How to migrate away from Aperture completely?

[btownguy]

I'm interested in using Aperture to manage my very large photo library. I may not want to use Aperture forever however. So, in the future, if I want to migrate away from Aperture, how do you get your entire photo library out of Aperture?

1) Do you have to "export" all photos?
2) Can you retain your original folder structure?
3) Is there a way to browse to the actual photo files when using Aperture? Or are they completely "locked up" within Aperture?

 

[Jaro65]

Just import the photos into Aperture, but without moving them into the Aperture library. The bottom line is that you want Aperture to use the masters in your existing photo directory and not creating another version in an Aperture library. If you ever want to move away from Aperture, you'll obviously lose all the work put into photos in Aperture, including the organizational structure, keywords, etc. But...you'll have access to all your photos. It is quite a bit messy if you do it the other way and don't keep the photos outside of Aperture library. Exporting them doesn't appear very easy.

 

[EssentialParado]

I'm unfamiliar with Aperture, but can't you just select all and drag them from the application into a folder in Finder, just like with iPhoto?