How to filter / find referenced photos by where they are located

I think you have covered the options nicely:

• You can search for the file status: "referenced", "managed", "missing", offline
• You can search for the file name, but cannot search for the path to the original.

trying to find for some way to get Aperture to only show referenced photos that are located on a particular external hard drive (EXT1) / within a particular sub-folder.

I'd first create a smart album showing all images on that drive dismounting the drive and using a search rule "File status is offline or File Stautus is missing". All referenced images on that drive should appear in this smart album. Create a regular album from this search result and reconnect your drive.

Back up your external!

Now relocate all files from the your album to the destination folder you want to move them to and look for left overs in the old folders that did not move.

Good luck

Léonie

My next question, which I can post a new topic for if it's suggested, is "can you safely delete the RAW file in a previously imported RAW + JPEG pair?". I did some research into this a few weeks ago but didn't uncover a proper way of doing this, but someone suggested that you can simply just set the JPEG to be the Original/Master within Aperture and then delete the RAW file within Finder.

That is a cumbersome workaround. I cannot really recommend it - I tried it myself. Aperture will complain over and over again about the missing RAW files and even repairing the library will ot fix it. The safer way to remove the raw files from the pair would be to export the jpegs as master and to reimport them, then to delete the older imported versions after lifting and stamping any edits you may have done already.

Aperture's built-in feature to keep only raw for selected images is to allow to import only the jpegs first, browse the images, and than add the raw later for the images that you want to have at a better resolution.

From the Aperture Manual:

If you import only the JPEG files and then later decide you want to download the RAW files as well, you can have Aperture identify and import the RAW files that match the JPEG files in your Aperture library.

To import the RAW files that match the JPEG files in your Aperture library

1. Choose “Matching RAW files” from the Import pop-up menu.The Include pop-up menu appears below the Import pop-up menu.
2. Do one of the following:
   • To import all matching RAW files regardless of rating: Choose “All matching files” from the Include pop-up menu.
   • To import all RAW files matching JPEG files that are unrated or better: Choose “Unrated or better” from the Include pop-up menu.
   • To import all RAW files that match the current rating: Choose “Current filter” from the Include pop-up menu.

Regards

Léonie

Your experience lines up with mine.

Fwiw ... 🙂 ... I know of only one scenario in which I'd recommend recording RAW+JPEG pairs: pros on deadline who need JPG _immediately_. (There are, surely, other scenarios I'm not aware of.) Anyone not on a deadline is better served recording either JPG or RAW. The administrative overhead (the time spent by the user -- storage space is a trivial concern when weighed next to the cost of time and photography equipment) is not worth the gain.

As for JPG v. RAW: (my general advice) record JPG until you are not satisfied.

I don't advise you to downsize your Library by replacing some RAW Originals + Aperture's Version file with a created-and-imported JPG. For me:

- if a digital negative is worth keeping, it is worth keeping all of it.

- digital storage is inexpensive

- administering your proposed scheme (decide, export, import, double-check metadata, add Faces back as needed, &c., double-check location of Image by Project and of Original on storage media, and delete) is simply time I can put to better use developing good pictures or taking new ones. Or answering unasked questions here 😀 .