What's the best way to make my Aperture library more manageable?

I'm running the latest version of Aperture. My photo library has become quite large and it takes a long time to load. Any advice or opinions on how to make the library more manageable would be appreciated before I go ahead and mess it all up. Obviously, I have a lot of photos there that I never view but I don't really want to simply delete them.

Thanks

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Jan 11, 2014 11:26 AM

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5 replies

Jan 11, 2014 12:23 PM in response to Thatblokeoverthere

My photo library has become quite large and it takes a long time to load.

Aperture has been designed to cope with huge libraries. The size of the library alone should not make it slow.

Check, what is happening during the "Long time to load", by turning on the Activity Viewer (Aperture menu > Window > Show Activity"


If you are noticing, that Aperture is wasting time doing unnecessary tasks, that you do not need (like scanning for faces, rendering previews etc.) disable them in the preferences. It will help a lot, to set "Share XML with other applications" to "never", also, if you do not use the previews, to disable previews.


Slowness might also be caused

  • by your system drive getting too full (how much disk space have you left),
  • by the Aperture library needing repairing or rebuilding.
  • or by having imported incompatible media (videos, corrupted images) that Aperture cannot process.


Or is your library on an external drive with a very slow connection?


Try the measures described here Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics first, before considering to restructure the library.


-- Léonie

Jan 12, 2014 12:23 PM in response to léonie

Hi. Thanks for your help with this.

- I have 192Gb of 999Gb left on my internal hard disc. The library is saved on the internal HD. There are other files that I could remove from this disc to make more space if required.

- I have opened the ACTIVITY as suggested. Face detection does happen, but this is only for a few seconds. It also says it is importing over 1000 items from iCloud dated November 2013.


I have now disabled FACES, XML and previews. I'll test this shortly to see if it helps. I'm not sure what difference this will make to other apps.

I have noticed that the library sometimes returns to the root directory instead of opening the last album used. Maybe this is a sign of an unstable library database??


Thanks for your help with this.

Jan 12, 2014 1:13 PM in response to Thatblokeoverthere

I have 192Gb of 999Gb left

That should suffice.

I have now disabled FACES, XML and previews. I'll test this shortly to see if it helps. I'm not sure what difference this will make to other apps.

That will be important, when you want access the APerture library from other applications using te Media Browser or when you want to sync your images to your deviced usin iTunes. For images, that you want to use in the Media Browser you will need previews, or for browsing your aperture library in quick Preview mode. You can craete previews indivudally, if you do need them only for selected images. If you want to use the Media Browser with third party applications, however, you will also need the XML. See:

Aperture 3.5: Set "Share XML with other applications" to "Never" for better performance and faster quit times


Okay. I've closed Aperture and reopened it 4 times. It appears to go through this 'IMPORTING FROM iCloud November 2013' every time.

Either it takes a very long time, or there is an image or a video in your Photo Stream that cannot be imported, because it is incompatible or corrupted.


For iPhoto libraries it used to help, to remove the current "Importing" or "Auto Import" folder from the library package. Try, if this will help for your Aperture library.


See this post by LarryHN how to do it:


TS3745 Re: iphoto library error message???


If you cannot get the import to stop this way, post back, Then you have to delete the photos from your Photo Stream or reset the Photo Stream.

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What's the best way to make my Aperture library more manageable?

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