Aperture 3 with Library on a network Disk

so far no: I have only had it for a few minutes but it says the "file system of the drive is not supported." It will not open my library nor create a new library on the networked drive.

I have the very same problem. I can't open nor create a library on a network drive.

I don't think this is a limitation of the trail version, since Aparture2 trail versions worked well with network drives.

My network volume is on a Mac OS X 10.6 Server connected via AFP. The volume works fine with any other application including Aparture2.

Aperture3 will be completely useless for me until this problem get fixed.

I've had it working with the Library on my MP running leopard and accessing it via wireless network on my MBP running SL. I did have that error message a few times but it would often open up after trying it a few times. I think its more of an occasional issue rather than lack of network support

This is a very bad idea. The library needs to be on a local disk with lots of room for small block random read and write access.

Put your master RAW files on a network if you wish, but put the library on a local drive.

You must be kidding. Aperture 2 had no problems whatsoever to operate on a network disk. Why should Aperture 3 not do the same? If you have the library on a separate disk than the pictures, then what about backups and consistency?

I have found an workaround for this issue. Do the following:

- First, upgrade the library to version 3 using Aperture on the computer where you have the disk containing the library; if this is not possible, copy the library on the computer running Aperture and do the update there, then copy the updated library back;

- Then navigate to the network disk where you have the updated library and double-click it: a dialog box will come out saying something like <There was an error opening the database for the library "/Volumes/Media/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary". The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported> Click OK.

- A new dialog box will appear asking "Which library do you want Aperture to use?" and a list with all libraries; among them, the library situated on the network disk. Select it and click "Choose".

- Voila, after a delay depending on the speed of your network and remote disk, the library will open.

Note that this "show" will repeat each time you will start-up Aperture. Anyway, it's better than nothing. I hope that Apple will correct this soon.

And yes, I am using the Trial Version, I will buy a license only after Apple solves this issue!

After waiting so long for Aperture 3, I was so excited to download the trial. To my shock and horror, I encountered the same error. Our network is also OSX server running AFP and although slow, it worked flawlessly with Aper2 (Apple how about some macpro's with 10GB ethernet). This is suppose to be pro software. What pro does not have to share photo's with people at work. This is a glaring omission or defect. I also most definitely can not upgrade until this is either resolved or implemented. It would completely disrupt our workflow.

Does anybody know how lightroom deals with network shares. We are just tired of waiting.

I'm not kidding. It was possible but isn't a good idea.

The library requires A LOT of small block read/write operations. Ask any network tech and they will tell you this is a recipe for major slowdown.

I suggest you read up on how referenced masters work, there are many reasons it's better than managed masters. The only chance for consistency problems is if you go into the finder and delete images manually...


For backup:
- Vaults backup the library
- Time Machine backups the Masters

"although slow, it worked flawlessly with Aper2"

LOL. See my post above about referenced masters.

Put your library on a local drive, put your masters on the share.

...and then use this for your Masters directory.
http://jasonh1234.deviantart.com/art/Aperture-3-Masters-Folder-154264599

Nice Icon Jason - thanks for sharing. How is it 50 miles north from me? (I'm down in Bellingham).

For the original person I replied to - I forgot to mention that you could easily set the user priveleges on the raw master share to prevent people from being able to delete the raw files over the network via finder.

I have been experimenting with Aperture 3 and this workaround for a couple of days and I can say that Aperture 3 is pretty much useless over a network - at least in my case.

I migrated all of my iPhoto libraries (about 33K images / 200 GB) to A3 on Mac 1. The library is on an external disk connected to Mac 1 and everything works fine on this computer. I do notice that A3 with one large library is considerably slower than iPhoto was with smaller libraries. Not too much of a surprise, but the big surprise was how differently it behaved over the network:

- It takes 45+ seconds to load the library over Gb Ethernet.

- None of the thumbnails show up. None of the faces in Faces show up. However, if you open the Viewer on a thumbnail, the image appears quite fast. Nothing I tried could make the thumbnails appear. Looking at the library XML files, the paths and everything look just fine...

- Importing takes forever. I tried importing a small set of 53 images. This would take about 30 seconds with iPhoto (over the network) and after about 20 minutes, I cancelled the tasks. 5 minutes later, Aperture is still trying to cancel.

I don't see anyway to replicate the workflow I had in iPhoto that I was hoping to improve upon using a better tool. I would run iPhoto on Mac 1 with all of the photos in libraries on an external disk connected to Mac 1. From Mac 2, I could open and use the libraries on Mac 2 with negligible speed difference compared to working on Mac 1.

I need a configuration like this to work because my wife and I share the same libraries. I could create a library with referenced masters and somehow sync that library between the computers, but that's not what I wanted. Syncing creates a whole new set of problems...

Any suggestions / recommendations?

Seriously... this is why it's "not supported."

Let's be clear: *You should not use a library on a network drive.* Period. It's a no-go, even if you can hack it to work. Performance will be poor, and you could lose data or your entire library. It's a total crapshoot.

Again, library on local disk. If you want the RAW files on network storage, that's fine, use referenced images. But if you want a network library, you cannot use Aperture, and you cannot use Lightroom, as neither of the databases and structures used by the programs are intended to be used over the network.

Lightroom works the exact same way. Neither product supports hosting the library on a network share.

Aperture is not a multi-user asset management system. That's not what it is. If you want to share with colleagues, "bake" the adjustments in and export versions (JPEG or TIFF) to your asset management system. If you want everyone to access the "undeveloped" RAW file, then use referenced masters and put the RAW files on a network share. This works fine.