Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

19 points

Aperture and carbonite

I used carbonite for backup on my pc, and it worked great. I am also using it on my iMac. It is backing up my iTunes and documents just fine, but it isn't backing up my aperture or iphotos photos correctly. The files in both areas are not referenced files. I am currently working with carbonite on this. They sent me up to tier 2, and I am awaiting a call back.

The folders and albums are not listed in carbonite the same way they are on the iMac. In fact, I cannot follow the carbonite structure st all. I can only find two folders with the correct name.

Does anyone here use carbonite to back up photos from the iMac? Is there something special I need to do to get aperture to work with carbonite? I do use the apple time machine backup about once a week.

Thanks,

Karen

iMac, iOS 5

Posted on Jan 11, 2012 6:10 AM

21 replies

Jan 11, 2012 10:40 AM in response to karbru

Correct. Any Apple application that uses a database for storage of its data cannot be reliable backed up to Carbonite. It is not capable of handling the linkages that they use in the database. Personally I see little or no chance for this to ever change.

Allan

Jun 19, 2012 9:23 AM in response to karbru

I'm picking up on this discussion well after the fact (6 months later), but my question is regarding Aperture and Carbonite. So I will post it here and see how it flies.

Yesterday, I just purchased a year sub to Carbonite (due to their effective advertising on key podcasts I follow).

I don't intend to use Carbonite to access or retrieve particular photos (from home or on the road) as I think Karen (the original poster) was wanting to do. I understand that drilling down into an Aperture library for photos (from outside of Aperture) is not a good idea whether on your Mac or a Carbonite backup.

My question concerns simple backing up of the whole Aperture Library.

Is the conclusion of this discussion that Carbonite should NOT be used to backup an Aperture library (or Vault)?
Are you saying that Carbonite could not be used to restore a library or vault to your Mac? That Carbonite is not capable of an exact backup "copy," that it somehow changes or corrupts a library or vault so that copying back down to your Mac to open in Aperture will not work?
If Carbonite CAN be used to backup and restore a library file or vault to your MAC, is it better to use Carbonite to backup a "library" file OR a "vault" file?

Any help or insight you can share will be greatly appreciated.

Bill

Jun 19, 2012 9:35 AM in response to karbru

Apologies, I should have done more research on this forum before posting to this thread. Apparently, the problems with Carbonite and Aperture/iPhoto have been widely discussed and the conclusion is I may have wasted my subscription money (at least as it concerns protecting my Aperture library).

iCloud is not the answer for an Aperture-cloud solution.

What are Aperture users using for cloud-backup?

Bill

Jun 19, 2012 12:38 PM in response to Bill @ 417

Hi Bill. Perhaps someone can suggest something -- I think at least one regular poster uses an on-line back-up as a third level of protection.

I looked into on-line solutions and found them too expensive. I generally suggest purchasing two external HD's for each Library, 1 or 2 TB each, depending on the Library size, and using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy to make sparse bundle back-ups. Leap-frog the drives, and _always_ keep one off-site (never have your Library and both back-ups in the same briefcase, car, room, or building.

Jun 19, 2012 1:55 PM in response to Bill @ 417

I concur with Kirby.

I found the online backup solution to be too expensive and upable to reliably backup my Aperture library.

When I tested it the library that was restored while it did have my photos, all the rest of the metedata was either missing, unusable or erroneous. So I dropped the idea of online backups for external disks.

Allan

Jun 19, 2012 5:14 PM in response to Bill @ 417

Thanks Kirby and Allan. I do keep external vaults, one at home and one at work. Plus I have Time Machine running at work. I also keep a SuperDuper clone of my drive, one at home and one at work. Perhaps that is sufficient, but I was wanting a "cloud" solution just to cover all the bases. However, from reading I've done, I think I agree with you that hard drive vault copies will have to do. I'm afraid the upload times (not to mention typically slower download times should a restore be needed) and lack of confidence in the accuracy and completeness of cloud backup services will keep me away.

Thanks again for quickly responding to my post!

Bill

Aperture and carbonite