posted by flosse_r on Apple Aperture

2 comments

Working with Aperture 3 is an absolute bliss. Thre I said it, deal with it. A lot of people do not like parts of Aperture and one of the gripes with the older version was that even though you deleted the photo, the associated thumbnails etc. in the database did not get deleted. They didn’t get displayed either anymore, because you DID delete the photo, but it kept the thumbnails and minis in the library, JUST in case you re-import

So how does Aperture 3 deal with this?

Well, short answer for those impatient and not wanting to read on: it doesn’t. Same problem, different version. But luckily there is a process to fix this.

The problem: It involves scripting or running a command from the terminal. This is a deterrent for most people but when you see the gain, you will think differently.

First off let me show you the difference. I reference my files so my 10000 photo library for 2010 is only 11 G large with an additional 100G stored elsewhere.

NOTE: To follow this tutorial, your master files have to be online. That means if they are stored on an external harddrive, you have to connect it. Also note that this process will take some time!

Now, as you can see in the screenshot, My original library size was 11.82 GB, almost 12 GB.

Next I rebuilt the database, just to see if this would do the trick in Aperture 3. To do this, which is usefull to make sure you have updated thumbnails or in case an image gets corrupted,simply close Aperture 3, hold the CMD and OPTION key (CMD and ALT) and launch aperture 3. You will be presented with this screen:

Click on REBUILD DATABASE and let it run.

After it had finished, I noticed the Aperture library size actually INCREASED. Not exactly what I was after but good to know that not all thumbnails were present and it made more

As we see, this did not do the trick. So off we go to launch the terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)

You are shown the evil command prompt, at which most normal users will start shaking from fear and any good old unix geek will crack a big smile – HOME!

You need to enter one single command and you need to copy it entirely as it is here:

find ~/ -name “AP.Thumbnails” -delete ;find ~/ -name “AP.Minis” -delete ;find ~/ -name “AP.Tinies” -delete

Once this is done, you can close the evil terminal again and you notice that your Aperture Library has shrunk… a LOT. To be exact, less than half in my case.

Now, once you open Aperture 3, it will generate the minis, which are previews of the thumbnails (the what what?!!?) , again and this will add in size. But it is not much at all!

As you can see, My Aperture Library went from nearly 12 G to 6.15 without deleting a single photo really.

I consider this a gross oversight by Apple and it is one of the biggest drawbacks and issues I have with Aperture. I thought they would fix it with Aperture 3 but they did not. Hopefully they will with 3.04 or 3.1 as this CANNOT be that difficult.

 

Tags: aperture 3, aperture 3 file management, files