Before I even start with this post I must make a disclaimer: The process I’m about to describe works great for me and I have had no problems as a result of using this process. …however I do not guarantee anything and you should back up your Aperture data before attempting anything in this blog post. I am not responsible for your data.
So, with that out of the way… A while back I found that I wanted to have a current copy of my Aperture library with me at all times in case I need to search for an image, send a sample image to a client or if I just wanted to upload some images to flicker. I also wanted to do all of my editing at my desktop machine.
Since my MacBookPro has a 120GB hard drive and my Aperture library was about 80GB and growing all the time (It’s currently 202GB) I figured the first thing I needed to do was get an external 250GB hard drive for my MacBookPro. Once I had the external drive I plugged it into my desktop machine and copied my Aperture library to the external drive. I figured I’d just delete the library off the external drive about once a week and re-copy it. But after copying 80GB to the external drive I realized that this was not a good plan … it took forever.
Then I remembered that I owned a cool syncing program called ChronoSync by Econ Technologies. I thought if ChronoSync could see inside the library container file and look for new, changed or deleted files it could sync the two files (libraries) without recopying everything every time. ChronoSync could do it! So I set it up and gave it a try and I haven’t looked back since.
The two thumbnails below show my configuration (click to see larger images). The “Left Target” is my desktop machine and it points to a folder I created called “Aperture”, the library file is in that folder. The “Right Target” is the external drive that I use with my MacBookPro. I am only doing a one direction sync, just keeping my MacBookPro in sync with my desktop machine, I do not know enough about the library structure to know if bi-directional syncing is a good idea or not … proceed with caution if you choose to go that route. The most important setting to make this work is on the Options page (second thumbnail) and it’s marked “Dissect packages”, this is the option that tells ChronoSync to look inside packages like the Aperture library and not look at the entire package as a single file.
I feel that important to mention one more time, this is a one direction sync. If I was to make changes to files on my MacBookPro, those changes would not be synced to my desktop machine. This is just a good way to have a current, portable version of my Aperture data with me where ever I go.
Until next time,
Keep shooting.
Allen Rockwell
Allen Rockwell Photography
I made blue folders as suggested by Joe Schorr in his Inside Aperture podcast. I dragged the projects into the folders to organize the Aperture directory. But when I used ChronoSync, set as reccommended in Aleen Rockwell's article, Synching Aperture on Two Computers, through an external drive, the folder structure was not the same in the synched file on the external drive. Many folders were empty. Although all the images were there in the Library, and were still in projects as originally organized, they were not moved to the folders as I had done on the A drive. What's up with that?
John Hershey
I found this thread and tested ChronoSync for use bi-directionally between my desktop and laptop - it worked like a charm! All metadata/keywords/versions are kept, allowing you to do some metadata editing on the laptop and then bring in all changes to the desktop for more processor-intensive work.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Hello Allen,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I've been looking for a way to do this and started a thread on the Open Photography Forum in their mac group. Looks like the consensus is that this will only work one way and that a true two way sync will not be stable.
Your post raises the subject of users needing to have access to their library in multiple locations/other machines. I have a desktop at both my home office and in the studio. My Aperture library is nearing 1 Tb and it seems that the only way to use the same library in the studio and at the home office is to take the physical drives with me and keep the back-up stored in a safe place.
Of course this creates problems - the RAID setup I use now (highpoint X4 and 2322 rocket raid card) needs a card in both machines and that card only fits in desktops that have pci-x slots. ( I tried using a networked NAS RAID setup but is way too slow to work with as a master library - though I now use it as a 2nd backup.) Carrying around the master is a risky and normally a bad idea. Also this is not the kind of thing you can drop into your camera bag and carry along to a shoot.
When I use a laptop on a shoot out of the studio, I just export the projects and reimport them rather than try do a drive dance.
I don't like it and wish the Apple Aperture team would provide real sync support as well as multi user support for the program.
Eric Hiss
What I have ended up doing ....
1. Mount the laptop over firewire networking (Not booting as a firewire drive)
2. Use the aperture prefs on the desktop to point at the laptop library file on the mounted network volume
From here I can use the desktop power for editing and exporting, perform backups of my master files, move master files to the desktop etc ...
I keep the master files of the last few shoots on an iPod, and mount that on the desktop as well.
I have a vault on the desktop, and a second vault and master file backup on another file server.
This has been working for me....
-D.B.
Mark,
I'm not sure if it would work bi-directional or not. If someone tries it I would love to hear about the results. It certainly might work.
Allen,
Is there a reason you feel it would not work the other direction. It seems that it would work just fine. So then if you say worked on metadata on the laptop at home at night you could add that info to the main set. We are trying to figure out a way to use Aperture at our studio in the way you would use Portfolio so that many computers could search an archive, so far no luck with that. It is the only thing that is holding us back, otherwise Aperture is doing a great job for us. Do you have any thoughts on this?
All the best,
Mark Wagoner
Thanks for the excellent and very helpful article. I also have a dual comp set up and was thinking about syncing. Very helpful.
This is an excellent idea, but would like some validation from that this is not only copying the images, but the ratings, keywords and all metadata and is safe. Expecially if a b-directional sync of the library is feasible and robust.
Thanks Allen !