how to split Aperture libary ?

I'm thinking about splitting the libary into 2 or 3 smaller ones. However the problem ist that I access the libary from my Apple TV through Itunes and I'm afraid if I split the libary I will only be able to watch the one that is currently loaded . Can anyone confirm if this is true ?

Andreas, you will only be able to view your current Aperture library, yes. So splitting the Aperture library will be restrictive and cannot be recommended.

Somehow Aperture seems to be relatively slow, although I have already tried a number of tricks (e.g. repair libary etc.)

The size of your library "(7,3 GB)" is relatively small for an Aperture library. It cannot be responsible for the slowness you are experiencing. There must be another reason. Is your system drive filling up? A mac will become slow, if the operating system is running out of working space. Try to keep at least 10GB of disk space free. And do you have many applcations open at the same time? With only 4GB RAM I would not run too many other applications concurrently, that also need much RAM.

What is your Aperture version and MacOS X version?

What happened before you first noticed the slowness? Did you experience crashes? Did you upgrade software or install new software? Did you import new images?

-- Léonie

Safari, Thunderbird, iTunes are all memory hogs.

Launch the Activity Monitor (from Applications > Utilities) and have a look at the Memory used. By clicking on the Memory column header you can sort the processes by memory usage.

I suggest to upgrade your RAM, if you need to run all of these applications at the same time.

Your MBP is probably capable of carrying more memory. You do not need to buy it from Apple.

You can see, how much memory can be installed in your Mac, check from the Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info and click the "Memory" tab:

It's 178 GB , not 7,3 GB !.

Could this also be a a cause of the problem and if so, what do you recommend (apart from upgrading RAM)?

178 GB is still moderately size. Aperture should be able to handle that. Your library is on your internal drive, yes? Or is it an external drive? Then check the connection.

I am still optimistic, that upgrading to more RAM will help to improve performance.

Run a few diagnostics. For example, Aperture has a built-in Activity Viewer. You can launch it from "View > Activity". Keep this viewer open for some time, and check if there are background processes running, that are slowing Aperture down, like rendering previews, faces, etc. Sometimes there is a single corrupted video, that will be processed over and over again, because Aperture cannot render it.

Or look at the Console window. If Aperture is getting slow, you may find warnings or other diagnostic messages in the Console. If there is nothing suspicious, it probably really a problem of not enough RAM.

-- Léonie