Yikes! 298GB Aperture Library?

Wondering why the internal drive on my iMac had suddenly filled up, I discovered that the Aperture library file had grown from 50 GB to nearly 300 GB in just a few days. Granted, I have 40,000+ photos in Aperture, but the dramatic increase in the file size occured without my adding any additional photos to the app. I do remember Aperture spending a considerable amount of time processing...something. Previews? Would this have caused the dramatic increase in the library size? Any way to have Aperture reprocess the previews at reduced Preview quality ("Best" right now) and get some of that drive space back?
Reading the User's Manual, I wondered if I couldn't reduce the library size by converting the Master files to Referenced Masters, since I have all of the loose photos already organized in folders by event and year on the internal hard drive. Is this possible? Woud it reduce the size of the Aperture library file?
While reading the User's Manual, I learned about vaults. I decided to set one up, but immediately got a warning that 40,000+ files were Masters and would be backed up in the vault, but 587 were Referenced Masters and wouldn't be backed up. Now I'm wondering if there is an easy way to find out which photos are Rererenced Masters. Browsing through 40,000 photos to find 587 with a badge is a task I'd rather avoid. Is there some easier way to find them, perhaps via a Search parameter?
I'm now considering moving the loose but organized photos to an external drive -- freeing up some 300+ GB -- and converting the 587 Referenced Masters to Masters and backing up the Aperture library file on the internal drive to vaults on external drives. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
Thanks!

As to your other questions:
I did notice that Aperture was spending a considerable amount of time processing...something. Previews? Would this have caused the dramatic increase in the library size?
You can check the storage required for your Previews by opening the Aperture Library package:
Ctrl-clck the Aperture Library and look at the folders: Masters, Previews, Thumbnails and check the sizes. If your Previews are set to a reasonable size - jpegs sized to fit onto your largest screen, than the "Previews" folder should be considerably smaller than the "Masters" folder.
Any way to have Aperture reprocess the previews at reduced Preview quality ("Best" right now) and get some of that drive space back?
Change the Previews size to the size you want in the Preferences, then select all your images and ctrl-click them. Hold down the "options-key" and select "Generate Previews" from the pop-up menu.
That will rebuild your Previews.
Reading the User's Manual, I wondered if I couldn't reduce the library size by converting the Master files to Referenced Masters, since I have all of the loose photos already organized in folders by event and year on the internal hard drive. Is this possible? Woud it reduce the size of the Aperture library file?
Yes, referencing your masters will reduce the size of the Aperture library, but there is no point in referencing them in the internal, system volume. The amount of storage needed will be the same, whether the masters are inside or outside the library. The only effect will be that your masters are less protected ouside the package.
Referenced masters are best to be used with master image files on external volumes, to free space on your system drive.
I'm now considering moving the loose but organized photos to an external drive -- freeing up some 300+ GB -- and converting the 587 Referenced Masters to Masters and backing up the Aperture library file on the internal drive to vaults on external drives. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
That does sound reasonable to me. Hopefuly other forum members will have additional suggestions for you.
Cheers
Léonie
Sorry for sending my answer in small installments, but Lion is continually dropping the network connection ...

Similar Messages

Backing up and Restoring a large Aperture library

One of our departments is looking to backup their Aperture library (170 Gb and growing). They would like to do an initial backup of everything, and then incrementally from that point. We tried using Retrospect it backed up fine although it took about 30 hours to do it, but when we tested the restore after the full back up a good portion of the photos were inaccessible.
We then backed up a small portion of the library and then tried a restore and all the photos are there.
Any suggestions?
Does Vault allow for incremental backups?
Thank for any help
Denny

I simply copy Aperture Library file (approximately 76 Gb) on an external Hard disk (FW800).
Time of copying approximately 1 hour.
Thus backup copy works perfectly. I have one more Mac and Aperture (MacBook). I once a week copy Aperture Library file on MacBook, it as reserve working station for me, and also on some photos session I take MacBook with myself. Aperture (witch backup library from iMac) works on it fine.

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

My aperture library lives on an external hard drive that is corrupt and I can not locate the library. I do have it backed up with TM. How do I safely restore the library from TM to my laptop? I am using the newest version of aperture on my macbook pr

My aperture library lives on an external hard drive that is corrupt and I can not locate the library. I do have it backed up with TM. How do I safely restore the library from TM to my laptop? I am using the newest version of aperture on my macbook pro.

Hello Sandra,
The article linked below details how to go about restoring items from Time Machine in Snow Leopard.
Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering items using Time Machine and Spotlight
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6379
Sincerely,
Allen

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

I was getting messages that my Aperture Library was full, so I updated to Aperture 5.3.1. When I open it, I'm asked to update my library. When I select that option, I'm told that my library is full. Now I can't access my library at all. What should I do t

Hi all,
I was getting messages that my Aperture Library was full, so made an appointment at my closest Mac store, but have to wait 2 days. They advise you to update saoftware before coming in, so I updated to Aperture 5.3.1. When I open it, I'm asked to update my library. When I select that option, I'm told that my library is full. Now I can't access my library at all. What should I do to access my library? Do I have to uninstall 5.3.1 and reinstall an older version?
Another problem I have recently encountered ... all the up and down scrollers on various screens have disappeared. They reappear fleetingly when I use my up and down arrowa, but I can't always catch them. How do I get my scrollers back?

Thank you so much for your patient guidance and screen captures.
You are welcome.
My external hard drive is properly formatted for Aperture, so I am currently copying my Aperture library to it. That will take hours since it is copying 101 GB.
o.k.
I understand that I need to clean some space on my internal hard drive and reformat the Aperture library to get back in operation.
You need to upgrade the Aperture library to be used with Aperture 3.5.1. That will happen automatically, when you first double click the copied lirary to open it in Aperture.
I'll also need to back up my external drive with a new external drive if I make space on my internal drive by removing some photos from there and store them on my current external drive.
What do you use for backup? If you are using TimeMachine it is better to have only the Time Machine backup on the Time Machine drive . In that case would I put the Aperture library and other data on a new drive and keep the old drive for backup.

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?

Is it possible to share an aperture library with different users using osx server.

is it possible to share an aperture library with different users using osx server.

Not really. You should not be sharing an Aperture library over a network. It's not designed for that and you'll likely corrupt your library at some point.

How can i use an aperture library on a 2009 white macbook?

I made a set of 6 Aperture libraries on my MacPro Westmere using latest version. These open on my MP in iPhoto as well.
A colleague needs these libraries (organisation related photo categories).
They would not open on his white 2009 MacBook -- OS 10.8 with 4GB RAM and oodles of disk space -- with his version of iPhoto - 9.1.
Downloaded latest version 9.4.1 -- Installer says that OS 10.8.2 is required.
Downloaded and installed version 9.3.1 -- claims to be compatible with Aperture library.
File will not open -- Incompatible ProKit message.
Software update does not show any system updates available.
Downloaded 10.8.2
Tried to install -- failed -- Not compatible with this volume
Sigh (repeat x10)
Am I missing something -- I have read lots of slightly similar but different installation issues with 10.8.2 -- all very dispiriting.
ben
0

Thanks again
but...
As I said in my post...
Downloaded 10.8.2
Tried to install -- failed -- Not compatible with this volume
I should have said the 10.8.2 Combo
As I said, it would not update -- it reported that the update was incompatible with this volume!
Yet the minimum specs for 10.8 (now running the machine only installed two weeks ago) and 10.8.2 have not changed.
I might add that I have been working with Macs from day 1 and on Apple ][s from almost day 1.
ben

Can I put an aperture library on a network drive and edit from multiple computers?

I have an Imac desktop and a macbook pro. I want to be able to edit pictures from multiple computers. If I simply put the aperture library on a network server drive in my home, can I edit the same aperture library from both the Imac and the macbook? Rather than always having to sit in my office making changes to files I would love to also be able to do this with my laptop sitting ont the couch or in the kitchen. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Get yourself a small portable external drive for your Aperture library.
An Aperture library needs to be on directly connected drive formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). network access is not supported and can lead to data loss and library corruption.
See Apple's support document: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252

What is the best way to move an aperture library from one full drive to an external drive?

Just want to make sure I move my existing Aperture library on my internal drive (which is full) correctly to an external drive that has plenty of space.
Thanks for the help!

As I use a MBP with limited internal drive space, my approach is to have the image files on an external drive, while leaving the library itself on my internal drive. The library takes up about 80GB while the images are closer to 1TB.
The library always contains 'Thumbnails' of the images which it shows in place of the disconnected image files.
This means I can still open the library even when the external drive is not attached, and I can still do keywording and rating and organising and so on.
I also maintain 'Previews' for my best images. Previews are like thumbnails but larger in size and can be shared with other apps, so I can still use and share these copies of the images, again even while the external drive is not attached.
I don't like the idea of having the actual library on an external drive connected to a laptop (although I have done so from time to time without issue). There's always a chance it can become accidentially disconnected (kids, pets, etc) and if this happens while using Aperture it can corrupt your library. A corrupted library can be repaired with Apertures first aid tools, but it's better to avoid it in the frist place when you can.

Sharing the same Aperture Library between two Mac's?

gents does any of you manage to share the same Aperture Library between your iMAC and a MacBook?
How can I do it without risking to lose anything or to jeopardize the integrity of my library backup?
the idea is to work on Projects while I am on the move and placing them back into my Main Library sitting on my iMAC at home...
Thx!
P

For each project you want to work on, CTRL + Click the project and "Export -> Project as new library". These new temporary libraries can be moved to your MacBook for working on.
When you come back, import the libraries back to your main Aperture Library with "File -> Import -> Library" and choose to merge your changes. The changes you made will be added to your main library. The temporary libraries can then be deleted.
Deleting them avoids the temptation of working on them later, possibly creating conflicts. It best to export new copies from your main library each time you work away so you know you have current up to date versions.
-Najinsky

I have an extensive aperture library on my computer's hard drive and I want to break it up into separate smaller libraries on external hard drives. How do I take projects from one library and add them to another one?

I have an extensive aperture library on my computer's hard drive and I want to break it up into separate smaller libraries on external hard drives. How do I take projects from one library and add them to another one?

Coastal,
Frank gave you the exact answer to your question.
However, I would like to ask if you are indeed asking the right question. Do you really want different libraries? The implications are that you have to "switch" libraries to see what's in the others, and so that your searches don't work across all of your pictures? If so, then you asked the right question. If not, you may be more interested in relocating your masters to multiple hard drives so your library gets smaller, instead of breaking up the library.
nathan

Can't sync Aperture library with multiple user accounts

I have created the aperture library on my main computer account and have synced photos to my iPhone with no problem. I created an account for my wife on the computer and she has admin rights. When I try to sync photos from Aperture onto her iPad I get the error message: You do not have enough rights for this operation. I checked the permissions on the Aperture library and she has Read+Write rights. Is there a solution so that we both can use Aperture for the management of our photo library but still have separate accounts?

yes, as best as I could tell.
This is a library I use for my desktop wallpaper (rotating 5 seconds apiece, random pics) so the images are kept in a folder separate from the library, which is one of the few that I permit to copy images and manage their location.
So I deleted those four images from the library, deleted their album, and reimported them from the main folder, and recreated their album, and all was well.
I presume one of them got corrupted, but the odd thing was that iTunes complained the phone couldn't be synced, and in no way indicated a fault with a file being synced.

Yikes! 298GB Aperture Library?

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