Aperture freezing for minutes- Why can't it just work?

Yep you have a problem and I don;t think it is just with Aperture. Aperture may be slow but its usable. I have it on a 4b MacBook (not pro) running Lion and it works fine.

Have you looked in the console logs to see if anything is being repoerted.

Not enough RAM and you probably have one or more hard drives overfilled. Please advise how full every hard drive is and how they are connected.

One test is put a small test Library on the SSD and see how it performs.

More to follow. That is an old box (I have a simillar old MBP kept for emergencies) and Aperture performance is limited by the hardware.

-Allen

Hunter-

Like I said above RAM is probably too low but 4 GB is probably the max on that older MBP (my 2.33 GHz MBP maxxed at 3 GB RAM).

Evaluate whether or not you have adequate RAM by looking at the Page Outs number under System Memory on the Activity Monitor app before starting a typical Aperture work session; recheck after working and if the page outs change (manual calculation of ending page outs number minus starting page outs number) is not zero your workflow is RAM-starved. Ignore page ins, the pie charts and other info in Activity Monitor.

If your test shows that page outs increase at all during operation it is affecting performance (however the SSD should make page outs more tolerable, so I am puzzled, and suspect there may be another issue. but first do what I discuss here). You can

- add RAM if feasible

- Run as few other apps as possible when running Aperture. Browsers especially can suck RAM Aperture would otherwise take advantage of. Your SSD boots in 20 seconds and apps load in 3 seconds so always run Aperture by itself.

- Restart before every Aperture session to clear any memory leaks

- and/or switch from 64-bit operation to 32-bit operation (which will make some additional RAM space available). Note that your Mac may already default to 32-bit. See Switching Kernels:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3773%5DMac%20OS%20X%20v10.6:%20Starting%20up%20wit h%20the%2032-bit%20or%2064-bit%20kernel

- For sure run a workflow with the Library on the internal drive and Masters on external drives.

Personally I recommend upgrading your hardware to a 2011 MBP with SSD and top graphics. I did, and it rocks. The recent speed bumped MBPs have even better graphics. All the 2011 CPUs are strong for Aperture but be sure to get a box that will upgrade to at least 8 GB RAM, and I recommend the stronger graphics of the top MBPs if a laptop is to be your primary Aperture box.

The meaningful variation is in RAM, graphics and SSD. Do not even consider a box without SSD.

HTH

-Allen

P.S. Try to verify that all 4 GB RAM is actually working.

P.P.S. Drives slow as they fill so reporing on how full drives are is important.

how large is the library you are working out of?

sorry, I didn't read all of the first post. I would try what someone else sugested and try running a small library and see how it performs. I have a newer macbook pro with the latest and greatest processor and ram and I am still running into problems working off of large library. I am in the process of consolidating my old photos and cleaning up some older work so that I can start a new library. That way aperture will not have to process an excessively large library everytime i want to work in a smaller project. everytime i open aperture, i stare at that little rainbow wheel for countless minutes. very upsetting. good luck!

You have not described whether managed vs. referenced Masters. As the Library grows use of managed Masters slows operation, and sooner or later it usually becomes problematic.

Being 85% full has seriously slowed down the HD, and with the Library on it I would expect very poor performance. Lame hardware needs to be optimized rather than compromised. See my earlier posts.

Be sure Previews are set to be created manually, not automatically, and do not create Previews while editing.

-Allen

Hunter-

My recommendations regarding optimizing Aperture on your seriously inadequate hardware (which I also ran for years on similar lame hardware) are above. To the extent that you choose not to follow those recommendations like overfilling hard drives, usage of large managed-Masters Library, etc. I expect that you will continue to experience more poor Aperture performance than necessary from your old MBP.

Note that your SSD test Library proves the process can work. No super nerd needed to tell us that or to tell us why minimalist hardware is underperforming while trying to run maximum strength pro image software on huge managed-Masters Library sizes.

In case I was previously unclear, I recommend:

• No hard drive more than, as a rough guideline, 70% full; even less full is better. With top hardware we may get away with intentionally making drives underperform by overfilling them to 85%, but with lesser hardware we must optimize at every possible bottleneck (at least that is my philosophy, which worked with my 2006 MBP).

• Aperture Library on the SSD, 100% by reference. You have not told us the SSD size, but usually if one keeps Preview sizes small and keeps Masters and other non-instantly-necessary data off the SSD one can use the below workflow (I do).

• Masters referenced, not managed. Ideally put Masters on the SSD, back up originals to external drives before import into Aperture, then import into Aperture, then edit, then from within Aperture move Masters from referenced on the SSD to referenced on hard drives. If the SSD fills then do not put even unedited image Masters on the SSD.

If you want the full epistle on why managed-Masters are inappropriate in most cases please let me know.

-Allen

Whoops I see you did post that you have a 128 GB SSD. Sorry for missing that.

With that size SSD you should with care be able to get a referenced-Masters Library to fit on the SSD.

-Allen

SierraDragon wrote:

No super nerd needed

Oh I don't know. I think we can always use a Super Nerd once in a while.