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User profile for user: jfmorris
jfmorris Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Moving from Photos back to Aperture

I've been using the Mac since 2002, and was using iPhoto from 2002 until 2011, then jumped to Aperture, after comparing it to Lightroom and deciding that Aperture was the better product for managing and editing photos. Last week I thought I would let Photos import my Aperture library, so that I could compare the two tools and see if I wanted to move to Photos, or find some other alternative to the abandoned Aperture.


What I did *NOT* expect was that Photos would migrate my data *OUT* of Aperture. I now have an empty photo library in Aperture after the import into Photos! What the heck?!?! Photos did not import the folders and projects I built up to organize my photos, and now all that structure is gone from Aperture. Sadly it is the Aperture Library file itself that has been modified, and which Photos appears to be using.


This is pretty ridiculous to do a destructive "import" like this.


I am finding after 7-10 days of playing with it, that it is just too dumbed down, and it is much harder to locate photos in Photos than it ever was in iPhoto or Aperture. I had the task of scanning through 15 years of photos to find pictures of my 22 year daughter, for a project my wife was working on for a graduation gift. Unfortunately I had just done the Photos conversion, and this was a very difficult to do with Photos having deleted all my projects and albums. And I cannot straighten photos either - just 90 degree rotation appears to be possible in Photos. And to add insult to injury no integration to an external editor is even possible.


I want to tell someone at Apple that you do *NOT* have to make everything look the same on a desktop computer as on a tablet or phone. Photos may have its place on iOS, but we expect a more powerful interface on a full fledged computer. This is a move backwards in too many ways.


Anyway, has anyone found a good way to migrate BACK to Aperture from Photos? I've imported quite a few photos since the migration, so restoring an old Time Machine backup may or may not be what I need to do. Any help is appreciated.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 19, 2015 2:21 PM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
194,691 points

Posted on Apr 19, 2015 2:38 PM

What I did *NOT* expect was that Photos would migrate my data *OUT* of Aperture. I now have an empty photo library in Aperture after the import into Photos! What the heck?!?! Photos did not import the folders and projects I built up to organize my photos, and now all that structure is gone from Aperture. Sadly it is the Aperture Library file itself that has been modified, and which Photos appears to be using.

That is not what should have happened. Have you checked, if you opened the correct Aperture library?


What should have happened during the migration, is that Photos creates a new library, called "Photos Library.photoslibrary". And your Aperture Library should have been left unmodified, only renamed to ApertureLibrary.migratedaplibrary.


When you launch Aperture on this library, you should be prompted, if you really want to open it in Aperture. Just confirm, that you want to use Aperture, and all projects and albums should be there.


Anyway, has anyone found a good way to migrate BACK to Aperture from Photos? I've imported quite a few photos since the migration, so restoring an old Time Machine backup may or may not be what I need to do. Any help is appreciated.

Try to find the ApertureLibrary.migratedaplibrary, and check, if it still works.

But if that is the library with the missing items, and If Photos really removed items from your original Aperture library, the migration went wrong.

Restore the last version of the Aperture library from before the migration from your backup and open it in Aperture.


Then use the Sharing option in Photos to share the most recent photos you imported to Aperture.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
194,691 points

Apr 19, 2015 2:38 PM in response to jfmorris

What I did *NOT* expect was that Photos would migrate my data *OUT* of Aperture. I now have an empty photo library in Aperture after the import into Photos! What the heck?!?! Photos did not import the folders and projects I built up to organize my photos, and now all that structure is gone from Aperture. Sadly it is the Aperture Library file itself that has been modified, and which Photos appears to be using.

That is not what should have happened. Have you checked, if you opened the correct Aperture library?


What should have happened during the migration, is that Photos creates a new library, called "Photos Library.photoslibrary". And your Aperture Library should have been left unmodified, only renamed to ApertureLibrary.migratedaplibrary.


When you launch Aperture on this library, you should be prompted, if you really want to open it in Aperture. Just confirm, that you want to use Aperture, and all projects and albums should be there.


Anyway, has anyone found a good way to migrate BACK to Aperture from Photos? I've imported quite a few photos since the migration, so restoring an old Time Machine backup may or may not be what I need to do. Any help is appreciated.

Try to find the ApertureLibrary.migratedaplibrary, and check, if it still works.

But if that is the library with the missing items, and If Photos really removed items from your original Aperture library, the migration went wrong.

Restore the last version of the Aperture library from before the migration from your backup and open it in Aperture.


Then use the Sharing option in Photos to share the most recent photos you imported to Aperture.

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User profile for user: jfmorris
jfmorris Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Apr 19, 2015 2:37 PM in response to léonie

Ok - looks like you are right. I have two Aperture libraries. The default one and a "migrated" one according to Finder. Photos setup a new empty library for Aperture, and it appears that the original library was moved to a "Migrated" one. I opened it just now and was warned that it had been migrated to Photos and that anything I did in it will not show up in Photos.


I guess what I can do now is export all new photos I imported into Photos, and import them back into Aperture. I feel like I should not have to be doing this. I'm very upset by the dumbing down of the photo app for OS X to the level of an iOS app.

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User profile for user: Rysz
Rysz
User level: Level 8
44,391 points

Apr 19, 2015 2:37 PM in response to jfmorris

"This is pretty ridiculous to do a destructive "import" like this."


Photos migration is not deleting anything. Your Aperture app is still in the Applications folder and your Apperture Library is still in the same folder you kept in in (usually in User > Pictures). Try locating that Library file and double-clicking on it. It should open in Aperture.


The exception...

Your Aperture was not consolidated and was set up to use referenced files, but you left the default setting to consolidate images when migrating to Photos. In that scenario, it is possible that Photos "moved" the images to its Library and Aperture can't "find" them Anymore. Try restarting and rebuilding the Library databases. If that fails, roll back to a backed up version of Aperture Library using Time Machine or your other backups.

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Moving from Photos back to Aperture

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