In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on Aperture, regarding your concerns.
Data Safety & Reliability:
Aperture is non-destructive. Your images are stored as original image files in your file system. In this context, they are as safe as any other data file on your file system, safer in fact because unlike documents they never (unless specifically instructed) get updated so are less prone to corruption. Providing you have good back-up practices and a reasonable understanding of how your files are stored and managed by Aperture, they are very safe indeed. Even it Aperture stopped working tomorrow, your original images are still safe and totally accessible.
On top of your original images, your library also contains all the work you have done on those images. Adjustments, keywords, tags, ratings, organising, and so forth. This is what is at risk from corruption. Aperture takes a belts and braces approach to help keeping this data consistent. Most of your data is stored 2 or 3 times. Once in segmented XML files (or binary format files for larger types of data), the key XML data is also stored in a combined XML file (ApertureData.XML), and again in SQLite database files. This double or tripple redundacy provides performance benefits (smaller segmented files) as well as providing the ability to repair or rebuild your database when inconsistancy or corruption occurs.
As robust and reliable as this makes it, given the thousands of differen system configurations in use out there, there are always going be some situations where problems occur:
- People who upgrade their system with underspecced replacements (RAM, hard drives, SSD, etc)
- Failing hardware.
- Third party software glitches (eg: Westen Digial extrnal drive data loss under Mavericks, poorly written plugins)
- Incorrectly formatted Hard Drives
- Badly configured networks.
If Aperture is your most used creative software (it is for me), then there is a strong chance that any system issues will manifest themselves while using Aperture, making it seem that the problem lies there.
What we see in forums like the Aperture Support forums are only the problems. Issues are like the exposed tip of an iceburg. Underneath is the huge mass of people using thier software daily and getting along just fine with it. But when they get an issue, they raise it here (or elsewhere) and then it becomes visible.
A large number of the issues turn out to be user misunderstanding and other system issues not directly Aperture issues.
But of course, like all software, there are Bugs too. What I think we are seeing at the moment is a combined effect of a new OS, Mavericks, and a new version of Aperture reworked to exploit that OS. As a result we are currently seeing an elevated level of issues. We've seen it before in a similar scenario. It stabilised then, and I'm sure it will stabilise again.
There is no doubt that this can impact user confindence, but to contemplate switching software for this reason (as discussed in some other threads here) is really quite naive. At quick glance at the Lightroom / DXO / Capture 1, etc forums will show people there have the same kind of issue too. Just do a search for Lightroom corrupt catalog repair, as an example.
And Lightroom doesn't exploit all of the systems resources like Aperture does. Some early benchmarks for the new Mac Pro show that Lightroom actually runs quicker on the top spec iMac than it does on the Mac Pro. This is because Lightroom is developed to be cross system so use a lot more custom code that Aperture uses optimised OS X frameworks for. Adobe's John Nack has published several articles on Lightroom performance explaining how changing Lightroom to exploit the powerful GPUs of modern systems is not something they can undertake lightly or quickly.
But this is a double edge sword for Aperture. Because it exploits more of the systems resources, it is more prone to suffer issues when your system is not performing correctly, for example due to configuration, or software conflicts. I remember one specific case some time back where people were complaining of poor Aperture performance, and it traced to a Nikon software module that essentially blocked an Aperture process. Removal of the Nikon software restored Aperture to it's full performance and people reported they were now seeing Aperture in it's true light for the first time.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is, it's complicated.
General advice is:
- Fully remove any unused or old software.
- Stick to reccomended configurations.
- Avoid hacks to get unsupported hardware / software supported.
- Ensure you sytem has the latest updates for the OS, firmware and software you use.
- Ensure your system drive has sufficient working space to remain optimised.
- Make sure you have sufficient and reliable backups
If you do encounter a bug that is truly a bug, by all means have a good moan about it, after all it is very frustrating to suffer issues, but make sure you also report it directly to the Aperture team via the built in Aperture Feeback link on the Aperture menu. They can't fix bugs they don't know about.
Finally, in relation to your specific issue, it would be good to have some more background on why you have been needing to rebuild your library. What issues began to manifest and when did they start? Are images referenced or managed, on internal or external drives, if external what format is used, etc. Remember there are thousands, if not millions of system configurations so we can't guess how you work. The more you can tell us, the more clues we get to go on.
Andy
