UNCMo96
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Q: Move referenced images to exFat

I am moving from an iMac to a new MBP - R. My Aperture library is all on an external drive and is 190gb and has about 21000 images in a managed library. I have a new external usb3 drive that I wanted to move the library on to. I formatted the drive in ExFAT for better compatibility. however, to my dismay after copying the library to the exfat drive Aperture is not compatible. Can I keep referenced images on the external drive? What I am thinking about doing is moving the Aperture library to my HD. Then sending the images out as referenced ones to the exfat external drive. (Will this work for aperture?)

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 8:43 PM

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UNCMo96

Q: Move referenced images to exFat

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  • by Kirby Krieger,Helpful

    Kirby Krieger Kirby Krieger Sep 8, 2012 9:21 PM in response to UNCMo96
    Level 6 (12,522 points)
    Sep 8, 2012 9:21 PM in response to UNCMo96

    Libraries must be on locally mounted drives formatted OS X Extended:

     

    Always use a locally mounted Mac OS X Extended formatted volume to store your Aperture library. Mac OS X Extended is the only file system supported by Aperture.

     

    For Referenced Originals, anything but Mac OS X Extended drives is asking for performance trouble:

    Referenced images stored on FAT32 volumes may sporadically go offline.

     

    Note that you likely won't gain much performance by putting your Originals on a super fast (say, USB 3) drive vs. FW800, and likely will not have any problems working with a Library with Originals on a FW400 drive.  If you move your Library to your system drive, you don't "need" to use your USB 3 drive for the Originals.  A good set-up, though, is to format your USB 3 drive Mac OS X Extended, and put your Library there along with your Originals.

  • by UNCMo96,

    UNCMo96 UNCMo96 Sep 9, 2012 10:34 AM in response to Kirby Krieger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 9, 2012 10:34 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

    Thanks for the help. I reformatted the drive and now am moving the library to it. From what I have read online it seems that if the library is big (mine is 190GB and I shoot in RAW) and growing your are better off having the masters be referenced. I like the idea of having the images outside the library (also means I can share images with my wife w/o needing to open Aperture to export the images from the library).  Can I do the following:

     

    1. Copy the library to the USB3 drive (already done)

    2. Turn the managed library to a referenced one with the masters on the external drive

    3. Move the library file (w/o masters) back on to the system drive

     

    If I do this when I open Aperture with my library on the system drive will it know to find the files on the external drive?

     

    Thanks!