Aperture in macOS High Sierra...

léonie is correct about your Mac… it will eventually die and/or become useless. This is how I decided to deal with the issue:

My “working” Aperture computer is a 2009 Mac Pro which reached end-of-life 1-2 years ago (Apple stopped making replacement parts). I run it on Yosemite to avoid the few minor problems that Aperture has with more recent OS’s. Last year, I bought a used 2012 Mac Pro that I use for all my other work — it is now running High Sierra. I use “Carbon Copy Cloner” to copy an updated version of my Aperture library to the new computer every few days (CCC is fantastic!). I don’t do any edits on the new computer, but my Aperture library is available for reference, plus this copy acts as another backup. If needed, I can install Yosemite on the newer computer and use it as a “back up” computer for Aperture if/when my other computer dies.

I am slowly migrating my photos to Lightroom on the new computer, but want to complete a huge project of scanning/editing ~50,000 old family photos (from 1885 to 2003) in Aperture before I use Lightroom exclusively. This project will take ~2-3 more years to finish, so hopefully one, or both computers will still be operational. After that, I will simply use Aperture as an archive and use Lightroom for all my future (digital camera) work.

Finally, I also have been exporting a copy of my final edited jpegs to the “Photos” app on the newer computer. Photos — or some future version of the software — will probably be around as long as Apple exists. I periodically give my family members an updated copy of the Photos library. The Aperture and/or Lightroom libraries will simply die after I stop using them. No one will want to deal with those programs, but the Photos app is used by all my family members. This should help assure that the photos out-live me!

The 2012 Mac will probably be at “end-of-life” in the next year, or so. The 2009 Mac is easily the longest I have ever used a computer. However, I can’t imagine using either computer 5 years from now. You’ll have to face the final demise of Aperture at some point! You don’t want all your photos to be lost because you didn’t migrate to a “living” program!

I have a rather big library of Aperture files (5 TB) with some 350,000 photos.

My new way is using Capture One 10: it is an ideal replacement and or addtion to Aperture. It reads the libraries perfectly, leaves the originals in their place. Which means, I can still use the same photo in Aperture and in CaptureOne.

CO10 has great tools on raw files. This made me change my workflow totally on raw. There is so much more in a raw file than jpeg, that the disadvantage of the space it uses is acceptable. I am using the Canon 5MKIV.

Thanks for the update. I am waiting until my wacom drivers are updated, too. Meanwhile, for an Aperture replacement, try Capture One Pro. Its a great replacement to Aperture. You can try a 30-day free trial. Works very similarly to Aperture and you can adjust the editing tabs to work almost exactly like Aperture. Good luck!

I do have MacPhun's Luminar and use it frequently and since I have Lightroom and PSElements [on computer, not online] it would work with those two as a plug in but works fine with Aperture.

Luminar 2018 will be available on November 16. It has finally a new digital asset management tool.

Hi Gary. Thanks for the info. I suggest that you look into a new application called Luminar 2018 for mac. I pre bought it and have been looking at lots of reviews and previews of it and it looks very very good. In pre buy it is only $59 if you get it before the 17th. It's even going to have after the new year the ability to organize your photos like aperture. It's the first serious contender to Aperture that i've seen that doesn't cost a fortune. If it doesn't solve it for me I'll have to get something expensive like capture one but by the looks of what I've seen this is my answer . Here is the link Luminar Photo Editor – Best Photo Editing Software for Mac & PC | Macphun

Ron

léonie wrote:

With respect, is there a replacement for Aperture?

Not by Apple. Apple did not provide a new professional application, suitable for photo professionals or discerning amateurs.

Too busy building phones and iPads no doubt! Judging from the glitches in Apple software recently their ability to produce Aperture quality software has been seriously impaired too.

"You will have to find a third-party application that will suit your needs, and where you can rely on the

third-party vendor to be dedicated to support Apple platforms for many years to come."

I have a tool bar full of Apps I've tried. I'm no longer expecting to find a one to one replacement, but so far the choices are less than acceptable.

Captureone seems, according to posts here, to be the most similar Aperture replacement. (It does allow importing existing Aperture Libraries.) I've avoided it so far because of price. I will rethink that decision.

Hi John,

Although my current EOS cameras / RAW will decode under the current Aperture, the new EOS cameras are not decoded. Bear in mind, if you are going to update your camera (RAW) soon.

I'm sure you have annotated, sorted and curated your images like me over the years. I have used Aperture from the beginning. I am now importing new files (and exporting old files) as referenced, placing them into folders by year and event, so hopefully the next DAM software can pick up.

I know I will have to move my images to a safer 'boat'.

I still remain disappointed at Apple for discontinuing Aperture.

Yes, it does perfectly. This is quite a relieve for me, as it means, even, if the Aperture software does not work, the libraries can be opened.

CaptureOne 10 is a pretty good DAM, very similar to Aperture. The software is very much RAW oriented. It is much better than Aperture ever was in respect to work on your photos. I changed completly to raw, as this gives me much better photos.

There are, though some points which i am missing (and many other user too) coming from Aperture. No stacking is maybe the most important. But they are adding to the software and there is hope that this might come in the next version. Slight other things: double-clicking on a thumbnails opens the viewer picture, but not the reverse. (not going back from viewer by double-clicking to the browser) But you can easily define a key for doing it: N is my work-around for this.

CaptureOne does not support to big libraries. I have some really big ones in Aperture. So you have to change your habits in work on smaller libraries. I would say 10000 to 20000 photos is ok. As this is also a problem for converting Aperture to CO10, it means, i have to make the libraries smaller by exporting parts into separate libraries.

I just tried to install Aperture 3 (trial) that I still had, but I could not install it.

The trial will give you a very early version of Aperture 3, if you manage to install it at all, aperture 3. or similar. It is not possible to update this version to Aperture 3.6, because all newer aperture visions since Aperture 3.4.5 have only been available from the App Store and not from Apple's downloads page.

You can only download Aperture 3.6 from the AppStore if Aperture is your Purchases History at the App Store.

If you do not have Aperture in your Purchases history, and only a registration number to unlock the Trial, you need the help of Apple Support to provide a redeem code for the Mac App Store. In some case Apple Support helped to get update for the current version.

Other than that, there is no way - you cannot even purchase Aperture again to get a version compatible with High Sierra,

.

It may be too late to get Aperture 3.6 now. You can only update to Aperture 3.6, if you already own an Appstore version of Aperture. It needs to show in your Purchase history at the App Store, otherwise you need the help of Apple Support to obtain the update, if they are still willing to help.

See this User Tip: Updating to Aperture 3.6 After the Release of Photos

point I opened Photos & now all my pics and Projects are in the Photos System library & I can't get them back into Aperture

That does not mean that they are removed from Aperture. They aren't. The migration procedure leaves your Aperture library untouched. There's nothing to get back to Aperture.

ArisaemaDracontium

Yes... The keywords, geotags and any standard (IPTC) info will stay with the exported photo. However, custom Aperture tags should be converted to keywords first. Also, as Leonie mentioned, I also flattened my keywords before exporting. All my info shows up in Lightroom without problems. Of course, the "Face" locations are not preserved on the image, but at least the face name is preserved as a keyword.

David

Hi Gary,

thanks for your feedback!

I think that the best alternative to Aperture is Capture One Pro 11 … so in Capture One Pro you can import the Aperture Library incl. the most important settings you’d made in Aperture … I’ll hope it will run an I’ll gonna test it in January.

Oliver

I have finally migrated as well as started with a fresh library with Capture One Pro 10, took me a few months but it's worth it. C1P is easy to use and in many ways more capable than Aperture. It wasn't the easiest decision to leave Aperture but I can reassure you C1P is the answer, not Lightroom or others. I still run aperture on High Sierra for really old projects which I plan to move over to C1P too since I have already established a smooth workflow. Try it!

There are some apps that work well with that kind of structure, and I suggest you check out On1 Photo Raw, DxO Photolab or Mylio, which actually can be used together.