I'm planning to move to Aperture soon. My first attempt at this several years ago was pretty rough. Not understanding the Aperture file structure, I ended up deleting hundreds of master images from the iPhoto library where the only copy was, and the damage was unrecoverable. Understanding a bit more now, having read the eBook, but the workflow is still a bit blurry. So here's the situation.
I have several iPhoto libraries, one has over 30k photos, the other 24K or so. I also have quite a few folders of camera original files that were never imported to iPhoto. Some of these were client-specific, and don't need to be in the library, others are more personal and should be imported.
There is a very high chance of duplicate images in this mess, and an even greater chance of duplicate filenames, as I didn't do anything by use the camera generated filename, and the camera has flipped over its count dozens of times.
I'd like to end up with a single Aperture library without duplicates and on a fresh drive with master files. I'd like to be able to backup one big library, and eventually get all the other image files off at least the main HDD, if not off all the others too (yes, there are 4 drives involved). Ideally, I'd like to keep the iPhoto organization structure, but also add the previously non-imported files, merge several iPhoto libraries, etc.
What's the best path to take? And, is Aperture smart enough not to ditch files with the same name but different dates and content? What I think I need is a combination of Master Managed and Master Referenced. Managed first, to get the files moved to one drive and the duplicates cleared out, then referenced after that. What do the experts say? I want to get this done before the situate becomes even more unmanageable. I'm producing several thousand images a year, and shooting more, not less.
Jim,
You hit the nail on the head in the last paragraph. Moving to a managed system first is a VERY good idea in your situation, as it will ensure that you have ALL photos safely stored before deleting any extraneous iPhoto libraries or other folders of photos. So yes, if you have the space, go managed for the initial creation, then move to referenced once you’re confident you have everything in place.
Aperture’s built-in dupe detection isn’t the best in the world, I’m afraid. It is more that it will err on the side of caution and not delete dupes, than it is that it’d erroneously delete non-dupes, but this can only happen on import anyway.
However there are third part solutions out there; check out this recent post on the topic: “Ten Tips to a Clean Aperture Library (4 of 10) — Dump Your Dupes”. If your dupes are in individual iPhoto libraries, you may want to clean the dupes there before merging. But if you think you have dupes across multiple libraries, then I suppose it’d be best to import to Aperture then go dupe hunting.
I was recently helping someone in a One on One session who had a similar situation with multiple iPhoto libraries. One of the things about iPhoto import is you’ll get a photo structure full of duplicates regardless just because of how iPhoto handles image adjustments — it makes a dupe of the image, makes one an “original”, then bakes in changes to the modified one. So you’ll have dupes, one original and one modified, for any iPhoto treated image, regardless. Ugh.
You may want to consider importing your iPhoto libraries into individual Aperture libraries, then merging those later. Just a thought on sanity management. Up to you of course.
Good luck
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?