syncing aperture two computers

I have tried copying the whole Aperture director from one computer to the other but that didn't work. The pictures appeared but I could not edit them.

What happened, when you tried? What was the error message?

This could either be a problem of wrong permissions (are you using the same short user name on both macs?) or a problem with missing original image files.

If your Aperture library on the mini is referenced and the original files are not included in the library, you cannot edit the images on your other mac, if you only transfer the library.

To use an library alternately on two computers consolidate (File > Consolidate) all original files, before you copy the library to another computer. This will increase the size of the library, however.

And if the short user names differ on both macs, repair the permissions on the library (see: Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual) before you try to edit it.

Aperture's biggest flaw is its inability to synch one Library to each of two single-user computers.

Please join those of us who have been providing feedback to Apple since version 1 asking for the ability to single-user synch one Library between two computers. Note that multi-user synch is a very different animal, and not what most users are asking for.

All existing solutions (like merging or like sneaker-netting one Library on an external drive among multiple Macs) are poor workarounds. Problems with such workarounds are common.

-Allen

Sorry, illuminor,

you asked a technical question, and I pointed out a possible technical problem.

I have tried copying the whole Aperture director from one computer to the other but that didn't work.

You may want to explain in what way this did not work.

If you copy your complete Aperture library to another computer and open it in Aperture it should work, unless you are having a permissions problem or the original image files are missing.

The pictures appeared but I could not edit them.

Is your Aperture library referenced? Do you store your original image files outside the Aperture library? Then transfering the Aperture library alone will not suffice. You will have to copy and reconnect the folders with the original image files as well to the other Mac. Or consolidate your Aperture library (File > Consolidate original image files) - make sure, all original image files are included in the library, before you copy the Aperture library to your other computer. Only, this might blow up the size of your library considerably, and it may be too large to store on your MBA.

It is far easier to transfer photos with metadata and adjustments intact from one machine to antoher with Aperture than it is with Lightroom, so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

You can "export as projects" from Aperture on one machine and import it to another. Then you can export it back, and re-import it again. Yes, it's a bit of work, and no, it's not a multi-machine DAM, but there aren't any programs that do this well now. Everyone on the Lightroom side recommends you use a catalog on an external drive as well, for this workflow.

I'm far from arguing that this "sync" is the biggest flaw in Aperture. I would MUCH RATHER see things like lens corrections and graduated filters first, as well as automatic CA repair, etc. These affect me way more than the multi-machine sync, because I have 2 machines: A laptop (field use) and a desktop (my main library and "authoratative"). By applying a few constraints to my workflow this is easily workable.

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Meant only half in jest. If I do get a New Mac Pro, I am likely to look into solutions like this. I regularly use my 15" Retina MacBook Pro as a desktop replacement in three locations, at two of which I have monitors and hard drives and other peripherals all set up.

My priorities match yours, but I suspect the decision about synchronization is more about cost than priority. Synchronization is possible, but I think with datasets as large as Aperture Libraries the cost is higher than what Aperture users are likely to pay, and making it work at a human timescale, rigorously, would require ingenious and expensive engineering.

Synchronization is a very, very difficult problem. ESPECIALLY peer-to-peer synchronization. Aperture isn't just the files, it's an entire database chock full of metadata as well as the master files. Trying to maintain this across multiple machines with multiple simultaneous offline writers and merging it all is an intractably hard problem.

I can see it as being something valuable for Aperture 15, if it ever gets to that. Aperture 4 through 14, there are probably many more important photography-related fish to fry, especially again because for a single user, with a disciplined workflow, Aperture does a pretty good job here already. Again, Aperture is FAR AHEAD of Lightroom in this already. IF you export a project from Aperture, edit/tweak/manage it on a second machine, and then RE-IMPORT that library to the main machine, Aperture will do a merge import of all the changes, assuming of couse you didn't muck with stuff on the main machine at the same time. That's pretty significant.

It does pay to know how difficult these things are under the hood, because there are SIGNIFICANT engineering challenges to overcome that would require the imposition of significant constraints to workflow if they were to work at all. Thus, using the tool as it's supposed to be used is the best approach 🙂