MrPChristy
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Using Finder to Extract Photos from Aperture Library on Failing External HD

I need to extract ~150 GB of photos from an Aperture library on a dying external hard drive. I've tried to clear out as much space as possible on my Mac but with only a 256GB SSD, I couldn't get to 150 without deleting other things I actually need. I don't have another backup hard drive and am trying to avoid buying one right now. My plan is to extract my photos, most of which are originals and do not have any edited versions, from the Aperture library to my local Mac hard drive and then upload them to Google Photos.

 

I can see my photos in the Master folder through "Show Package Contents" in Finder, and I successfully tested copying one small folder of photos to my Mac hard drive. I can tell this will be an involved process, though, to go through every folder and copy individually. Is there a better way to do this? Is there an Automator process I can create to help me?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 16GB RAM, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

Posted on Mar 12, 2016 5:17 PM

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MrPChristy

Q: Using Finder to Extract Photos from Aperture Library on Failing External HD

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  • by Lanny,

    Lanny Lanny Mar 15, 2016 9:58 PM in response to MrPChristy
    Level 6 (8,041 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 15, 2016 9:58 PM in response to MrPChristy

    Why can't you export them using Aperture?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Mar 15, 2016 11:16 PM in response to MrPChristy
    Level 10 (109,091 points)
    iCloud
    Mar 15, 2016 11:16 PM in response to MrPChristy
    I don't have another backup hard drive and am trying to avoid buying one right now.

    Even if yo are switching to Google Drive for backup you need a local backup drive that you can easily access withou ta network connection, particularly now while your current drive with the photos is failing. I f you can afford to buy a new external drive, make a  clone of the drive to save the Aperture library, while you can still read the drive.

     

    If you cannot run Aperture, copying from the Masters folder or using the Media Browser will are ways to access the library. You can also open the Aperture library in Photos for Mac to export the photos.