How best to organise my Aperture library?

I would consider using the Aperture Vault feature for backing up. I use two drives for this. One is always connected and I update that vault frequently. A second is stored primarily at work, comes home once a week, and is updated weekly.

I too have only one Aperture library, and its pretty large in size. I have thought about splitting it into two libraries but have no compelling reason to do this yet.

Are you professional? How many shots per year do you think you'll do? And can you split your library along some sensible line in the sand? Such as this library for purely personal stuff, this library for professional stuff, etc.? I have thought myself about splitting it along personal/professional lines, having two libraries, and this thread has reminded me of that. 🙂

Splitting your library over two drives will not decrease the risk that you loose some part of your library; in fact, having two drives that could fail, will double the probability that something can go wrong, it only will limit the possible damage to half your library.

To be on the safe side, create multiple backups, not multiple libraries.

1. Backup your master image files directly from your card before you import them into any image management program like Aperture or iPhoto. Since masters never change, you need to check this backup only occasionally.
2. Backup your Aperture library regularly, as a vault or Time Machine backup; and make sure you have at least two backups - and preferably the storage media should not be kept at the same location; I keep one backup at home, one at my place of work, and a selection of the images that are most important to me in my drop box folder in the cloud.
3. It is important to create a backup, before each major upgrade that will convert your Aperture library to a new format. For this kind of backup I prefer bootable clones (with super duper or carbon copy cloner) of the whole system. This will enable me to restore the system and data quickly to the previous state, in case something goes wrong, or at least to boot from the previous system state, if I need to do debugging.

Regards

Léonie

P.S. Splitting your library:

Aperture is designed to handle large libraries; the big advantage is, that you can browse all your images and combine them from one library. Just assume, you split your library by years. If you want to create a book of your most beautiful sunset shots, you will have to open several libraries, one at a time. Or a wedding album for family members, with pictures from different years will not be possible without switching libraries.

But if you have sets of pictures that are not related in any way - like private and work - then go ahead and split your library; that will make rebuilding and maitaining the libraries easier.

Is there anyway that I can backup my original photos that are already in my aperture library?

Hi,

File > Export > Original ..

and in the File Chooser pick a folder on your backup drive.

I have time machine setup, but I couldn't tell you 100% if my aperture library is included, what's the best way to check?

Open the Time Machine Tab in "System Preferences" and click the "Options" button. Check the list of excluded items.

Also, you can simply enter Time Machine, when your backup volume is connected, and in the Time Tunnel navigate to your "Pictures" folder. You should see your Aperture Library there.

What does vault give you over time machine?

Time MAchine and vault give you different things:

1. The vault will give you a complete snapshot of your library at a certain moment, even a long time ago. You can recreate the library like it has been at that date. However, the vault will not include the referenced images. You can create several vaults, if you want to preserve earlier states and not only the current state.
2. The Time Machine update usually is quicker, since it only stores incrementally the changes since the last backup. If you want to preserve the old vault, you have to create a new one for each snapshot. And you can include the referenced masters in a TM backup. Quit Aperture, before the backup starts, otherwise Time Machine may backup the complete library again. Also, the time Machine backup is automatic, and you do not have to worry about forgetting it. Hourly your work will be saved. Only, it is not possible to control what will be deleted, if your backup drive is full. Time Machine will decide on its own, which older backups to delete. So, to save older backups at fixed times, use vaults.

I do have some separate photo categories so I will create some different libraries, but can I create these from my current library?

Create folders for these categories; then move the corresponding projects to these folders.

You can export each folder as a new Aperture library (File > Export > Folder as Library); and after checking, if all went well, delete this folder from your current library.

😉 But make sure, you have working backups, before you start such a major reorganization.

Regards

Léonie

You are welcome!