Aperture and external hard drives

1) when i try and back up my aperature photo's to my external hard drive - by selecting all the photos in a project and dragging them to the folder in the external hard drive. When i do this not all of the photos i have selected transfer over. Ie i select 300 and only 42 get transfered if i retry the process in a new folder maybe 79 will get transfered.

When you select all images and drag the images from an Aperture project to a folder, you are not saving the full resolution images but only a smaller preview of the image, if the image has previews. Compare the pixel sizes of the original and the dragged images.

i went to a local mac dealer who said there is a glitch in aperature when trying to save to an external drive. So my first question is this true or is there a way around this.

I don't know about a glitch when dragging to an external drive - what problem exactly did the the Apple dealer refer to?

Is your drive formatted for mac? If not, the size of folders on this drive will be limited and you cannot save large projects on the drive.

2) this guy mentioned above told me to get an additioanl external drive and use time machine to back up my photos. i bought another to do this but my question is - if i need to delete the photo's from my computuer (to free up space) and i am using time machine will it not take a new picture of my computer which no longer has my phto's on it?

You are right, Time Machine will not do archival backups - it will save the current state and delete older backup, if it needs space. But still, if you do not have backups of your Aperture library create Time Machine backups to be able to restore the current state. It is a necessity, to have goood, current backups.

If you want to free space on your computer by deleting images from the Aperture library and archiving them somewhere else, export the images to another drive.

• Make sure the drive is formatted MacOS X Extended (Journaled). See this document: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture
• Then select the images in the project and use the command "File > Export > Originals" to save the full resolution original image files to a folder on your external drive.
• Or use the command "File > Export > Project as Library" to save the project as a new, partial Aperture library.

You could also drag your Aperture library to the external drive, to save a copy of the library as it is now,

Regards

Léonie

Hi, I know this is a late reply, however, maybe you have not learned about the Aperture Vault before.

See this article http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7812

regards

Hi Léonie,

Thank you for your help!

I wish to move a huge chunk of my pictures under Aperture to an external hard drive, to save some space on my Macbook. Once they will be moved, I will delete them.

I however want to make sure I will be able to still easily plug in the external hard drive and edit pictures. I am also concerned that these pictures will still be organised and hold all the information (metadata, etc) I had previsouly attributed to them. Would that be the case?

I am fine simply needing to connect the external hard drive to see those pictures and edit them, if this saves me space on my Mac

Also, do I need to check whether my pictures are 'referenced' or 'managed'?

I'm running on OSX 10.9.2 and Aperture 3.5.1

I have had a look at different posts, including the ones you have written. If I got it right, these should be the steps I should take:

1) Make sure I have a full back up first and that my external hard drive is formatted MacOS X Extended (Journaled)

how to do it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

2) Either (from your previous posts):

• Then select the images in the project and use the command "File > Export > Originals" to save the full resolution original image files to a folder on your external drive.
• Or use the command "File > Export > Project as Library" to save the project as a new, partial Aperture library.

OR

• Create a folder on your external volume, where you want to store your master image file.
• Select the projects you want to move to your external volume and select all images in these projects at once.
• From the Aperture main menu bar select "File -> Relocate Masters", and in the File chooser panel navigate to the folder on the external volume. Pick a name format and a subfolder format, then press the "relocate" button.

Would I need to delete any pictures on Aperture after these steps, to ultimately save space on my laptop?

3) How do I open my different Aperture libraries then? If I wish to only access those remaining on my laptop, I would only have to click on the Aperture icon? And if I wish to look or edit those on the external hard drive, I merely have to connect the hard drive and click on the pictures? Will all edits (metadata or retouching) be taken into account on the pictures of the hardrive?

4) I would want to the back up everything I have just transfered. Using Time Machine (with another external hard drive) AND my cloud service (Zip Cloud), who allows a laptop + external hard drive back up. For this cloud back-up, as well as Time Machine, once I have done the first back up of laptop + connected external hard drive, would I always need to have the external hard drive plugged in, if I wish for both services to not "delete" the pictures on the external hard drive from being saved??

Thank you very much for your help and advice!

Diane

Hi Diane,

I nearly missed your question. 🙂 It is not a good idea, to append such a detailed question to an old thread - many of us will have disabled notifications for old threads and not look at long, old threads again. Next time simply start a new thread with your question, and then we will see it sooner.

I wish to move a huge chunk of my pictures under Aperture to an external hard drive, to save some space on my Macbook. Once they will be moved, I will delete them.

Create an album of all images you want to move to an external drive.

If you want to move a part of your library to an external drive, but be able to use that part in Aperture, with all metadata saved as well, you have two options:

1. Split your library: Select the images in the album and use the command: File > Export > Album as new library. Select the external drive as the destination. Now you will have a second library on your external drive. Test it thoroughly, then remove the transfererd images from the original library.
2. Make your library referenced: Select all photos in the album and use the command "File > Relocate original file".This will leave the image versions in your library, but move the original image files to the external drive. You can browse all photos with the drive offline, but to be able to edit the images or to export them, the drive with the original files needs to be connected. The advantage of this method is, that your library will still be only one library. It simply moves the part that is needing the most space - the original files - to a different disk.

The third option you mentioned "Export originals" will not work for you, since you want to be able to continue to work with these images using Aperture like before.

3) How do I open my different Aperture libraries then?

If you split your library in two, you launch Aperture and use the command "File > Switch to Library" to switch back and forth. Or hold down the options-key while launching Aperture to see the library chooser. Or simply click the library you want to open in the Finder.

4) I would want to the back up everything I have just transfered.

With Time Machine you have to look at the "advanced" options in the Time Machine Preferences. Check, if your external drive is not on the exclude list.

I do not know the cloud service you are using, so I cannot answer that.

And yes, this is important:

If I got it right, these should be the steps I should take:

1) Make sure I have a full back up first and that my external hard drive is formatted MacOS X Extended (Journaled)

-- Léonie

Hi Léonie,

Sorry for my late reply. I followed your steps and works amazingly! Thanks so so much!

Diane

Glad it helped, Diane 🙂

I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May. I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space. I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.

I read your directions to Diane and have the external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I read the two ways that can be used to move part or all of my library to an external drive and be able to use it in Aperture with all the metadata saved, as I need to continue to work with the images. I am not completely clear about the advantage of the 'referenced' method but decided to go with the Split Library because it sounded like the Referenced method would still keep originals (and take space) in Aperture. I'm not sure about this, but that was what I chose.

I have backed up my computer, formatted the drive then went to Aperture to begin. I do the 'Export' and t shows the external drive it will go to but when I click 'OK', it says "EXPORT LIBRARY FAILED - Library could not be create because the file system of the destination volume is not supported." I doubled checked to b sure the drive was Journaled which it was.

Also, in Aperture, I have my photos in Projects by yymmdd. Is it possible to transfer Projects into the ext. drive without having to break them up?

Any direction you might give would be greatly appreciated, Sandy

I do the 'Export' and t shows the external drive it will go to but when I click 'OK', it says "EXPORT LIBRARY FAILED - Library could not be create because the file system of the destination volume is not supported." I doubled checked to b sure the drive was Journaled which it was.

The important part is "MacOS Extended (Journaled)", and don't use case-sensitive formatting, it willed to complications. How is your external drive connected? You may get the same error message, if the external drive is not directly connected but a network share.