Can I use Aperture and Photos independently of each other, without any merging or sharing of libraries?

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Level 2

150 points

Can I use Aperture and Photos independently of each other, without any merging or sharing of libraries?

I have a huge Aperture library and have ZERO interest in importing it into Photos. However, I would like to begin using Photos and iCloud Photo Library, so long as they do not in any way touch my Aperture library.

My intention is to have photos taken with my iPhone automatically sync across devices via iCloud Photo Library. ThenI intend to MOVE, not copy, images and video files into my Aperture library as desired. In a sense, this would be like using IPL as a substitute for Aperture's My Photostream feature, with the added benefit of supporting video in addition to photos.

But I am hesitant to move forward with this after reading about Photos' confusing and dangerous "merging" with a user's Aperture library. I need to ensure this will not happen and that my Aperture and Photos libraries will remain completely separate from each other.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Jun 23, 2016 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,699 points

Jun 23, 2016 12:41 PM in response to freediverx01

You can use Aperture and Photos separately.

But by default will Photos try to open the last library you opened, Aperture Library or Photos Library.

To prevent this, hold down the options key while launching Photos for the first time. This way, Photos will show a library chooser panel and you can select a library or click the "create new" button to create a new, empty library.

Photos' confusing and dangerous "merging" with a user's Aperture library.

There is no merging with the Aperture library. Even if you open an Aperture Library in Photos, it will create a new library. Only Photo will try to save storage by creating hard links to the originals in the Aperture library. You will have two identical files for the same original image file, one in the aperture library, one in Photos, but both files will be stored in the same place t save storage.

Only if you are using a referenced library, the migrated Photos Library will reference the same originals.

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