deleting previews

But my aperture library still shows it is 170GB on the computer hard drive, I guess this is because of previews!

This can be the Previews, the Thumbnails, the iPod Photo Cache (if you are syncing with iTunes iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder)

Check, what is really taking up so much space : Open your Aperture library by ctrl-clicking it and using the command "SHow Package Contents" from the pop-up menu.

Then look at the sizes of the Preview folder and also look for the iPod Media Cache. How large are these folders?

First question: If I delete the previews, I will no longer be able to view my pictures unless the hard drive is connected? is this correct?

Yes.

Second question: What happens to all the adjustments I have made? Where are they stored? They have nothing to do with the previews, right?

Your adjustments are stored in the versions, not in the previews. The adjustments will not be affected, when you delete previews using Aperture's built in command "Photos > Delete Previews".

Have you considered using a smaller preview size, instead of deleting the previews altogether? Or only deleting them for images, that are less important?

Regards

Léonie

For the OP, adding to:

leonieDF wrote:

Have you considered using a smaller preview size, instead of deleting the previews altogether? Or only deleting them for images, that are less important?

... or moving your whole Library, intact, to an external drive? Whole Libraries are good. External drives today are small, fast, and (imho) bargains. IME you won't see much difference in performance (compared to having the Library on the system drive) with FW800 or faster. USB3 recommended if your computer has it.

And just in case: never open a computer file without having a verified backup on another spindle.

While waiting for Léonie to respond, download the free Disksweeper by the Omni Group.

😉

I have tried looking at the folder sizes but cannot see a preview folder or ipod cache. I dont syn photos to my ipod anyway.

What your screenshot is showing, is not your Aperture library, but the Aperture application.

To show, how much disk space your library is needing, click the Aperture Library. It should by default be located in your "Pictures" folder and be showing an icon like a fan of pictures.

The "Kind" should say "Aperture library".

Ctrl-click it, and the contents should be similar to this:

Does your library look like this?

Is it possible to change the preview size for the 40,000 photos already in the library easily?! That could be a good option! If not I may delete them althougether!

Not directly, you can change the size of the previews you are having already, by changing the quality settings in the Aperture Preferences > Preview panel. Set a smaller size.

Then, whenever you edit an image, the new preview will have the new size, when it is updated. Or force the creation of new previews by holding down the options key ⌥ while using the command "Photos > update preview". The options key will change the "update" to "generate".

Regards

Léonie

P.S: Kirby's suggestion to use a small, portable drive for the whole library is really worthwhile to consider.

There is about 70GB accountable and still wondering what is the other 100GB that makes up the rest of my library!

Display the contents of the library sorted by size - best in list view. Then you should be able to spot the largest items. Like this:

Or check with Omni Disk Sweeper, as Kirby recommended.

Thanks Kirby for your suggestion: moving my entire library. This might be the best option but that sounds even more daunting...

How do I do this when all my masters are already on an external drive?

Moving the entire library is just an drag-and-drop.

• Get yourself an external drive.
• Conect it to your mac and check the formatting of the drive - it should be formatted for MacOS X Extentended (Journaled).
• Reformat the drive with Disk Utility if necessary.
• Repair your Aperture library (Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual)
• Then drag it to the external drive and test.

If you want to include the referenced original again, use the command "File >Consolidate).

Can I easily create a backup on another disk of an entire library?

If you consolidate the library, so that it includes all referenced files, you can drag a copy to your backup drive.

Or include the drive with the library in your regular Time Machine backup.

oiser wrote:

I have now found the contents of the library and see that the previews only ocupy 20GB. The rest is thumbnails: 11GB and masters 28GB which i have not yet relocated. There is about 70GB accountable and still wondering what is the other 100GB that makes up the rest of my library!

You need to run OmniDiskSweeper on the volume. Something is out of kilter with these numbers they don't make sense. Masters thumbnails and previews make up the bulk of the library. After those what's left should be a few gigabytes at most, not 100gb!

I have now checked aperture library size again and it now say it is 59GB. That makes a lot more sense but I'm not sure how it read 170GB up til yesterday,

That makes much more sense.

The aperture library now makes sense. However it tells me Quick time player is 50GB and mail message 48GB. I have moved them to an external drive but I see they are still stored in imovie. I must delete them!

Before deleting on a large scale check your backup situation, please. The items you are talking about are parts of libraries, and it is easy to make bad mistakes.

You mean Quick Time Movies in your iMovie library are taking up a lot of space? Use only iMovie to relocate them to an external drive, or you will lose all your edits in the projects.

mail message 48GB

To check your Mailboxes for mail messages with image attachments define a smart mailbox in Mail:

From the Mailox menu: New > Smart Mailbox.

Then set the rules like this:

Match all of the following conditions:

• Contains attachment
• Attachment Type is Image.

Then delete all messages, that contain large images and empty the Trash and the Junk mail folder.

-- Léonie

Your adjustments are stored in the versions, not in the previews.

Hi there,

may I ask, where these versions are located within the library-package?

Thanks

The versions are very small files describing the edits and are stored in the folder Database > versions inside the Aperture Library package, e.g.

~/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/Database/Versions/2016/03/25/20160325-162920/IZaIcqGDRqKtvhmf thEUXw/Version-2.apversion

Thanks, I see.

And if a version exists for a corresponding original/master, Aperture will then generate a preview to visualize the result based on my RAW image file on which those describing edits are applied to, am I right? (I assume, this scenario will happen for example, when the previews has been deleted).

That is how the versions are used, yes.