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Stuck Between a Rock and a Laptop...
Like many photographers, I share my post-processing time between a portable and a desktop computer (in this case a MacBook Pro and an early G5 PowerMac). This is pretty standard, with the portability of the notebook being offset by the larger HDs, more RAM and bigger screens of the tower.
This is all well and good, until it comes to sharing work and edits between two copies of Aperture...
To some extent, this problem is already covered in Aperture with the ability to import and export entire Projects - edits, adjustments, Versions, Albums and all. Do some work on the MBP, export the Project, copy across to the G5 and import.
The downside? Moving lots of big files back-and-forth on a regular basis. Even with referenced Masters and minimal use of previews, a Project with 2-3 thousand images in it weighs in at around a gigabyte. Not that gigabyte files are particularly scary these days, my biggest stitched panorama is a shade under 2.5GB for the flattened 8-bit TIFF - but you need to transfer it every single time you make a change on one computer and want to see the change echoed on the other computer, even if it's just a case of having applied some keywords.
Solutions? There are some, none ideal.
The Networked Library
Store the Library on one computer, and access it from other computers over the network connection. Note that the Library needs to be on an HFS+-formatted drive, so NAS solutions aren’t normally possible.
Pros: not much setting up involved, any number of networked computers can access the Library easily, no way to end up with two unsyncronised Libraries.
Cons: not officially supported by Apple* - in fact Aperture 2.0 specifically stopped you doing this until 2.0.1 came out and loosened the restriction - you have to ensure that only one machine is accessing the Library at a time, if you're on the road either the notebook has no access or the computer back at base has no access.
The Portable Library
Store the Library on an external HD and plug it in to whichever computer you want to use.
Pros: not much setting up involved, no chance of accidentally accessing the Library from two computers at once, you can take the HD with you on the road if it’s bus-powered, no way to end up with two unsyncronised Libraries.
Cons: if you’re on the road, either the notebook or the computer back at base has no access to the Library, if you start Aperture without the HD plugged in it tends to default to an empty Library in your Pictures folder.
The Synchronised Library
Keep duplicate Libraries on the notebook and the desktop computer, using backup/syncing software to keep them identical.
Pros: full access on multiple computers no matter where they are. Two working Libraries if something goes wrong with one.
Cons: manual syncing when you remember to, if work is done on both computers since the last sync then all changes since the last sync will be lost on one of those computers.
Important Note - when using the syncing software you must make sure that you are syncing files in one direction only (from the most recently edited Library to the older one), and you should also sync deletions or there will be old files sitting around which will cause problems if you ever need to rebuild the Library.
Of the three options, I’ve gone for the syncronised Libraries approach as the best compromise, using ChronoSync to do the syncing. Any syncing software that can dig down into the guts of a ‘package’ such as Aperture’s Libraries instead of treating them as single files will do the job. This still results in some biggish file transfers as the main database file will always be copied (458MB on my newly-consolidated ‘master’ Library), and each Project stores it’s thumbnails in a single big file, so adjusting one image will mean the whole thumbnail file gets changed. But as it’s an automated process it doesn’t matter too much - set the sync software running and it’ll chug away for a few minutes and be done. Not something you’d want to do multiple times a day, but bearable.
Just to make life more complicated, though, I actually sync from one computer to a third Library copy on an external HD and then from the HD to the other computer, doubling the sync time. This is partly because my MBP is normally connected via AirPort which isn’t really up to these kinds of heavy file transfer, but more for the side-effect - yet another fully working backup Library which can be used with any computer with Aperture 2 on it. Not that I’m paranoid about my work data, oh no... I use Vaults on top of this, plus complete copies of my main working HDs...
In the long run, however, I'm still hoping for an 'Aperture Server' product from Apple where you can get back to base, plug in to the network and simply hit the ‘Sync’ button to sync the most recent changes from both Libraries.
Ian Wood
*Presumably due to potential data corruption issues when accessing SQLite3 databases on non-local drives.
Comments (13)
Ian,
When using chronosync, do you get it dissect the Aperture library to only sync the changes or do you simply copy the whole library ?
Ta
J
I tell it to dissect the Library package and sync only the changes.
This is quite a lot faster than copying the whole Library - my main 'referenced Master' Library is 26GB, ChronoSync has been copying 1- 7GB each time. The 7GB transfer was after I'd been tweaking the adjustments on a series of images picked from across many of my different Projects, so there were loads of thumbnail files to copy.
Ian
I think this solution will work for me also. For some time, I have been using ChronoSync to keep my iPhoto libraries synced, and this has worked well. Now that I have upgraded my MacBook hard drive to 250 GB, I can do this with my Aperture libraries also. I was told that with iPhoto you should not actually sync the libraries with Chronosync, but instead copy the newer files in one direction. Is this what should also be done with Aperture?
Thanks -
Dudley - good point, you MUST sync in one direction rather than both.
I'll go back and edit the post.
Ian
I am similarly situated with a MacBook Pro and MacPro. I typically create projects on my laptop and do what I can or need to first on the laptop and migrate projects to my tower for final work. Keeping thing going one way and somehow indicating the status of the project using metadata or keywords helps. Should I migrate images from my tower back to my notebook, I usually create a new project of just the images I need or if I send the whole project I will rename it in such a way to indicate it's status.
Ian
I always carry a G Drive mini 160Gb (about the size of a iPod classic) with my MacBook Pro. Lots of space, easy to use via Firewire 400. Q: You don't mention that anyone other than you has access to or use of your Aperture Library on the G5. If so, why bother with the hassle of synchronizing two Aperture Libraries when it's so easy to plug in the Mini and run with it? btw with so much space and ease of use I even run my 30Gb iTunes library from the mini. I do store my Vaults on another larger HD on my desk.
JBP - I sometimes think a Project-level ability to store notes would be handy for keeping track of things like that.
Jim - there times when I'm on the road that my wife and my part-time assistant (not the same person!) need at least read-only access to the Library. As time goes on, this seems to be increasing. I use a similar drive for my Masters with the MBP.
In your post, you mention that by exporting projects all "edits, adjustments, Versions, Albums and all" are exported. However, I think you are incorrect, or I am doing something wrong. When I export a project on the images export, any smart albums, etc do not come over after importing to another Aperture system
Are you sure you exported the Project (File>Export>Project...) rather than the images in the Project?
Actually I figured it out. When you export a project there is no status on its export progress, so when I imported it the other machine was still exporting, so I only saw some of the images.
Finally after an 30 mins or so a message box popped up saying that the export was complete.... then when I imported everything came in.
Ian,
Thanks for the replies. I use non-ref images in two fat Aperture libraries (120+GB each). Can i keep a backup of those using chronosync's dissected package function, and yes one way only ?
For some reason i've avoided the dissection thinking Aperture's lib changes in any session will create trouble for any sync program that the backup would not work..Suppose its an experiment... but good to hear that it works for others. Save 2 hrs per lib backup routine between 1am and 5am every night !
J
I have tried to sync two Aperture 2 libraries (MacBook and Mini), using ChronoSync as you describe, but it did not work. I have two different libraries on the two Macs. I thought that I should copy one to an external drive, then sync the second "to" the external drive (one way) so that the external drive had everything. Then, I re-synced the complete version from the external drive to each of the separate Macs (MacBook and Mini), as a one way sync from the external drive.
It did not work. The libraries were not the complete library (it was actually, the least of the two separate libraries). So I restored each library separately to where I started. Any ideas? Should I just do a two-way sync between the two libraries?
Harvey, you can use ChronoSync or similar to make one Library the same as another Library. DO NOT try to do a two-way sync between two Libraries, that will leave you with two corrupted Libraries!
Unfortunately there's no automatic way to 'combine' two Libraries which is why I'm still hoping for a proper solution from Apple. If you have different work in the two Libraries your only current option is to export Projects from one, import them into the other and manually delete duplicate images.
Ian