How to import Aperture Projects to the new Photos

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How to import Aperture Projects to the new Photos

I seem to have 'lost' all the work I put into creating Projects etc in Aperture. I bought this App for it's organisational and editing benefits. Now Apple have introduced Photos, I have a problem. Originally I left my photos in the iPhoto Library and managed them through Aperture. Now, Photos has imported my photos from iPhoto and I have therefore lost my Project labels etc., In addition, I purchased extensions like Intensify, which do not appear to be accessible through Photos. In short my organised photos and the ability to edit them, have been severely, adversely impacted by the new Photos. I know that this is early days and I may be misunderstanding the role of Photos. Can someone, either confirm that my instinct is correct or advise me how I can minimise the demise of Aperture?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Apr 11, 2015 5:30 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,685 points

Apr 11, 2015 5:42 AM in response to billbir

Continue to use Aperture. Photos is no replacement for Aperture, it can somewhat replace iPhoto, but not a professional application.

If you migrated your Aperture library to Photos, the original Aperture Library should still be there, with a filename extension ".migratedaplibrary". You can still launch Aperture and open this library. Just confirm, that you want to open it in Aperture. (see this link: If Photos won't open a library that you already migrated - Apple Support)

Aperture has been discontinued by Apple, but it will work during the lifecycle of Yosemite.

Meanwhile explore the professional alternatives to Aperture, so you are ready to migrate, if you need to upgrade your MacOS X to a new release, that is not compatible with Aperture - Capture One Pro, Lightroom, or open source software like digiKam.

and you can keep the new Photos library and the migrated Aperture library installed. The migration did not duplicate the image files. Both libraries are linked and sharing the photos, so the do not need extra disk space, even if it looks like it.

See: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

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Answer 2

billbir Author

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15 points

Apr 11, 2015 11:19 AM in response to léonie

Hi leonie,

Thanks for your helpful reply. I am a little confused about 'libraries'. I understood that my library was in iPhotos and that same library, was managed in Aperture. On this basis, I do not have an Aperture library. Is there any way that I can get my Aperture Projects, titles etc., exported to Photos. I cannot see that this would be possible, if I do not have an Aperture library?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,685 points

Apr 11, 2015 11:32 AM in response to billbir

I understood that my library was in iPhotos and that same library, was managed in Aperture.

Open your Pictures folder.

If you did not move your photo libraries, you should be seeing a photo library with a fan-of-pictures icon, like this:

If iPhoto created your library, it will probably be called "iPhoto Library.photolibrary" "or "iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary".

Double click it to open it in iPhoto.

You will probably get a warning that the library has been migrated to Photos, but select "Open iPhoto".

This should work, if you already have updated iPhoto to version 9.6.1. If your iPhoto version is older, you will first have to update iphoto to version 9.6.1. Check the updates page of the AppStore, if an update is available.

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Answer 4

billbir Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 13, 2015 7:54 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie,

Yes I did as you suggested and the iPhoto Library is accessible through Finder, but I do not know what this has achieved. Basically, Photos, which has replaced both iPhoto and Aperture, simply provides a simplistic editing feature and little management functionality compared to Aperture. You suggest continuing to use Aperture, although it will not be supported by Apple. However, the big advantage of Photos, seems to be the use of iCloud. This enables all of your photos to be viewed on any Apple device. However, it does not seem to pick up any photos, which have been edited using Aperture, although you say, 'Both libraries are linked and sharing the photos, so the do not need extra disk space', Is there any way to get the edited photo in Aperture, to be exported to Photos in the Cloud? It may be that I have not set up Aperture correctly, post Photos, if so, what should I do? Incidentally, if I moved to Lightroom, would I have the same problem, that edited photos will not appear in Photos and therefore nullify the iCloud benefits of having Photos. I hope that I am missing something here!

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Answer 5

billbir Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 13, 2015 8:00 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie,

A postscript as I seem to have answered part of my question. I have just read an Apple article, which says, You can still use your original photo library with iPhoto 9.6.1 and Aperture 3.6 after you've migrated it to Photos. Any changes you make in iPhoto or Aperture after you migrate to Photos, like image edits or album changes, will be visible only in iPhoto or Aperture. That seems to me to be crazy, as surely you want you edited photos to form part of Photos?

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,685 points

Apr 13, 2015 9:08 AM in response to billbir

Any changes you make in iPhoto or Aperture after you migrate to Photos, like image edits or album changes, will be visible only in iPhoto or Aperture. That seems to me to be crazy, as surely you want you edited photos to form part of Photos?

The link between the libraries are the original image files, that are shared to save space. The database files with the edited versions are not shared.

Photos has a menu to export back to Aperture after editing: Share > Add to Aperture

But that will import the image as a new photo.

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Answer 7

billbir Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 13, 2015 11:37 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie,

It seems to me that Apple (and I am a big fan) have gone out of their way, NOT to support even there own system! Other than allowing access to all devices through iCloud, I cannot see that Photos is any better than iPhoto. Bearing in mind that users paid Apple c£50 for Aperture, this seems to be very shabby treatment.

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Answer 8

Oct 2, 2015 11:34 AM in response to billbir

Worse yet, there are no suitable replacements for Aperture in the market.

Lightroom and Capture One offer good editing tools, but they are expensive and do not come close to Aperture's organizational features, efficient workflows, or its elegant user interface. Migrating an Aperture library into either of these products will result in a substantial loss of data, edits, and organizational integrity.

While anyone can pick up one of those applications and start working with it from scratch, It would take a monumental amount of time and effort to import a large Aperture library into them and make sense of the results.

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Answer 9

Jul 9, 2016 11:17 AM in response to léonie

Thanks SO much for the tip on ".migratedaplibrary"!! I knew Aperture was no longer supported, but hadn't realized that meant no printing of books from Aperture as well. (Silly Apple, cutting off part of its revenue stream!!) And -- especially I just today finished a book when I discovered that -- MAJOR bad on Apple's part for not providing a way to migrate projects!!

TANGENT: Anyone know why Spotlight under El Capitan doesn't return any results searching for ".migratedaplibrary" (without the quotes)??

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,685 points

Jul 9, 2016 11:52 AM in response to claytonfromnewton

I knew Aperture was no longer supported, but hadn't realized that meant no printing of books from Aperture as well.

You're welcome. 🙂 Apple stooped the print service for Aperture and iPhoto at the end of march.

Have a look at this User Tip: How to Print Aperture Books After the Print Services Have Been Discontinued

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Answer 11

Jul 10, 2016 2:41 PM in response to léonie

Thanks very much for the helpful tip. I just uploaded a PDF (produced by Aperture) to "photobooks.com" (which -looks- like a separate division of "PrestoPhoto" -- mentioned in another post) to be printed as a softcover book. It's my first experience with the vendor, and I'll try to report back when I see the results. I made several books in Aperture that I printed through Apple, and was very happy with them. C'est la vie! (Often feels more like "C'est la guerre"!)

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Answer 12

léonie

Level 10

194,685 points

Jul 10, 2016 10:40 PM in response to claytonfromnewton

You're welcome, Clayton. I hope your book will turn out great. 🙂

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