move them on the disk as well, or do they stay in the same place on the disk?
For instance, let's say that when I first import my directory structure into Aperture as a referenced library I have two folders that are each under a separate year folder:
<2010 Photos>
<Big Wedding>
<2011 Photos>
<Birthday Party>
While looking at my photos in Aperture I discover that some of the photos in the Birthday Party folder are really from the Big Wedding, so I move them to the Big Wedding "Project" that Aperture has created based on the folder structure during import. Do those photos now move to the actual Big Wedding directory on the disk, or do I end up in a situation where in Aperture everything looks like it's in the right place, but if I just copy the Wedding folder to a USB drive it will be missing some of the photos that are still hanging out in the Birthday Party directory?
This is my main hangup between Lightroom and Aperture right now. I want to use Aperture for the features, but I really like how Lightroom lets me keep my directory structure how I want it, but then also moves files within the structure from within Lightroom.
Also, as a sidenote, any idea why referenced libraries are so large? I just tested out iPhoto using referenced libraries and the library grew to be over 10GB while the exact same set of photos only created a 1GB library file in Lightroom.
Any ideas on this? Thanks!

Sorry about the delayed response -- I didn't see your posts.
Phierce wrote:
I guess my first thoughts when dealing with this type of system always go to a giant drawer full of random negatives with no organization other than a list that might get lost at some point. I've always felt better about image management if I can always ditch the actual program and still have some sense of order just by the file structure (like if Apple drops support for Aperture in the future or something and I have to move to a different system). I guess there is always a way to export everything out of Aperture somehow? Maybe by setting an export structure such as Year/Project or some sort?
The difference between a drawer full of negatives and a HD full of image files is that the image files contain information (metadata) that is either already indexed or easily indexed. It would take a year to index and properly file 100,000 slides stored in a heavy-weight garbage bag; a computer will index 100,000 image files in a minute.
Computers allow us to walk away from any static, arbitrary organization system. Because each record (file, image, etc.) includes metadata, and the metadata is readable by many programs, all you need is a bag. Any grouping and/or sorting that can be done, can be done on-the-fly.
As I mentioned, the actual filing of your data on your hard drives already exemplifies this. Your files are chopped into pieces and strewn every which way -- it doesn't matter. You have instant access to any file, assembled whole in memory on-the-fly from the bits all over your drive.
Of course, there is metadata specific to programs such as Aperture, and this metadata is often not going to be usable outside of the program that creates it. Using your example -- what about Projects groupings? -- I suggest coding the name of every shoot (which for me are Projects) in the file name. I do this on Import using a file naming convention stored as a File Name Preset.
Phierce wrote:
Once you have the managed library file created can you move it anywhere? In that all the references are relative rather than absolute? Like if I decide that the library file is getting too big for my MBP I can just move it to an external disk and it will work the same way when Aperture opens it? Right now in Lightroom I have two libraries, so I guess I could do the same with Aperture and keep multiple managed library "packages" across different external disks? I just wouldn't be able to view the library previews without the disk connected, correct?
You can move your Library to any locally-mounted drive. I am, for reasons not worth going into, running several Libraries right now off of USB2 drives. On a fast machine, this works well (Aperture is, afaict, beautifully engineered to make the most of current hardware).
References to Referenced Masters are absolute. You can move your Library, and the Library will find the Masters as long as they are available. You must not more your Masters except via Aperture commands to relocate or consolidate them.
The more comprehensive your Library, the more useful it is (why search multiple Libraries for all pictures of Theo? or all photos recorded with an equivalent focal distance of 16 or less?).
As of the most recent versions of iPhoto and Aperture, the file format of the Library is identical. There are no longer "iPhoto Libraries" and "Aperture Libraries". There is one Library file format, and that Library file can be opened in either iPhoto or Aperture. There are hardware limitations that must be met to run the upgraded programs, however.
HTH. Post back with more if you'd like.

How do I consolidate multiple iPhoto libraries on multiple machines into a single Aperture libraries?

Hullo all,
I run a smallish studio at a University, and I have inherited multiple Macs (2 Powerbooks, 2 Mac Pros) running multiple OS (2 on Mavericks, 2 on 10.7) and multiple versions of iPhoto. These have been used for photo and video work over the years, and each has its own stash of content, project files, etc. In an effort to organize, I wish to consolidate all the various iPhoto and Aperture libraries into a single library. I have a 16TB Pegasis RAID available via Thunderbolt to hold the material. Can anyone tell me the best way to go about this? My background is 20 years production work in film and video and I am rather new to still photo work and as such, do not know much about maintaining archives etc.
If I read correctly from other questions, I need to update all versions of iPhoto to be the same, establish the library on the Pegasus, then export all the files to that library? Is this correct? I am not sure I can update all computers to the current version (one is a late 2009 MacPro) Is there any easier way to do it? I am happy to purchase software if that makes the process easier.
Cheers! Thanks for any info!

iPhoto does not support to merge libraries into one.
The utility iPhoto Library Manager can merge libraries -
download here: iPhoto Library Manager
If you have access to Aperture, you can also use it to merge your libraries (see: Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries), but if you need to buy a tool, iPhoto Library Manager would be the more economic solution, and it is a must-have with iPhoto anyway.

How do I sync my iPad with multiple Aperture libraries?

I have an Ipad2 and use Aperture 3 with multiple libraries. iTunes only allows me to sync with the 'current' library (the one most recently opened in Aperture) which is a pain, as I sometime lose all my photos off the iPad if I've been using a different library. Is there a way around this?
Thanks!
Jan-Peter

There is a work around but it requires more manual effort from you.
Instead of syncing your iPad to Aperture or iPhoto, choose to sync it from a folder.
First create a new folder somewhere on your HD and then export versions from your various Aperture libraries to your folder. You'll need to manually manage this folder. For example, if you want something deleted from your iPad, you'd need to delete it from this folder. Adding new items to your Aperture library won't automatically update to your iPad until you export them to this folder and sync your iPad.

I have three aperture libraries. But just recently two of them (old from 2011) will not open. I get the following error: There was an error opening the database for the library "~/Pictures/Family IIi.aplibrary". Please help, thanks

I have three aperture libraries. But just recently two of them (old from 2011) will not open. I get the following error: There was an error opening the database for the library “~/Pictures/Family IIi.aplibrary”. Please help, thanks

Are all three libraries under your account or are they in different accounts? Any other errros on the system?
Start by doing the permission repair and library repair steps in Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics

I have two Aperture Libraries and would like to sync specific folders from both of them to my iPad.

I have two Aperture libraries stored on an external hard drive. Using iTunes on my Mac Book Pro can I sync selected projects from both Libraries to the same iPad?

No you cannot. Each device can only be synced with one photo library - Aperture or iPhoto.
You could however merge the two libraries, if you need to sync with photos from both libraries.

Can i combine aperture libraries?

i have aperture running on three different machines and i wondered if there is a way to "combine" the three aperture libraries into a new library. how do folks use aperture with a desktop and a laptop for syncing work from the feild?
thanks,
glenn
MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

i have aperture running on three different machines
and i wondered if there is a way to "combine" the
three aperture libraries into a new library. how do
folks use aperture with a desktop and a laptop for
syncing work from the feild?
Well the unit of export is a project - most people moving between laptop and desktop migrate projects between the two.
You can combine libraries. the easiest way I would say would be to go into finder and right-click on each Aperture library to say "Show Package Contents". Then copy projects out of two of the libraries into the third. Copy only folders and .approject files, but do NOT copy the folders Aperture.aplib and "Built-in Smart Albums".
Then when you restart Aperture is will see the projects copying into the main one, and import them all. Of course I think it goes without saying that you'll want to back up that library before you start copying other things inside of it... this process should be faster than exporting and importing projects though, and is OK for the larger task of combining this library. Also I would say that either all librarys should have been converted by 1.5 or none of them, don't do it if the libraries are a mix of versions.

I have several iPhoto and aperture libraries... i want to get to one iPhoto library keeping only the latest photos. How can I do this?

Okay... I made the mistake of creating duplicate Aperture libraries because I decided I wanted to only use Aperture - then the news that Aperture is no longer going to be developed. I then confused myself and created duplicate iPhoto libraries (I can't even remember why anymore). At one point or another I have edited pictures in all of them and have no idea which pictures were edited. I just want to have one iPhoto library with the most recently edited photos and remove all the duplicates.
What is the best way to do this?
And... after doing all that, I need to keep backups of my photos on an external drive. What is the best way to do this?
iPhoto version 9.5.1
Thank you so much for any advice you can provide!

You can merge libraries into one with Aperture 3.3. or later.
Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries
In merge-mode it will only keep the photos from one of the libraries.
And you can use Aperture to export partial libraries containing only the selected albums, projects, etc.
If you need to keep projects (books, calendars, cards) when merging your libraries, use Aperture and not iPLM:

Transfer Aperture Libraries to Lightroom

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