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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

Reply
21 replies

Jan 11, 2012 6:40 AM in response to karbru

Karen,


The files in both areas are not referenced files.

So, your masters within Aperture are managed.


It sounds like you are trying to follow the directory structure within the Aperture library package, and expecting to find the same structure as when you look through your library through Aperture?


Your photos are stored by Aperture in a directory structure that it sees fit. It doesn't matter what it looks like to you, since you use the Aperture user interface to interact with the database.


Or,

The folders and albums are not listed in carbonite the same way they are on the iMac.


Are you looking at them through Finder?

Jan 11, 2012 6:41 AM in response to karbru

Not a solution but a possible reason it's not working with iPhoto and Aperture.


First question does it back up applications or do you just use it to back up data?


Now for the possible reason, you might want to bring this to Carbonite's attention. The Aperture and iPhoto libraries are not really a single file even though they appear that way in the finder, they are a package consisting of many subfolders and files.


If the Carbonite software isn't taking this into account then they will have trouble trying to get at the actual data.


regards

Jan 11, 2012 7:08 AM in response to Mr Endo

Mr. Endo,


I have folders, projects, and ablums in aperture. When I go to the finder, they do not show up. Individual photos show up in the finder, but not my projects and albums. I understand that Aperture works that way. I also know that I am not to change anything in the finder.

I would like to be able to open Carbonite to get aperture photos, but have them show up as they are listed in aperture. IE: 2011 12 11 Party at mom's.


Where would I find where the photos are acutally stored on the iMac?


FYI: iPhoto photos also do not show up in the album structure in Carbonite either.


Maybe this is not possible. Should I store my photos differently on the iMac so that I can find them easier thru carbonite?


Karen

Jan 11, 2012 7:13 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank,


I think it backs up both, but I will double check that.


If the photo libraries are packages consisting of subfolders and files, how do I find them on the iMac? I mean, I can get to them thru aperture, but where are they stored on the iMac? I am coming from a PC, so this is all new to me.


I asked Mr. Endo this same question, but should I be storing my photos in a different folder on the iMac so that I can find them easier thru carbonite?


Thanks,

Karen

Jan 11, 2012 7:19 AM in response to karbru

I suggest you give up on Carbonite.


It is not capable of understand the file structure that iPhoto and Aperture are using.


If you are serious about your proposal to maintain your photos in different folders for Carbonite then I suggest you give up on Aperture and iPhoto because you are defeating their primary purpose of photo management.


As I see it is either Aperture and iPhoto or Carbonite but not both.


Allan

Jan 11, 2012 7:29 AM in response to karbru

Karen,


To follow up on Allan's point, why are you so interested in finding the photos outside of Aperture? As I said earlier, from Aperture's perspective, you should not care where your photos are within the library, since you told Aperture to "Store in library", I.e., have Aperture manage your photos itself.


If you do care where your photos are, then you should not have Aperture manage them. You can use referenced photos in that case and you can manage them yourself (but always through Aperture to "Relocate masters").


nathan

Jan 11, 2012 7:37 AM in response to karbru

The way you can see the contents of an Aperture or iPhoto library is to highlight the library in the Finder, right click and select Show Package Contents but there is really no reason to go there (unless you;re curious) and going there can cause major damage to the library if you're not careful. Accidentally moving or renaming or deleting ant item in the package could very likely make the library unusable to the application.


But I agree with Alan, it doens't appear that at this time Carbonite is able to deal correctly with Aperture and iPhoto libraries.


You're using Time Machine so that's giving you some level of protection. I would also recommend you look into getting an external drive to use as a second backup of the libraries. You could use the vault command in Aperture to backup its libraries or else you could just copy the entire library over to the external drive. Just remember if you get an external drive make sure you format it for Mac.


If you have another question concerning backing up Aperture libraries, you can search these lists its been discussed a number of times or else ask a new question.


good luck


regards

Jan 11, 2012 7:39 AM in response to Mr Endo

Mr. Endo and Allan. I understand what you are saying, but when I went to the Carbonite site to get some photos to put on my ipad, when I was away from home, I could not find the photos in the aperture library. They are listed under numbers, not folder or project names. I have no clue how that structure works. I do not know what the numbers mean. At first I thought it was the date taken, but they all start with the same numbers.


If I do not have aperture store the photos in the aperture library, where else would I store them?


I guess I will just give up on this. I like aperture, so I will most likely stop using Carbonite on my iMac.


Thanks,

Karen

Jan 11, 2012 7:50 AM in response to karbru

Well you could continue to use it, just not for the Aperture libraries (at least not until and if they make Carbonite Aperture aware).


One other possibility mentioned here is to make your Aperture masters referenced rather then managed. As referenced masters they will be stored outside of the library so Carbonite would be able to backup those. What you gain here is at least your master images are in Carbonite, what you loose is it is only the masters that are backed up no adjustments, added metadata, etc. But at least if someting was to go wrong you would have your masters.


As you can see the backup issue is not an easy one to answer. There are many possibilities and each have tradeoffs. Post back with any questions you have.


good luck,


regards

Jan 11, 2012 7:58 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank,


Is it possible to copy the edited versions to the pictures folder where they would have their own album names and leave the aperture folders unchanged?


I would export "versions" of the albums and rename the albums in the pictures folder. They would remain as they were in the aperture folder. I hope I am making sense.


Honestly, I do not know what I am making such a big deal out of this.


Thanks,

Karen

Jan 11, 2012 8:18 AM in response to karbru

You're question about copying the edited versions to a folder is I assume for backup purposes? If so I would strongly advise you not to do it. It's a lot of work for very little reward and basically defeats the purpose of having Aperture in the first place.


As I outlined in my other posts there are other better ways to backup Aperture libraries.


regards

Jan 11, 2012 8:43 AM in response to karbru

Karen,


I have no clue how that structure works. I do not know what the numbers mean.

Neither do most of us. 🙂 Every once in a while I want to investigate something (like, for instance, why my previews are currently not being produced... but that's another story), and I am reinvigorated to find things in the Aperture library package. That usually ends with me shrugging my shoulders and giving up...


When migrating from a PC to a Mac with Aperture, I had lots of heartache since I wanted everything to be transparent. Then I realized that Aperture isn't supposed to be transparent since it's a database. It just happens to use the file system to store things. Mac OS hides that from you (by making the library a package), but Carbonite just sees oodles of files.


However, I just wanted the transparency for the sake of it, and you are looking for a particular purpose. As Frank mentions below, using referenced masters will give you direct access only your masters, not the versions which you probably want. I suspect that, when you left home with your iPad, you did not know you wanted some pictures from Aperture. (If you had known that, you would have just synced your Aperture photos in iTunes and then you wouldn't need to ask this question, right? 🙂 )


I cannot think of a good way to maintain a collection of versions baked into JPGs. (That is to say, versions don't exist as full sized pictures within the Aperture library: they are only instructions to apply to a master, and then thumbnails for use within Aperture.) To gain those full sized pictures, you must export. Then you are using quite a bit more space on your hard drive, and you are backing stuff twice.


On top of that, Aperture will never overwrite files on export. That means that, if you have a project with 10 photos and export them all, but then add 5 photos, you cannot export them all again without having 25 files in your export directory -- 10 from the first batch, those 10 repeated again from the second batch, and then the difference. It would take quite a bit of effort on your part to export only the photos that were not in the first batch. (or else delete all files in the destination of your export and start from scratch.)


nathan

Aperture and carbonite

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