I am a professional photographer and run a small business. I have used Aperture since its inception and now have ~1.5 TB of photos in various Aperture libraries spanning several years. How do I preserve all of this work so that i don't lose access to it when Aperture finally dies?
Brad Moore
Brad Moore Photography
Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Server
Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Server
Which version of Aperture are you running? If you have upgraded to Aperture 3.6, you will be able to open all Aperture libraries with the new Photos.app. Aperture libraries and Iphoto Libraries can be migrated losslessly to Photos.
Aperture 3.6 will soon no longer be available for purchase. If you need to upgrade, do it soon.
Since Photos does not have all editing tools Aperture had, you may want to migrate to other professional applications, Lightroom, Capture One Pro. But there is no lossless migration path.
Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Server
Which version of Aperture are you running? If you have upgraded to Aperture 3.6, you will be able to open all Aperture libraries with the new Photos.app. Aperture libraries and Iphoto Libraries can be migrated losslessly to Photos.
Aperture 3.6 will soon no longer be available for purchase. If you need to upgrade, do it soon.
Since Photos does not have all editing tools Aperture had, you may want to migrate to other professional applications, Lightroom, Capture One Pro. But there is no lossless migration path.
Thanks for your quick response. Yes, I am running version 3.6 and have been keeping it updated, so I can see Photos.app as one pathway.
While I expect that this is the correct - and only - answer, I don't consider it a good solution to the problem. I have 10 years of archives to manage and convert.
I guess I will get Photos.app and convert everything to preserve my archives. And since I already use Photoshop, changing over to Lightroom is probably the logical professional path for the future. I have tinkered with it in the past, but never wanted to go to the trouble of completely changing my workflow.
Thanks.
I have the very same concern, along with a related concern. Like you I have a huge catalog of RAW images, and use Aperture as my main workflow. From what I am reading, the new Photos.app will require cloud storage and there is no way that I am going to store over 2 terrabytes in the Cloud (not with what Apple currently wants to charge, plus having all of my stuff stored on someone else's drive cause me some pause). The answers that "Photo will not be for the professional photographer" tends to point me to Capture One Pro and away from Apple.
email received this morning says that Aperture Library will be migrated to photos app (that is, the iPhoto part of it) but that Aperture will still be using its own library. It will remain intact. However, changes you make in Aperture will not be reflected in Photos.app. I guess there will come a time when Aperture ceases to function, as OS X gets more upgrades.. but for now, at least, its OK. You just have to make sure you have your downloads/updates all done.
Seems to me to be a decent way to make a sensible decision about which path you want to take. Using both side by side should enable all of us to see where the new app falls over (or doesn't) and this will give us time, which is what we need.
How do I continue to have access to my various Aperture libraries (~1.5 TB) for future use?
