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transfer photos from aperture to iphoto

I have had nothing but problems with Aperture since buying it.


It constantly crashed my MacBookPro and after sending info thru to Apple, I was given a full refund. I love Apple and all of their products I've used except this one.


The problem I am now faced with is getting all my photos out of Aperture and back to iPhoto. When I try to open my Aperture library a pop-up appears stating "There was an error opening your Aperture library" My only option is to press the "close" button on the pop-up window.


I want to extract all my photos from Aperture and keep them in iPhoto so I can get Aperture off my MBP once and for all.


Any suggestions?


THANKS!


I'm not certain it's of any importance, but I have Aperture on an external drive.

Macbook Pro

Posted on May 5, 2012 5:41 AM

Reply
8 replies

May 5, 2012 7:24 AM in response to SinnFeiner

SinnFeiner wrote:


I have had nothing but problems with Aperture since buying it.


It constantly crashed my MacBookPro and after sending info thru to Apple, I was given a full refund.

Technically, this sounds like you should not be loading Aperture into memory as you no longer have a license.


You can certainly control-click (right-click) on the Aperture Library package and run the 'Show Package Contents' command. Copy out the 'Masters' folder to the desktop and you can drill down into the folder and extract the Master image files found inside (heirarchy is set-up by Year / Month / Date-Time based on import).


If Apple has said you can load Aperture into memory to retrieve your images, then copying the Aperture.app to the '/Applications' folder would be the correct placement of the application to run it on your machine. 😉

May 5, 2012 7:37 AM in response to SinnFeiner

Have you tried the Aperture Library First Aid tools, as described in

Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805 ?


I may not be possible to launch the First Aid panel, but you should at least try it.

  • Press and hold the Option and Command keys as you start Aperture. The Aperture Library First Aid dialog will appear and offer three troubleshooting options: Repair permissions, repair database, rebuild database.
  • Try them in this order, if Aperture launches this panel.


If you cannot get Aperture to open this panel, create a new, empty Aperture library and try to import the corrupted library into the new one.

To create a new Aperture Library hold down the option key while you lauch Aperture by double click on the Aperture application icon.


Then select to create a new library.


Regards

Léonie

May 5, 2012 7:53 AM in response to CorkyO2

What is the "show package contents" command?


I want to get Aperture off my machine, as it's been one major headache after another. I just want my photos out of Aperture. I'm planning on getting different editing software, and the only thing I want is my photos.


If I copy out the masters folder, will I be left with my original unedited photos? I've spent so time and energy on these and hope I'm not left back at square one.


I'm not really too computer savvy, but I'm not stupid either. If you could give me directions in more simple terms it would be greatly appreciated.


I don't quite understand "drill down into [masters] folder"

May 5, 2012 8:17 AM in response to SinnFeiner

What is the "show package contents" command?


The Aperture library is a set of folders, combined into a package. You open it by ctrl-clicking the package icon in the Finder, then selecting "Show Package Contents" from the pop-up menu.


If I copy out the masters folder, will I be left with my original unedited photos? I've spent so time and energy on these and hope I'm not left back at square one.

Yes, the Masters-Folder contains the original, imported Masters folder. Your edited versions only exist in a state of limbo - Aperture creates them only when you export them from Aperture. In the library only the instructions on how to create the versions from the master images are stored.


That is exactly why I suggested to try to repair the Aperture library in my previous post. Only Aperture can create youe edited versions from the master image files.

I don't quite understand "drill down into [masters] folder"

Corky02 meant - Ithink - to open the Master image folder and to browse it in the Finder by openeing the subfolders until you reach the indiviual master image files.

The Masters Folder stores the images by import date and the folders are named by year -month -day of import.


Ask back, if you need more information.


Regards

Léonie



P.S. Do you have a recent backup of your Aperture Library? Then you would only have to recreate your most recent edits.

May 5, 2012 8:42 AM in response to léonie

I am taking your advice LeonieDF.


So far, I've went through two of the three steps (in order) in the first aid tool. After permissions repair, Aperture tried to open and I got the same "error" window.


When I tried the second, "repair database", it would just close the first aid window and Aperture.


I am currently in the last option. "rebuild database". I'm thinking this step might take a while.


I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that I can retrieve my images in both their master and edited forms, get them into iPhoto, and keep them here until I purchase a different editing software.


This will become a terrible nightmare if I can't get my edited images, but it's 100x times better than losing them.


Thank you LeonieDF and Corky02!


My library 'rebuild" is at 6,000 versions restored and counting. I'll post results/update when this third first aid step has finished.

May 5, 2012 10:22 AM in response to SinnFeiner

I am glad that worked for you.


Sorry for keeping you waiting - dinner time!


NOW....

How do I transfer all these files to iPhoto? Export from Aperture? Import from iPhoto?


Exactly - export from Aperture to a folder on your hard drive and import from the Finder to iPhoto.


There are two export options (to a folder on the disk) in Aperture:

  • Export versions
  • Export masters

You will want to do both, since you want to migrate to iPhoto. Do you have enough free disk space to hold all exported images at once?

Then select all images at once in the browser in Aperture and select "File -> Export -> Versions..."

In the panel that appears, select a suitable export preset (one with "original size" in the name). You will have to make up your mind, if you want to export with a lossless quality that will allow further high quality edits, like tiff, or a good quality for browsing and printing (and higher compression) like jpeg.


Then specify a subfolder format to keep your exported images organized - project name would be a good choice.


Do the same for the master image files, to be able to revert to the master images, if need be.


Then launch iPhoto and import the folder with the exported versions.

File -> Import to Library

and select the folder to be imported.


There will be no way to transfer your albums, book, slideshows.

These you will have to recreate in iPhoto.


Make up your mind, if you also want to reimport the master image files too. This way you will have two separate master image files for each image -version and original master. Thereis no way to combine them into a master-version pair like in Aperture. It might suffice just to make a backup of the master image files, just in case you need to reprocess them, if you find some of your edited versions need polishing up.


Good Luck


Léonie





First export your versions:

transfer photos from aperture to iphoto

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