versions vs. originals

How can I also make sure the versions are being saved to the external HD as well? Are they just hidden and I need to unhide them?

Aperture never stores versions as image files at all - versions are images in limbo until Aperture renders the image file, when you export the image from Aperture or share it to another application. Until then, Aperture only stores a recepy for creating the version, when it is needed. This way you can have many, many different versions of the same image without needing much additional disk space. And this is also the basic procedure to ensure the lossless workflow and the ability to revert any adjustment, since versions are always rendered from the original image file, and not from the image files of the previous version.

To speed up browsing, Aperure can store preview images of the current version, if you enable it. But there is no option in Aperture to store these previews referenced on an external drive.

Regards

Léonie

What you need, is a backup of your Aperture library in addition to your backup of your originals, since the versions are part of the library. A good way to backup the library are vaults or including the Aperture library into your regular Time Machine backup of your system.

Steve Hadeen wrote:

Where do I find the ability to enable storing preview images of the current version if I want? I've probably come across it as I use Aperture quite a bit, but don't recall it.

Working with Preview Images