I'm new to Aperture 3 and so far have not been able to find out how to transfer images from one machine to another. I understand that one way is via Photo Stream. As I understand it, only 1,000 photos can be uploaded to Photo Steam and downloaded onto other devices monthly. I appreciate that this is a lot of images per month, but my problem lies in being away from my main computer (iMac) for more than a month. Which would suggest that I would be able to only download those images taken in that month and not all that I've taken during my absents from home. Perhaps I'm not understanding Photo Stream correctly. I would be most grateful for advice on this topic as I'm leaving for vacation end of April. Thanks. Patricia
Patricia - I have a nearly identical question. I spent a week away from my iMac with my older MacBook Pro. Over the course of the week, I downloaded my shots into the MBPro’s resident version of Aperture just like I would normally and - to my considerable surprise - when I got home to the iMac, the Aperture program there not only picked up the week’s effort in Photostream, it actually shows a nested folder exactly per my naming convention. Everything seems to be PERFECTLY in place, except it’s not. The actual photos are NOT stored in my Aperture library on the iMac, they’re still on the MBPro and I cannot get them to Import to the proper library.
Any ideas, Joseph?
Patricia and Luke,
Transferring photos from one Mac to another is extremely easy in Aperture 3. The Library itself — that’s the icon that looks like this [screenshot] and probably is in your Pictures folder — can be copied over to another computer via firewire, USB drive or network, the imported into your existing main library using the menu File > Import > Library/Project…. Once that’s done, you can discard the library copied over from the other Mac.
If you are working referenced, then you’ll need to move your master files over as well. But if you don’t know what that means, then you probably aren’t :)
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph and Luke,
Thanks for your responses to my question. Since I’m new to Aperture 3, it was very informative to learn the location of the Library. Its whereabouts has been baffling me since I installed Aperture two weeks ago. I’m still unclear, however, about the method for transferring images from one computer to the other. As I understand it, the Library contains every image in Aperture, so I wouldn’t necessarily want to transfer the entire library over, just the images that I’ve uploaded to my MacBook during a given time.
Sorry for being so ill informed on the use of Aperture, but I’m also at a loss on how to copy the Library onto a USB stick. Would I simply drag the library folder from the finder/picture/Aperture Library in my MacBook onto a USB stick, and then import the library file to my iMac via File/Import/Library-Project as you’ve said. (I’m not working referenced.)
Does this method suggest that it is wise to turn off Photo Stream on both computers? I would probable want to retain the images in my MacBook as a backup copy once the transfer to my iMac has been made. Are there any reasons why I shouldn’t do this?
I look forward to your reply; having the Forum to turn to for advice is very comforting — so thank you to Joseph for such a fantastic outlet.
Patricia Hansen
The way I would do it is put all of the pictures I want to transfer into a project, export the project as a library, then import the library to the other computer.
Hope this is what you were looking for.
Milt
Patricia,
Happy to help.
Yes you’re right, you can just drag the library onto a USB stick, and copy it to the other computer. It really is that easy.
As far as just a partial library, that’s fine too. As Milt suggested, all you need to do is export a project (or collection of projects) as a new Library. Select what you want and then you’ll see the right export option in the Export menu. What’s really cool about the Aperture library/project structure is that if you export a PROJECT from Aperture, it automatically makes a new LIBRARY. You can then import that LIBRARY into another LIBRARY and it will merge the two. this allows you a seamless way to move all or parts of a library to different systems. You can open an exported project, that’s now a library, on its own, or import it into another library.
Just try it… you’ll see what I mean. It sounds more complicated than it is.
As far as Photo Stream, you can apparently now have it running on multiple Macs without a problem (I think when it first came out, if you started it on one Mac, it’d shut it down on the other, but apparently that’s no longer the case). Anyway, if you have Photo Stream set to automatically import on either or both Macs, then there’s no reason to move those over to the other system.
@PhotoJoseph
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Thank you all, Luke, Milt, and of course Joseph, for your help. It’s very much appreciated. All I need do now, is to take some shots when I’m away next week and see how I do transferring them to my iMac at home. Thanks again.
Patricia Hansen