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2 Macs - 1 Aperture Library...Help!

B

bgro

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 6, 2010
1,143
697
South Florida
Hello,

I have a Mac Mini and a Macbook Pro. I haven't started an Aperture Library yet as I am trying to gather info about how to best set it up.

Basically I would like my library on my Mini to mirror the library on my Macbook. Is there any way to merge and sync the two libraries together?

From researching it seems that i can do the following:

- Upload pictures to a Dropbox like service and have both libraries use a "referenced file" image that points at a specific Dropbox folder. The only thing I don't like about this is that if I make an edit to a photo on my Mini, it seems as if the edited version only resides on my Mini (ie my Macbook will not reflect the edit as the "referenced file" is the Master image in Dropbox)

- iPhoto Library Manager. Saw this software and it seems to merge the libraries together? Not sure if this is the way to go?

Any else have any experience with this or can offer any ideas?

Thanks!
 
I store my family photo library on my 3TB Time Capsule.
Always up-to-date, as there's only one copy of the library to worry about.
I wouldn't recommend this, since if the hard drive crashes, you won't have a backup of it. Also, unless you have gigabit ethernet, it's going to be really slow even with 450Mbps Wi-Fi.

What I want to do is get a 2-bay external eSATA enclosure and connect that to the internal SATA cable of the Time Capsule. That way, I have one copy of the data to safeguard me from drive failures.
 
That solution will not work, it's bound to corrupt your library.

Aperture has a mechanism for what you have in mind: merging projects. It's meant for photographers who use a mobile Mac on the road and have a desktop Mac at home or in the office. They can download the photos to their mobile Mac while they are on the road, edit things and then export that project which can then be imported or merged into the desktop Mac's library (depending on whether the project already exists on the desktop Mac).

I think the problem here is that we don't have the necessary bandwidth for efficient syncing solutions. It takes me hours to upload 1 GB to Crashplan and my D7000 currently has 2 8 GB SD cards in it.

The only option I see (which may be slow and cumbersome) is to store the library on an external hard drive. But unless you use a Thunderbolt enclosure, accessing your photos will be significantly slower. And you need to carry around an external hard drive.
 
btbrossard said:
Apple recommends that your access your Library on a locally mounted disk.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Click to expand...

The corruption is caused by a non-HFS+ partition, especially FAT32. Time Capsules are formatted in HFS+ and do not encounter data corruption issues. Data loss is caused by a lack of a backup, which I am trying to solve with a RAID 1 box.

I have my library connected over gigabit ethernet, alleviating any connection issues. However, Aperture does become slower if it's at anything below 600Mbps so that's why I only recommend it if you have gigabit ethernet.

It's issue-free if it's done right ;)
 
I agree that sharing your A3 library on network drive is ill advised. I do not do it. It is not advised by Apple. Common sense dictates that two independent processes manipulating a database that is not meant to be shared is not a good idea. You will hear people who claim they do it and things are OK. You can also find people who claim they played "russian roulette" and are still alive.

A3 is designed to allow projects to be checked in/out of your main library (in your case... this is probably your Mac mini).

I keep my entire A3 library on my 27" iMac. This machine is double backed up... once locally in the house, and secondly to the cloud. When I am in the field, I import new photos into A3 on my MacBook Air daily, and often begin photo organization tasks like stacks, rating, keyword assignment, etc. When I return home, I migrate and merge those new projects into my library. All the edits and organization migrate properly into my main A3 library on the iMac.

Sometimes I want to work on a pre-existing project while mobile. I migrate the project from my iMac to my MBA, and then work on the project while on the road. Then I migrate the project back into the iMac's master library when I return home. I recently did this as I was continuing to edit a photo book while traveling.

A3 is exceptional about this. I recommend that you use the tool as it is designed to work.

/Jim
 
Prodo123 said:
Just wondering, how exactly will it corrupt it?
Click to expand...
If multiple Macs modify the Aperture library (which consists of a database and tons of smaller files), conflicting updates will certainly cause corruption. I reckon it may be enough to keep two copies of Aperture running at the same time.
 
OreoCookie said:
If multiple Macs modify the Aperture library (which consists of a database and tons of smaller files), conflicting updates will certainly cause corruption. I reckon it may be enough to keep two copies of Aperture running at the same time.
Click to expand...

Then I'll make sure that only one computer is accessing the library at any given time. Thanks :)
 
flynz4 said:
I agree that sharing your A3 library on network drive is ill advised. I do not do it. It is not advised by Apple. Common sense dictates that two independent processes manipulating a database that is not meant to be shared is not a good idea. You will hear people who claim they do it and things are OK. You can also find people who claim they played "russian roulette" and are still alive.

A3 is designed to allow projects to be checked in/out of your main library (in your case... this is probably your Mac mini).

I keep my entire A3 library on my 27" iMac. This machine is double backed up... once locally in the house, and secondly to the cloud. When I am in the field, I import new photos into A3 on my MacBook Air daily, and often begin photo organization tasks like stacks, rating, keyword assignment, etc. When I return home, I migrate and merge those new projects into my library. All the edits and organization migrate properly into my main A3 library on the iMac.

Sometimes I want to work on a pre-existing project while mobile. I migrate the project from my iMac to my MBA, and then work on the project while on the road. Then I migrate the project back into the iMac's master library when I return home. I recently did this as I was continuing to edit a photo book while traveling.

A3 is exceptional about this. I recommend that you use the tool as it is designed to work.

/Jim
Click to expand...

I actually tried out the check in/out workflow and it works great. Kinda a PITA to transfer between Macs but it's not so bad and it works.
 
bgro said:
I actually tried out the check in/out workflow and it works great. Kinda a PITA to transfer between Macs but it's not so bad and it works.
Click to expand...

It is actually amazingly powerful. For example... if you export a project prior to a trip, and then work on it during the trip... any modifications you make (raw processing, keywords, etc) during the trip can be merged back into your library on a field by field basis, rather than just a pure replacement of what is already there.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
It is actually amazingly powerful. For example... if you export a project prior to a trip, and then work on it during the trip... any modifications you make (raw processing, keywords, etc) during the trip can be merged back into your library on a field by field basis, rather than just a pure replacement of what is already there.

/Jim
Click to expand...

For some reason I like to have all my photos (only about 20GB) on both computers so I just initially started with the same library on both computers and now anytime I make a change to a project I just export it and import it to the library on my other computer. So i really have no "master" library, they both function as a master. Works perfectly.
 
bgro said:
For some reason I like to have all my photos (only about 20GB) on both computers so I just initially started with the same library on both computers and now anytime I make a change to a project I just export it and import it to the library on my other computer. So i really have no "master" library, they both function as a master. Works perfectly.
Click to expand...

That can work OK with a small library. As it grows, it becomes much more difficult. I've had 80GB days (165GB with video). At some point, you need to have a single "master library" or a "master computer"... with multiple libraries. The alternative is too complicated to manage.

/Jim
 
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