Change Photos default for migrated aperture library location

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Level 1

4 points

Change Photos default for migrated aperture library location

If one migrates an Aperture Library to Photos, Photos will put the new Photos library "in the same folder as the Aperture library". Looking for a way to change that default so I can specify where the migrated Photos library will be created.

Backstory: We have a 1.8 TB Aperture library on a 2 TB external hard drive. Short of copying the entire Aperture library to at least a 4 TB external drive there's no apparent way to get the migration to Photos done. What we would *like* to do is have Photos create the target Photos library in a location of our choosing instead. Is there a rational workaround or a parameter I've missed completely?

Thanks,

Dave Thewlis

Posted on Dec 27, 2015 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 27, 2015 3:33 PM in response to Dave Thewlis

Generally, when you migrate an Aperture library to an Photos library it won't require that much extra space. This is because it uses 'hard links' to not have to copy the masters. So they won't actually be duplicated on disk, though Photos will generate its own thumbnails and previews.

So with a 1.8 TB library on a 2 TB drive, it _might_ be possible to do the migration, but it's close enough that it's maybe dangerous to try. I did successfully do the migration with a 750 GB Aperture library on a 1 TB drive, FWIW.

I don't know how to specify a different location of the library you migrate. But it might be possible to create a new Photos library on an external drive, then open it, and try importing your old Aperture library?

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Answer 2

Dave Thewlis Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 27, 2015 3:57 PM in response to William Lloyd

Unfortunately the process for importing an Aperture library isn't done to an existing library at all. Photos creates a new library in the same folder as the Aperture library being migrated and with a variant name, and does the migration into it. There doesn't seem to be any way to affect this at least that I can find.

Allegedly Photos will copy managed masters rather than creating hard links if the Aperture library is resident on an external drive (I'd understood that this would happen if it was simply on a different drive than the new Photos library, but as I said there doesn't seem to be a way to do that).

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