Aperture merged library help

[roland.g]

I wanted to use Aperture rather than iPhoto to manage photos and while I understand they can both access the same library, Aperture actually keeps all copies of edited photos in the single file, etc. Obviously this is only for new photos/new edits. I decided (possibly misguidedly so) that I wanted it to be an Aperture library file that iPhoto may occasionally still access rather than a legacy iPhoto library that is mainly opened by Aperture.

So I went into iPhoto, exported all video (for the sake of reducing the library from 100GB to 65GB) and would now keep all video footage on an external for possible iMovie projects later.

I then deleted the video from within iPhoto and emptied the trash to reduce the library size.

Next I opened Aperture and created a new library so that I could "Merge" the contents of the iPhoto library into it. However, what I have found is that what was approx 65GB iPhoto library is now a library file over 82GB and growing as the process is about 75%-80% complete. This puts the new Aperture library at around 100GB with no video in it. Should this be happening. I know the process isn't complete, but I don't see it finishing and slimming down. Why would a library import grow the library by an additional 40%-50% in size?

Any help would be great.

I understand I may not have need to do this, should probably consider removing the new bloated Aperture library and just use the existing iPhoto library.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

It sounds as if Aperture is creating previews for all your images. You can change the preview size and compression in your Aperture preferences. You can also chose to create previews for all images, or create them as needed. Previews are used by the other iLife and iWork apps.