returning images from vault to aperture library

[danbeard]

I have only been using Aperture for about a week and my little macmini ran out of space last night with all the RAW files I have been importing. So i thought here is a good time to create a vault on my external hd, transfer the aperture library to that and then delete the library inside the mac. I thought that I could then be able to access all the files from the external hd in Aperture when I turned it on so I can get to the old photos again.

Well, I expect i am doing something wrong but I can't get to the files now through Aperture. So I thought lets start again and transfer the Vault back into the library. But the vault just copied back into the Pictures folder in Finder and I can't seem to do very much with those files. I'm not worried yet. I can still see the original files are there with the full sizes, but I can't get them back into Aperture.

I should know by now that doing this kind of organization last thing at night over a bottle of wine isn't a very good idea. Things this morning don't seem to be much clearer though!

Could anybody please point me in the right direction?

 

[66217]

OK, the problem can be solved easily. I understand that you can no longer access your photos from your library, but you still have your vault, right?

To restore your photos, open the vaults pane in Aperture (lower left), then select your vault and click Restore Library. NOTE: this will get your library to look exactly as when you last backed it up to the vault. The photos you added to your library, and were not in the vault, would be copied to a new library in your pictures folder.

Then make sure all your photos are in one library (remember some photos might be in a new library created by Aperture) and back it up to the vault. Now, for moving your photos to an external drive, there are two options:

-Move the complete library to an external drive. This means that you would only be able to add photos or see current photos when connected to the external drive.
-Relocate masters. This would move the master images you select to an external drive, but you keep the Aperture library in your internal drive. This means that even if you don't have your external drive with you, you can still open your Aperture library and add new images (which would be stored in your internal drive, and later on you can relocate the masters to the external) and you can also see the previews of all your photos (only works if you have previews for your photos).

I personally prefer the second option. But you have to be very careful when going the way of Relocating Masters. Firstly, you have to backup the master manually, Aperture won't back them up to your vault, it would ONLY backup the modifications you make to the photos. Also, when relocating masters, you have to be careful of not moving the photos in the Finder, since this could cause some conflicts in your Aperture library.

Lastly, try and read the Aperture manual. What you did was incorrect because a vault is not you library, it is just a back-up.

I hope this helps.

 

[danbeard]

Hey, Roco. Thanks for the clear advice. Actually I restored my library through Timemachine before I received your post.

I will be trying your second option by relocating the masters.

Thanks again.

Dan

 

[ChrisA]

I gues by now you have figured out that a vault is a kind of backup system. A way to make a copy of your library. You can restore from the backup but you can't do much else with it.

To solve your first problem, running out of space, what you do is buy an external disk drive, plug it in and leave it plugged in. Then you MOVE the aperture library to the external drive and use it from there.

In addition to doing the above you should continue to backup you library to a set of "vaults" that you rotate to a safe off site location. I would also, in addition set up a Time machine drive, yes that is a second external drive.

drives are cheap 1TB sized drives are going for $150 now, 500GB drives for even less.

 

[ChrisA]

I will be trying your second option by relocating the masters.

Yes you can do that but, be warned. Almost everyone on this list and others who runs into trouble and asks for help has been using "referenced" masters with Either Aperture or iPhoto. Those who let the software manage the library don't seem to be the ones asking for help. I'd move the entire library onto a larger disk unless you really do understand just how Aperture works are are careful never to make a mistake. If other people use the mac be sure to keep the permissions on those referenced masters correct so they don't make mistakes