You are here

7 posts / 0 new
Last post
Aperture Import/Export entire Library #1
mrkgoo's picture
by mrkgoo
March 25, 2011 - 7:41pm

So seeing that Aperture 3.1.2 has not fixed my ApertureData.xml updating issues (causing iPad syncing issues), I was considering essentially duplicating my entire Library into a new Aperture Library.

The issue I have is obviously to do with something in my library, as when I create new libraries, they don't have the same issue.

So my question is: How robust is the export and import Library function? Will it copy over EVERYTHING, such as places, faces, album structure, metadata, keyword lists etc?

What would be the best approach?

I do not have enough space to simply recreate a library on the same drive, so my options are:

1) EXPORT my current library to a new one on an External drive, then delete my internal one and move the exported one back (obviously after checking to see it works). Question about this method: how do I select what to export? do I just select all albums, folders and projects?

2) Open a new Library on an external drive, and then IMPORT my original library to it, Then do the same as above and delete the original library and move the newly imported one back onto my internal drive.

3) One of the above options, except move my original Library off drive first and CREATE the new one (via export or import) onto my internal drive directly.

Basically, I guess my questions are:
EXPORT/IMPORT gets everything?

EXPORT vs. IMPORT?

Make new one on external and shift back VS. Shift original to external and make new one on internal?

And yes, I understand the wisdom of making backups before doing anything drastic. I've also done a few test Libraries to see what moves over, but just thought I'd ask here for any further ideas or advice.

Not sure if and when I'll do this, since it involves my entire collection of images, I want to weight up the options and risks first.

Jaimie Harris's picture
by Jaimie Harris
March 25, 2011 - 8:22pm

The other option is to restore from a vault if you have them. I had a corrupt library and I created a new empty library and then restored the library from the vault. Brought back everything. Of course, if you don’t have a vault …….

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 25, 2011 - 10:20pm

Jaimie,

Unfortunately Mr. Kgoo’s syncing issues are quite historic, so no Vault backup will help him :(

Mr. Kgoo,

I’d go for door #2. It’s the simplest and I’ve done that before and had great success (I honestly don’t recall the problem I was trying to fix, but it fixed it!)

Just create a new Library wherever you have space, and import the entire old Library into it. It’s easy to do, let it run overnight, and let’s see what happens! That will bring over all your Faces, Places, etc.—at least that’s the plan!

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

mrkgoo's picture
by mrkgoo
March 26, 2011 - 3:07am

No, I don’t have a vault.

Thanks, guys, I’lll give a shot some time.

My external drives all say “ignore ownership” as being checked on the “get info” window - I assume this doesn’t mean it doesn’t use ownership permissions, just that it ignores them so anyone can access them while on the external? It will be ok to leave this setting, generate aperture library’s on them and copy them over to internal drives?

Who knows if this import will fix my issue, but if it doesn’t then it will be more likely that a corrupt image is causing it. I’ll cross that road when I get to it!

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 26, 2011 - 4:31am

Mr. Kgoo,

Yes that’s correct. Ignoring permissions is just fine.

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

mrkgoo's picture
by mrkgoo
March 28, 2011 - 8:49am

Well, just to update:

I finally did the BIG import.

Here’s what I did:

1) Create a new Aperture Library on an external drive.
2) Switch to this library, and selected import, pointing to my internal drive (this took 7+ hours over night for my 300GB library).
3) Checked the integrity of the new imported lirbary - files seemed fine, and all metadata I checked seemed to be intact. However, all the folder structure had become alphabetical, and some projects from within a folder were juggled around - I discovered one project appeared twice, even though only one set of photos existed -is this the possible library corruption? I deleted it and reimported.
4) As a precautionary measure, I copied my original library to the external drive as a back up (4+ hours), and deleted it from the internal.
5) Copied over the newly imported from the external into place on my internal.
6) Just to be safe, I repaired permissions (1 hour), repaired database (1 hour?), and rebuilt database (1 hour) fromt eh first aid menu - I wanted to make sure everything on my new library is good. I even regenerated all previews (13 hours).

Now my new library is back in order. I THINK everything is better. My issue if iPad syncing is mitigated, but not entirely removed.

If you recall, my issue was that only certain events caused the ApertureDataTimeStamp from refreshing, thus causing the ApertureData.xml file from failing to update (and on occasion corrupting to be an empty file), which led to incorrect syncing of albums to any iDevice pointing at my Aperture Library.

This is sort of gone away. When I move projects around in my Aperture Library, Aperture will now spend half a minute or so chugging away, but eventually update the XML. I tried setting Aperture to only do this on exit, but it crashed, so I set it back to always.

I’m convinced the bug is related to something in my Library that causes Aperture to ‘hang’ when processing a library change, possibly when previews are being generated. I recall before Aperture 3.1 (when the bug started happening), and there was no “TimeStamp” file to trigger changes (that’s an iLife 11 implementation), that upon closing Aperture I ALWAYS had a small progress bar telling me previews were updating, but that hardly happens now, and maybe that’s the issue - something hangs, and Aperture quits too quickly before it gets resolved?

I dunno, really, but only time will tell if importing new images, and adjusting images will now once again cause the ApertureData.xml to update as it’s supposed to, so here’s hoping!

Thanks for your help, Joseph.

edit: It may not have fixed everything perfectly, but I think at the very least, there’s a much easier workaround now to force my .xml to update - ie. move some projects around, and then wait 30 seconds. Much better than my previous one of rebuilding my entire library everytime!

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 28, 2011 - 11:33am

Mr. Kgoo,

Awesome, thanks for keeping us posted!

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

You may login with either your assigned username or your e-mail address.
Passwords are case-sensitive - Forgot your password?