Synchronizing Aperture Libraries

I would like to keep my Aperture Libraries on my laptop and my desktop synchronized, so that when I have been working on the laptop, I can connect to my desktop and quickly update my desktop, and visa versa.

I would like to be able to do this without having to copy and replace the whole library each time.

Anyone have any ideas, utilities that can do this, or whatever?

Sounds like you want a copy of the library on both machines?

If not, then keep the library on your laptop, and hook up your laptop to your desktop in Target Disk Mode when you are at home. This will allow fast access of your library on your desktop.

If you really want duplicate copies in both locations, then try SuperDuper. If you buy the full version, it will allow you to Smart Update from one location to another. It should be capable of syncing from one machine to another. But be careful. If you "sync" in the wrong direction, you will lose your new files. Backup first!

If you really want duplicate copies in both locations, then try SuperDuper.

Hmmmm ... just played with my copy of SuperDuper. Seems like it won't work. It wants me to select an entire volume or disk image as the backup source, not just a single folder.

Another possibility is Carbon Copy Cloner. I don't use it myself, but it may do what you want. It is uncrippled shareware, so you can try it out and see.

Let us know what you find out.

I would like to keep my Aperture Libraries on my laptop and my desktop synchronized, so that when I have been working on the laptop, I can connect to my desktop and quickly update my desktop, and visa versa.

I would like to be able to do this without having to copy and replace the whole library each time.

Anyone have any ideas, utilities that can do this, or whatever?

ChronoSynch is an App that should work ( I tried it but not have yet purchased), but you can download a demo. Make sure you set it up to transfer the right way from most recent updated library to the other, some more info here as to why some of the software may work better than others - reading the packages properly.

Obvious set up some test libraries first

Thanks, I'll give it a go this weekend.

I use a file synchronizer called "File Synchronizer" and it works quite well for what I do. There are numerous others available form the apple website under "System/Disk Utilities".

If you are comfortable on the command line, you can protect yourself from accidentally synchronizing the wrong way by doing the following on the "Master Library" that you want to copy over to the other machine;

1.) Open a Command Line Interface

2.) cd ./Pictures

3.) chmod -R u-w Aperture\ Library.aplibrary/ (Recursively remove write permission for the owner)

This will change the aperture directory and all it's contents to read only so it can't be accidentally changed. Then you perform your sync and change your directory back to it's original state with the following command;

4.) chmod -R u+w Aperture\ Library.aplibrary/ (Recursively add write permission for the owner)

You will have to do this on both the master and target directories as the file permissions will be copied over with the synchronization process.

Did I just brand myself as a geek?

Mike

I use a file synchronizer called "File Synchronizer" and it works quite well for what I do. There are numerous others available form the apple website under "System/Disk Utilities".

 

If you are comfortable on the command line, you can protect yourself from accidentally synchronizing the wrong way by doing the following on the "Master Library" that you want to copy over to the other machine;

 

1.) Open a Command Line Interface

2.) cd ./Pictures

3.) chmod -R u-w Aperture\ Library.aplibrary/ (Recursively remove write permission for the owner)

 

This will change the aperture directory and all it's contents to read only so it can't be accidentally changed. Then you perform your sync and change your directory back to it's original state with the following command;

 

4.) chmod -R u+w Aperture\ Library.aplibrary/ (Recursively add write permission for the owner)

 

You will have to do this on both the master and target directories as the file permissions will be copied over with the synchronization process.

 

Did I just brand myself as a geek?

 

Mike

Terminal commands are cool, you are not a geek P.S. batChmod is also good for things like that if people do not like playing in the Terminal, though I guess messing with permissions is geeky no matter what ...hmmm.

Now that I've started looking into this, there are clearly a number of ways to do this.

Here's another way:

http://apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=14207

Now I have to think about pros and cons of Referenced versus Managed files.

I don't use Aperture. I manage my files in a directory structure and use Bridge, but what I do to "sync" between my laptop and home computer is to use the builtin unix command "rsync" with the command

rsync -Eturavz Dir1 account@machine2:Dir2

With set of switches, the command will ONLY copy the newer files from my current machine to machine2. I run the same command from the other machine to copy back. This insures that both machines have the most recent copies of all files. The only problem is that if I delete or rename a file on one machine, it will "automatically" get restored from the other. Since I rarely do this, it works fine. If I really want to delete something I have to delete it from both sides before running rsync. One advantage of rsync is that it only copies differences between files so it is very quick compared to simple copying of files.