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

Similar Messages

  • Reducing Aperture Library size

    Sorry if this has been dealt with before (I did a search and found nowt).
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    http://brettgrossphotography.com/2008/04/24/aperture-library-slimming-the-size
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    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.

  • Trying to reduce the size of Aperture library

    I have a 295 GB library and a 500 GB Hard drive.
    Trying to reduce size of Aperture library, (ver 3.4.3) have deleted lots of big videos, duplicates of big videos, lots of poor quality photos,  emptied Aperture trash and size hasn't changed. I don't know what else to do - I am cosidering splitting my library up into two - and keeping older stuff on an external - I like to have it on my laptop - so when I am at a show - I can show my clients, customers potential photos for purchase. I'd hate to have it all on an external.
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    I have shut down and restarted as well...
    HELP

    Have you emptied your OS system Trash?
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    Click the Trash icon in the Dock, and then click the "Empty" button.

  • 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

  • Vault (external) file size Versus Aperture Library (internal) file size discrepancy?

    Using Aperture 3.3.1 (all my images are Referenced). I created my first vault on an external hard drive. The Vault.apvault file size is 32.8 GB. My Aperture Library.aplibrary file size on my iMac hard drive is 81.6 GB. So I am wondering if I have a full back-up in Vault or not. Seems like a large discrepency in file size. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

    Do any Images that you don't expect show up when you filter "Photos" using the Rule "File Status" with the argument "Managed"?
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  • 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).
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    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.
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    All done with Mavericks and Aperture 3.5.
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    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:
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    Thumbnails new: 15.13 Gb
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    Masters is 304.3 Gb in the original and new libraries.
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  • 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.
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    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. 
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    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.
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    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?
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  • 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
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    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 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

  • Size of Aperture Library

    I was seriously running out of space on my internal drive (2 TB). Moved my "original" Apterture library (1.5 TB) to an external drive over the weekend. Made sure everything went well (performed Vault backup before and then made sure all Projects, etc transferred with library to external drive) and then moved library from internal drive to the trash. Question -- Library is/was 1.5 TB, but after trashing it I only gained back approximately 800GB on my internal hard drive (only about half of what I expected to get back). Is this common? Shouldn't I have gained back the full 800GB?
    Thanks,
    John

    I have not seen any recent problems reported due to the size of a Library.  Have you?
    John Dunnigan wrote:
    (And indeed, you're correct -- I should not allow a library to get that big!!).
    I do recommend moving most Originals to a separate drive when a Library hits the 100 GB mark.
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    I import all Originals into my Library, and then regular relocate to an external drive all Originals older than 60 days except the Originals for 5-star Images.  This works well for me -- my computer is a laptop.  The administrative effort is minimal.  I regularly copy the drives holding Originals.  Something similar might work well for you.
    Re: the unrecovered storage space.  I got nothing that hasn't been mentioned, unless you have not rebooted, in which case you should.  The sectors are there -- you'll get them back eventually.

  • Managing size of Aperture library

    I am a wedding photographer and shoot 10k-12k images per month. Other than latest projects, I move all my Master files to external drives, keeping only previews on my iMac. All my master files are always 'referenced'.
    My concern is that the Aperture library itself is getting too large in size, its approx 70 GB. On expanding the library ('show package content), I notice that the Previews folder itself is 50+ GB.
    - Do the preview files take up so much space?
    - Is there a way to reduce the size of the Aperture library itself (without splitting the library into smaller ones n shifting them elsewhere)
    How do others address this issue?

    Using your own words, you have a concern rather than an issue.
    My advice is simply don't worry about it. It's remarkably common for people to take their working system and try to apply some preventtive maintenance to it and inadvetently turn it into a non-working system! Just look through the kind of issues raised here to see many examples.
    Aperture is designed to handle the volumes with ease and if the current size is not presenting any actual problems for you, I'd just let it get on and do its thing.
    Having said that, storage management and planning is important, but you aleady have the lions share of that side of things under control with the use of referenced files and external drives.
    The actual library is (among other things) your index into your external drives and the images they contain.
    Thumbnails and Previews are the visual element of that index used for browsing and sharing your collection.
    Thumbnails are used for browsing and are not optional. So previews is where you have the most opportunity to control the size.
    However, keep in mind it's a trade-off; make smaller or lower quality prieviews to reduce the space they take up (in preferences), and they potentially become usuable in fewer scenarios. Elect not to keep the previews for some (or all) images, and you lose the ability to share them through iLife/Media Browser.
    Previously I had a smaller internal hard and so needed to make this trade-off, and my approach was to only keep previews for my top rated images, as these were the ones I would be sharing in slideshows and online. However being a pro, I doubt this kind of trade off would work for you. It needs to be tailored to your own usage, for example perhaps keep previews for all projects for 3 years along with those that you elect to reperesent your portfolio.
    Andy

  • After migrating from iPhoto: Aperture library 81GB and iPhoto Library 17GB

    I Have ~10K images almost all .jpgs. I just completed the "rebuild from masters" command after experimenting with Aperture for a while. I was surprised to find that my Aperture Library was 81GB and my remaining iPhoto library was 17GB. First of all I selected "move" from the "rebuild from masters" command so I thought my iPhoto Library would just disappear. When I open iPhoto all my pictures are still there. So why the large library size difference?
    -thanks

    How long since, you installed Aperture 3? You may need to leave the machine running for quite a while before things start to settle down. Sounds like you may be short of RAM and or a library with a lot of faces. Allan

  • TM backs up Aperture library over and over again!

    Ladies and Gents; I look forward to your insight how this happens. Every time I work in Aperture, Time Machine backs up the whole library file to my Time Capsule(1TB), eating space like hungry dog.
    My aperture library is refrenced, so the actual pictures are stored in folders on the hard drive and Aperture only keeps the references. As I have some 15000 pictures amounting to some 40GB, the referenced library is 18.9GB in size.
    Even when I just delete some pictures (in Aperture) or do minor adjustments (create a version of a picture in Aperture) TM backs up 18+GB every time.
    For now, I have excluded the Aperture library from backups but would like to understand why this bug happens and how to avoid it. I have read somewhere that the latest 10.5.3 updated fixed this - but aperently not for me.
    My software is always updated and the iMac packed with power. Thanx for your time.

    I just did some reading on the forums and it appears that the issue happens when Aperture is running while TM runs backup. Subsequently, next time TM runs a backup while Aperture is not running it will back up the whole Aperture library all over again.
    At the same time some people suggested that 10.5.3 has solved this. Not for me, any ideas?

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