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User profile for user: cormacfromvic
cormacfromvic Author
User level: Level 1
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Moving Aperture Library

Hi All,


I am interested in moving my aperture library from one drive to another. Reason is, I have a new Mac with a thunderbolt port and there are drives on the market with thunderbolt connections (I'm thinking specifically the 1TB 'Lacie Rugged USB3 Thunderbolt Series'). I wish to move the libary to a new thunderbolt drive as I assume this will be faster than firewire (which I am currently using - an older 1TB Lacie Rugged).


If anyone could help me with 1) confirming or otherwise the assumption that thunderbolt is faster than firewirem, and 2) that moving my library to a drive with thunderbolt connections will achive better performance from Aperture, and if so 3) how to move the library across without freaking out the, lets face it, easily spooked Aperture...then that would be much apprecieated!!


Thanks!

Cormac

Aperture 3, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 15inch MBP, 2.7Ghz i7, 8GRAM, SSD

Posted on May 17, 2013 4:02 AM

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User profile for user: Kirby Krieger
Kirby Krieger
User level: Level 6
12,592 points

Posted on May 17, 2013 6:53 AM

Hi Cormac. Thunderbolt transfer speeds are significantly faster than FW800. Transfer speeds vary by drive (not all drives are equal -- check before you buy). Any Thunderbolt drive should give you better performance holding an Aperture Library than any FW800 drive.


Moving a Library is simple. Use Finder to move the ".aplibrary" file.


If any of your Images have Referenced Originals, those Originals will not be moved. The Library will still look for them, and find them, wherever they are. If you wish to move them, you must use Aperture's "File➞Relocate Originals" command.


I run some large Libraries off of USB-3 drives. Works well.


In general, you want your Library on the drive with the fastest throughput. If you have to put it on an external drive (there are many good reasons for this), both USB-3 and Thunderbolt are recommended.


While I'm sure you will see and appreciate faster performance after the move, don't expect a miracle. Aperture is a large, complex database management system. A large Library, or a large Image with many adjustments, will always challenge your hardware.

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User profile for user: Kirby Krieger
Kirby Krieger
User level: Level 6
12,592 points

May 17, 2013 6:53 AM in response to cormacfromvic

Hi Cormac. Thunderbolt transfer speeds are significantly faster than FW800. Transfer speeds vary by drive (not all drives are equal -- check before you buy). Any Thunderbolt drive should give you better performance holding an Aperture Library than any FW800 drive.


Moving a Library is simple. Use Finder to move the ".aplibrary" file.


If any of your Images have Referenced Originals, those Originals will not be moved. The Library will still look for them, and find them, wherever they are. If you wish to move them, you must use Aperture's "File➞Relocate Originals" command.


I run some large Libraries off of USB-3 drives. Works well.


In general, you want your Library on the drive with the fastest throughput. If you have to put it on an external drive (there are many good reasons for this), both USB-3 and Thunderbolt are recommended.


While I'm sure you will see and appreciate faster performance after the move, don't expect a miracle. Aperture is a large, complex database management system. A large Library, or a large Image with many adjustments, will always challenge your hardware.

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User profile for user: jetset95
jetset95
User level: Level 1
8 points

May 18, 2013 6:23 AM in response to léonie

I have a 1 Tb internal drive so I use that for my recent libraries. I catalogue by date first so have a library for 2013, 2012 etc which are the two I keep on my internal drive and the older ones which are not accessed anywhere near as much these days are on a USB backup if I need them. Using an older I Mac so only have one FireWire port which I have my Time Machine drive linked to.

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User profile for user: cormacfromvic
cormacfromvic Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

May 18, 2013 8:47 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Hi Kirby,


Thanks for your quick reply. Much appreciated. Sounds like will be worthwhile moving to a thunderbolt drive where possible.


Just want to double check the second part of your response....where you say 'moving the library is as simple as using Finder to move the ".aplibrary" file...


That strikes me as being a little too simple (for Aperture!). I was always under the impression that if you moved the library, you had to really sit Aperture down and talk him through it....you know, like show the program exactly to where the library had been moved to, and really spell it out by way if some special process (the very thing I was expecting to hear about when I asked the question of how to move a library) to make sure Aperture knew where to find its database.


Dont get me wrong, if it's as simple a dragging the library file to a new location, then great! But I guess with Aperture being quite the tempremental beast, I kind of expected something more instructive?


But just to be clear, can you please confirm that you are suggesting moving the library from one drive to another is as simple as dragging it in Finder to the new location? And that once this is dragged and copied to new location that Aperture should have no problems connecting to the library and carry on like nothing ever happend?


The drag and drop just sounds too good to be true (though I hope I am wrong)....so thought would check before messing with the beast.


And yep, drives formatted for Mac (Extended) and have two fresh Vaults in safe places in case the move goes wrong!


Cheers

Cormac

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
194,761 points

May 18, 2013 9:18 AM in response to cormacfromvic

Cormac,

The drag and drop just sounds too good to be true (though I hope I am wrong)...

Trust Kirby on this 😁 it is as simple as that - drag and drop from one drive to the other.


Just avoid the obvious silly mistakes. Seeing that you are having a MBP, don't do the copy while working on battery power, if the library is large. Check if the drives are plugged in properly and the cables cannot get unplugged by moving something on your desk, like your coffee mug or your mouse. Don't copy using a different user account to avoid permission problems. Don't copy using the network.


Check the copied library carefully before deleting the original. To open the copied library in Aperture simply double click it.

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User profile for user: ontravel
ontravel
User level: Level 1
24 points

Mar 21, 2014 1:57 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

OK, new drive has arrived and I'm nearly ready to go.


On thing I always wanted to ask experts is:


Some drives have their own set-up utility integrated, including my new LaCie rugged. LaCie's utility allows you to select how you want it partioned and even enables you to chose partly Windows and partly Mac. I selected ALL Mac and can see "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) when I open Disk Utility.


It that sufficient or is is better to format the drive with Disk Utility?

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Moving Aperture Library

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