support.apple.com/en-us/HT204478
... says that Photos preserves albums. Is this the case even if a folder or Album contains no photos? I ask because I’ve spent a lot of time creating chronological folders containing Albums and have been gradually sorting old, scanned photos from my family history research into them. I haven’t finished the work and don’t want to lose the structure I have when migrating from Aperture.
Photos does not support projects like Aperture.
All Aperture projects will be migrated as albums with the same name.
I just made a test with a small Aperture Library with a few empty albums and projects.
The empty projects and albums have not been migrated to Photos, only the albums and projects with at least an item in them. You may want to test for yourself with a small test Aperture Library, so you will see what to expect.
Photos does not support projects like Aperture.
All Aperture projects will be migrated as albums with the same name.
I just made a test with a small Aperture Library with a few empty albums and projects.
The empty projects and albums have not been migrated to Photos, only the albums and projects with at least an item in them. You may want to test for yourself with a small test Aperture Library, so you will see what to expect.
I susepct that this is where you discover that Photos is a lot less capable for your usage than Aperture. You don't replace an $80 app with a freebie.
There are lots of other options, depending on your requirements and budget.
léonie wrote:
I just made a test with a small Aperture Library with a few empty albums and projects.
Thank you for going to that trouble. It's very helpful to know. So, if I put at least one photo in each Project or Album the chronology contained in those album titles will be maintained.
I'll give it a go as you suggest with a small test Library.
Yes, I understand that Photos is less powerful than Aperture but hope that Apple adds features as OS updates appear. In the meantime, I bought PowerPhotos and Luminar 3 to offset some of Photo's inadequacies. I'm not interested in subscription services like Lightroom. If you have other suggestions I'd be interested to hear them.
Thank you.
Photos will never reach the level of sophistication that Aperture had, it's just not designed for the pro or serious hobbyist use. Again, you don't replace an $80 app with a free one.
Among the non-subscription options:
Photo Supreme
NeoFinder
OneOne Photo Raw
CaptureOne (which has both a buy outright and a subscription model)
These are some that have reasonable quality DAM features. Photo Supreme is actually only a DAM.
On a small note: the makers of Luminar have a track record in over-promising features and not quite delivering. I'd test that the app is good for your usage thoroughly before upgrading to v4 which is due soon. In fact, you might find that the level of updating required to stay up-to-date with an app like Luminar is remarkably similar to paying a subscription.
Also, it is worth noting - and this is commonly misunderstood - that if you stop paying your subscription to Lightroom, the Library part - the organisation bit - continues working. All that happens is you can no longer use the app to edit photos, and I believe the map section no longer works - but the rest works fine. Just saying.
Yes, I understand that Photos is less powerful than Aperture but hope that Apple adds features as OS updates appear.
Phots has become better with each upgrade from the first version on Yosemite to Photos 4.0 on Mojave. But the upgrade to Photos 5.0 will change Photos considerably and you may not like the changes as an Aperture user. Before you upgrade to Catalina and Photos 5.0, check out the documentation for Photos 5.0 when it becomes available. If Photos 5.0 is not suitable for you and you need to migrate to a different application (from the list of alternatives given by TD), you will want to do the migration on a system, where you cab still run Aperture.
Thank you for both of the replies giving more advice. I've spent some time looking at the apps on the list. I hadn't heard of any of them so that was very interesting. Lots to consider and I see your point about upgrade pricing versus subscription rates.
I've switched off automatic system upgrades so that Catalina isn't installed before I think I've done all I can in Aperture to prepare for the eventual migration. The warning about Photos 5 is well taken.
Thank you once again. I think that one or both of you has answered every question I've asked on this forum. You do us all a great service.
I should have included empty Projects in the question.
Empty Albums and Aperture-Photos migration
