How do I move not copy but move my aperture library to another external hard drive?

With Aperture closed, select your Library package in Finder (it shows as a file with the extension ".aplibrary" and drag it to the new location. Then launch it and confirms that it works. Then delete the original.

If you really want to move in one step, press and hold "{Command}" while dragging and dropping between drives.

@fstopjohn: as Kirby says 🙂 It really would be safer, to copy the library and to test it in the new location, before you delete the original!

And one more thing: make sure, that your external drive is formatted "MaxOS X extended", before you move your library there.

actually, I got my aperture to work on an exfat formated drive. Apparently the format doesn't matter so long as it's not ntfs

actually, I got my aperture to work on an exfat formated drive. Apparently the format doesn't matter so long as it's not ntfs

You have been lucky. Probably all your file names are the standard name "IMG 1234.jpg" or something. I would not rely on it to work - you are using Aperture outside the specifications. Apple specifies that MacOS X Extended is required; see this knowledge base article:

Aperture: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252

I'd like to move my Aperture library to an external drive as well, and was wondering if it makes any difference whether the library is managed or referenced? The OP didn't say what he is using, but mine is referenced with the images on an external drive and the library is on the internal drive of my MBP.

Would I use the same method?

Thanks.

No. This is bad. You will have problems. And you won't know why they're happening. You should format a drive as HFS+ immediately, and if you still have the original (Pre-copied) version you should copy that to the HFS+ drive.

The copy on the FAT drive is going to have problems sooner rather than later.

Referenced files mean that the files are only links. If you move the library, as long as the links are aliases, the library should work when both external drives (or the one external drive) is plugged in. I don't guarantee trying this though as if they are hard links, and not aliases (which can track files even if they move), then it will break the library.

Yeah. I moved my whole library to a new, dedicated harddisk which is formated properly

ajkldsz wrote:

Referenced files mean that the files are only links. If you move the library, as long as the links are aliases, the library should work when both external drives (or the one external drive) is plugged in. I don't guarantee trying this though as if they are hard links, and not aliases (which can track files even if they move), then it will break the library.

Is there anyway control whether Aperture uses aliases or hard links?

I copied the library file to an external drive and it seems to be connecting to the reference files on a separate drive. So it looks like everything is working properly for now.

Thanks.