I have a large Apeture library that I wish to move to an external HD. What is the procedure to copy the library exactly as it is organized in my internal HD? Thanks!
With Aperture NOT running, the library can be copied just by drag and drop in the Finder. Once the copy is complete, double-click the library on the external HD and Aperture will open and set the newly copied library as the default library.
If you were using an all managed library (meaning all original images are stored inside the library package - this is the default behavior of Aperture unless you changed it), you’re done.
If you were using a referenced library (meaning some or all originals were stored outside the library package), you also may need to move those to the external drive. But make that move from within Aperture itself. Select the images within Aperture and choose File->Relocate Originals… and point Aperture to the external drive where you want the originals and Aperture will take care of copying them over and updating its own links to them.
Hi Thomas, thank you for the feedback. I will try. I guess I got confused about the procedure for referenced vs managed library. Mine is a fully managed library.
PS: I hope Aperture will not be made unusable any time soon by the advancement in Apple technology. It is such a nice program! I had considered switching to Lightroom, but that is much more cumbersome, IMHO.
I’m thinking Aperture Vaults came before Time Machine was a thing. So they were a convenient way to make a library backup. A vault is in fact just an Aperture Library with a different file extension. Joseph wrote an article on the original Aperture Expert site that explained how you could just change the filename extension of the vault to turn it into a Library that Aperture could open directly.
I was using vaults for awhile but I had trouble with them a few times and gave up on it. I then started using Time Machine to backup the disk and Chronosync to make a separate library backup on a removable HD that I kept in a safe.
In my opinion, a Time Machine backup of your photos is not enough. There should be multiple backups with at least one kept off site or online (e.g. Backblaze.com).
Dear Thomas, thank you very much for the clear and exhaustive response. I have stopped using vaults and transferred my library on an external HD which is then backup’d using Time Machine on another external large and reliable storage disk. Two copies should be enough, I believe. However, I will inquire about Backblaze and Chronosync.
I ran into trouble with a managed library and Time Machine.
If I opened Aperture and made a minor change, like adding a keyword to a photo, the next Time Machine backup was very large. I think it was backing up the entire library, even though only one small file in the library had actually changed.
I suspect the same problem would occur with a referenced library as well, but it needs to be much larger library for that to be a problem. I would do some testing to make sure that is still the case. Apple may have fixed TM since I had tried this which was a few years ago.
With Aperture NOT running, the library can be copied just by drag and drop in the Finder. Once the copy is complete, double-click the library on the external HD and Aperture will open and set the newly copied library as the default library.
If you were using an all managed library (meaning all original images are stored inside the library package - this is the default behavior of Aperture unless you changed it), you’re done.
If you were using a referenced library (meaning some or all originals were stored outside the library package), you also may need to move those to the external drive. But make that move from within Aperture itself. Select the images within Aperture and choose File->Relocate Originals… and point Aperture to the external drive where you want the originals and Aperture will take care of copying them over and updating its own links to them.
Thomas
Hi Thomas, thank you for the feedback. I will try. I guess I got confused about the procedure for referenced vs managed library. Mine is a fully managed library.
PS: I hope Aperture will not be made unusable any time soon by the advancement in Apple technology. It is such a nice program! I had considered switching to Lightroom, but that is much more cumbersome, IMHO.
Stefano
Other question: if I backup the entire library using TimeMachine, what is the purpose of having a vault?
Stefano
Stefano
I’m thinking Aperture Vaults came before Time Machine was a thing. So they were a convenient way to make a library backup. A vault is in fact just an Aperture Library with a different file extension. Joseph wrote an article on the original Aperture Expert site that explained how you could just change the filename extension of the vault to turn it into a Library that Aperture could open directly.
I was using vaults for awhile but I had trouble with them a few times and gave up on it. I then started using Time Machine to backup the disk and Chronosync to make a separate library backup on a removable HD that I kept in a safe.
In my opinion, a Time Machine backup of your photos is not enough. There should be multiple backups with at least one kept off site or online (e.g. Backblaze.com).
Thomas
Dear Thomas, thank you very much for the clear and exhaustive response. I have stopped using vaults and transferred my library on an external HD which is then backup’d using Time Machine on another external large and reliable storage disk. Two copies should be enough, I believe. However, I will inquire about Backblaze and Chronosync.
Thanks again! This site is really great!
Stefano
Stefano
I ran into trouble with a managed library and Time Machine.
If I opened Aperture and made a minor change, like adding a keyword to a photo, the next Time Machine backup was very large. I think it was backing up the entire library, even though only one small file in the library had actually changed.
I suspect the same problem would occur with a referenced library as well, but it needs to be much larger library for that to be a problem. I would do some testing to make sure that is still the case. Apple may have fixed TM since I had tried this which was a few years ago.