Backing Up Aperture to an external disk

hoopythehound · Jan 8, 2012

Hi all,

Im a newbie here in both senses! New to the forum and also fairly new to the wonderful world of all things Mac!

I also am a keen amateur photographer and have just transferred all of my pictures across to Aperture on my Macbook Pro.

I do use Time Capsule, but I also want to back up my library to an external disk just in case (I have thousands of extremely important pictures I don't even want to consider losing).

Is it as easy as copying the Aperture library onto my external disk or is it more complicated than that?

If so...can someone give me an idiots guide?

Thanks a lot...looking forward to using the forum!

Doug b · Jan 8, 2012

As it is true for Lightroom, so it is true with Aperture that you do not have to keep your physical photo files on the same drive as the actual Aperture library. I do in fact keep ALL of my photo (and music/video) files on an external hard drive and work with them that way. To go one step further, that external HD is hooked up to my Airport Extreme. Thus, I am able to tote my MBP around the house and work with my Aperture/Lightroom files wirelessly.

The only caveat is that you MUST keep the actual "library file" on your internal hard drive. This library is a a culmination of thumbnails and preview files which are cached for faster access to said file. The actual physical files are then referenced from the external drive.

The Aperture library file's size, will then depend upon things such as preview size, how many copies are being made etc etc.. and these options are accessible in preferences.

A hint, if you want to import an entire folder: shift+cmd+I Just make sure to say "store files in their current location" if you intend on working from a networked or external drive.

Doug

hoopythehound · Jan 8, 2012

Doug b said:
As it is true for Lightroom, so it is true with Aperture that you do not have to keep your physical photo files on the same drive as the actual Aperture library. I do in fact keep ALL of my photo (and music/video) files on an external hard drive and work with them that way. To go one step further, that external HD is hooked up to my Airport Extreme. Thus, I am able to tote my MBP around the house and work with my Aperture/Lightroom files wirelessly.

The only caveat is that you MUST keep the actual "library file" on your internal hard drive. This library is a a culmination of thumbnails and preview files which are cached for faster access to said file. The actual physical files are then referenced from the external drive.

The Aperture library file's size, will then depend upon things such as preview size, how many copies are being made etc etc.. and these options are accessible in preferences.

A hint, if you want to import an entire folder: shift+cmd+I Just make sure to say "store files in their current location" if you intend on working from a networked or external drive.

Doug

Thanks for your reply Doug.

What would be the best way for me to export all of my files onto the external disk though Doug? Do I need to export them folder by folder or is there a way of exporting the full library of files in one go?

Doing it in one go would be easier to keep it up to date as it would just be a case of overwriting the old library with the up to date one periodically.

Sorry if these are really basic questions but Im just getting used to the OSX way of working.

Demapples · Jan 8, 2012

I keep my Aperture library on my Mac and manually back it up to a Vault on the external hard drive. Look up Aperture vault. I don't let Time Machine back up the library because it is so big a file that TM was grinding too long.

microsnook · Jan 9, 2012

You can create a Vault, which will back up your entire Aperture library. And then you can update the Vault every time you add new images.

Good luck!

hoopythehound · Jan 9, 2012

I have managed to suss out vaults and created a backup vault on an external drive.....thanks for all the advice guys.

Much appreciated.

microsnook · Jan 9, 2012

Great, glad we could help!

Doug b · Jan 9, 2012

Interestingly, I just reinstalled Aperture (again) for what I think is the 5th time ( Lightroom is my Editor/DAM) the other day in order to help someone else. And have now realized (again) why I keep deleting it. I can't work with my master files on a network'd external HD for some reason. Plus the import and file system is fairly atrocious. Meh, I'm annoyed at Aperture..... ..... ...... .... (again). :Sleeping:

Sorry, I thought I'd be able to help more, but it looks like you're all good now!

Doug