Matt Shelton
Forum Enthusiast
For Snow Leopard users, the Snow Leopard Graphics Update released today is specifically said to resolve an issue that causes unresponsiveness in Aperture 3.
-
Welcome to the new forums! Please read this first. For known issues we are working to resolve, click here.
Dear Steve, I love/hate Aperture 3 so much...
- Thread starter Gabriel Chalmeta
- Start date
DiploStrat
Leading Member
OK, since you have been to Africa and I like Africa,
This quote, from Nikonians, distills a most of what I have learned, installing Aperture on a MacPro, a Mini, and old MacBookPro and a new unibody.:
"To reply to you and others on Aperture 3 performance. In my experience (as a very early adopter), Aperture 3 speed is a bit pass/fail. By this I mean that beach balls or hangs are usually symptoms of something wrong; something that will not be fixed simply by adding more memory, etc.
If you have EVER had Aperture 2 on your computer, it is almost imperative that you purge all cache and pref files. A quick search of the Apple Aperture Forum or the Internet will find a list of the files that must go. To quote a previous post:
"And try this:
Go to the finder and move everything to the trash that is inside these folders:
Hard Drive/Library/Caches
Hard Drive/System/Library/Caches
Hard Drive/Users/(Your user) Library/Caches
Also delete this file:
Hard Drive/Users/(Your user) Preferences/com.apple.aperture.plist
Reboot... It will take a little bit. Report back if this works."
That last file is may be missing library at some point, but you get the idea.
The goal is to clear Aperture 2 pref and cache files which do not get updated with Aperture 3. (Booo! Apple! This is too Windoze for words.)
You may be able to do this using Onyx or Appzapper. (Use Appzapper to delete both Aperture 2 and 3, then reinstall AP3.)"
Finally:
-- Don't forget to empty the trash after you delete the caches, and,
-- Don't forget to update Aperture to the latest and greatest release, specifically including the ProKit update.
-- A "quick - on line" defrag with iDefrag, AFTER you have done all of this, really helps with scrolling, etc.
I find that Aperture 3 on my Mini is much faster than Aperture 2 on my MacPro. Aperture 3 is completely usable, for field work at least, on my 2006 MacBookPro with 2 GB of RAM."
The original thread is here: http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=320&topic_id=1#126
Most of us phanbois will go to stupid lengths to help out some who is having difficulties. (And yes, Aperture 3 has been about the most Windoze like experience I have ever had with a Mac - but the results are worth it.) Sincerely hope this is helpful.
Best wishes!
--
DiploStrat ;-)
Yes and no. Basically, OSX does a great job of optimizing and a good job of defragging. (And they are not the same.) A "Quick Online" defrag with iDefrag (whose producer is an Aperture user) often speeds scrolling, bulk exports, and other operations which do a lot of sequential reading and writing. But you are completely correct; disk fragmentation does not cause beachballs of death.
This quote, from Nikonians, distills a most of what I have learned, installing Aperture on a MacPro, a Mini, and old MacBookPro and a new unibody.:
"To reply to you and others on Aperture 3 performance. In my experience (as a very early adopter), Aperture 3 speed is a bit pass/fail. By this I mean that beach balls or hangs are usually symptoms of something wrong; something that will not be fixed simply by adding more memory, etc.
If you have EVER had Aperture 2 on your computer, it is almost imperative that you purge all cache and pref files. A quick search of the Apple Aperture Forum or the Internet will find a list of the files that must go. To quote a previous post:
"And try this:
Go to the finder and move everything to the trash that is inside these folders:
Hard Drive/Library/Caches
Hard Drive/System/Library/Caches
Hard Drive/Users/(Your user) Library/Caches
Also delete this file:
Hard Drive/Users/(Your user) Preferences/com.apple.aperture.plist
Reboot... It will take a little bit. Report back if this works."
That last file is may be missing library at some point, but you get the idea.
The goal is to clear Aperture 2 pref and cache files which do not get updated with Aperture 3. (Booo! Apple! This is too Windoze for words.)
You may be able to do this using Onyx or Appzapper. (Use Appzapper to delete both Aperture 2 and 3, then reinstall AP3.)"
Finally:
-- Don't forget to empty the trash after you delete the caches, and,
-- Don't forget to update Aperture to the latest and greatest release, specifically including the ProKit update.
-- A "quick - on line" defrag with iDefrag, AFTER you have done all of this, really helps with scrolling, etc.
I find that Aperture 3 on my Mini is much faster than Aperture 2 on my MacPro. Aperture 3 is completely usable, for field work at least, on my 2006 MacBookPro with 2 GB of RAM."
The original thread is here: http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=320&topic_id=1#126
Most of us phanbois will go to stupid lengths to help out some who is having difficulties. (And yes, Aperture 3 has been about the most Windoze like experience I have ever had with a Mac - but the results are worth it.) Sincerely hope this is helpful.
Best wishes!
--
DiploStrat ;-)
DiploStrat
Leading Member
It is KNOWN that AP2 caches and prefs cause problems for AP3. (If I have it correctly, basically, parts of the OS get cached for speed, but seems that some of those fixed configurations don't update when needed. Deleting those files forces them to recreate with the latest and greatest OS data.) Will this work for you? No idea, but it can't hurt.
I got mildly flamed for proposing an overly complex install path for AP3, but, I know this works. Try this:
-- Back up your library; ideally to an external drive.
-- Purge AP from your computer. (Appzapper makes this easy. The first five zaps are free.)
-- Update your OSX software, including the ProKit update.
-- At this point, I would do a "Quick Online" defrag. This consolidates files, but does not mess up Apple's optimization. ( http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php )
-- Install Aperture 3 and run software update.
-- Copy your library back to where ever you want it. (A database rebuild never hurts.)
-- Open Aperture 3 and pray a lot. If it wants to process, etc., let it run to completion.
If it is running better, I would do another "Quick Online" defrag; it only takes a few minutes.
Rob Boyer has some good information on previews; basically, set them to the size of your largest monitor, or one size smaller, set quality to 5 or 6. (Aperture used to default to huge previews.) See: http://photo.rwboyer.com/2009/01/03/aperture-2-quick-tip-managing-previews/
Again, you can usually tell when AP3 is broken (crash/beachball) or simply running slow because you're on your 2006 notebook with 2 GB RAM. Slow is slow, but it is not broken. Broken is broken, even on a mega MacPro.
All offered with no guarantees but with best wishes.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
I got mildly flamed for proposing an overly complex install path for AP3, but, I know this works. Try this:
-- Back up your library; ideally to an external drive.
-- Purge AP from your computer. (Appzapper makes this easy. The first five zaps are free.)
-- Update your OSX software, including the ProKit update.
-- At this point, I would do a "Quick Online" defrag. This consolidates files, but does not mess up Apple's optimization. ( http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php )
-- Install Aperture 3 and run software update.
-- Copy your library back to where ever you want it. (A database rebuild never hurts.)
-- Open Aperture 3 and pray a lot. If it wants to process, etc., let it run to completion.
If it is running better, I would do another "Quick Online" defrag; it only takes a few minutes.
Rob Boyer has some good information on previews; basically, set them to the size of your largest monitor, or one size smaller, set quality to 5 or 6. (Aperture used to default to huge previews.) See: http://photo.rwboyer.com/2009/01/03/aperture-2-quick-tip-managing-previews/
Again, you can usually tell when AP3 is broken (crash/beachball) or simply running slow because you're on your 2006 notebook with 2 GB RAM. Slow is slow, but it is not broken. Broken is broken, even on a mega MacPro.
All offered with no guarantees but with best wishes.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
vizwiz
Forum Enthusiast
kaister
Active member
I tend to get the additional warranty, which you can buy within a year of buying the product, to have a total of 3, if you don't have extended warranty, you'd have to be a bit lucky - try one of the big apple stores where they have an in-house genius - they're often quite good in these types of situations
- 85gb is not that big, as long as you haven't got like 3000 images sitting in one project, very few people do i think. as your library grows you might want/have to put it on an external drive - I used to have it on a 7200rpm 500gb through FW800, but now on a LaCie 2big 2TB raid 0 drive, attached through eSATA, the speed increase is major
- Make sure your previews in preferences are set to the size of your screen, ie 1440x1440 if on 15" laptop, or 1920x1920 if working with a 15" external screen
- Let Aperture finish generating thumbnails/previews after you've imported new images before you start culling
- Turn off 'enable faces' (in preferences)
DiploStrat
Leading Member
Known train wrecks with Aperture 3. Spending way too much time on the Internet, I have noted the following:
-- Cache/pref holdovers kill things.
-- Certain iMacs, especially white ones with certain video cards have had trouble.
-- Some new unibody MacBookPro owners have reported problems. (But I personally installed on one, upgrading from AP2, with no problems.)
-- Some subset of the above had real problems with OS release .4.
Again, best wishes. This program runs nicely on my Mini. It is slow, but smooth on my ancient (2006) MacBookPro, but still better than AP2.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
-- Cache/pref holdovers kill things.
-- Certain iMacs, especially white ones with certain video cards have had trouble.
-- Some new unibody MacBookPro owners have reported problems. (But I personally installed on one, upgrading from AP2, with no problems.)
-- Some subset of the above had real problems with OS release .4.
Again, best wishes. This program runs nicely on my Mini. It is slow, but smooth on my ancient (2006) MacBookPro, but still better than AP2.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
Alpha Doug
Veteran Member
I believe the battery issue was a known problem (wasn't there a recall?) and I suspect that Apple has a policy that if you have that specific problem, you warranty on that particular issue is extended to 3 years. You need to check with Applecare to see if that issue is covered. Lithium Ion batteries have been known to do this, even on the dreaded PCs. But it is not normal, and should be warranted.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
Most of my projects are relatively small, but my South Africa import is all in a single project (with individuals folders within the project). It's about 35gb and 2,500 images (5,000 if you include raw+jpg). I don't like the idea of having to split this up, but I suppose if it alleviates my beachball issues, I'd be willing to give it a try. But I'm not entirely hopeful, considering I was having issues before this trip. (Although I will admit, it does seem considerably slower after this trip's import....)
I probably have close to 2gb of video. Perhaps it's worth a shot to remove all of my videos from AP3.... I use iMovie instead.
I use Faces - this isn't an option for me. Besides, the idea of having to turn off a feature to get software to work properly is contrary to my idea of "upgrading" and "progress".
I think I adjusted the previews to 1440x900 and 5 quality way back when, but I'll double check when I get home today to be certain.
Again, thanks for your help and suggestions.
DiploStrat
Leading Member
Free advice is worth what you pay for it. So here goes:
You might do better to make your South Africa trip a folder and each place you visited a project. Many folk get too literal about the words; folder, album, and projects are simply arbitrary titles, but each behaves differently in Aperture. A project is the only Aperture device that physically contains images. Projects could just as logically have been named, shoe boxes, rolls, or events. You may think that a trip to South Africa is a project, but in Aperture, it might be better as a folder.
I think of projects as rolls of film, so I have a ton of projects, basically, I create a new project every time I unload the camera. (I think my largest project is about 200 images.) While Apple gives the limit of images in one project as 10,000, I have never seen a reason to go that high.
My basic structure is: Continent> Country> Project. So one click shows me every image on a continent, or one click shows every image in a country; so they are never divided up unless I want them to be.
Thus you might have:
Africa(folder)> South Africa(folder)> Natal, Cape Town, Sabi Sabi, JoBurg, Misc, etc. (projects)
Then you could have Albums (smart or otherwise): Animals, People, Vehicles, etc., for cross cutting. These are populated by drag and drop or by keywords. The power of Aperture is that you need not ever worry about the physical arrangement of your images; you can see them any number of ways.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
You might do better to make your South Africa trip a folder and each place you visited a project. Many folk get too literal about the words; folder, album, and projects are simply arbitrary titles, but each behaves differently in Aperture. A project is the only Aperture device that physically contains images. Projects could just as logically have been named, shoe boxes, rolls, or events. You may think that a trip to South Africa is a project, but in Aperture, it might be better as a folder.
I think of projects as rolls of film, so I have a ton of projects, basically, I create a new project every time I unload the camera. (I think my largest project is about 200 images.) While Apple gives the limit of images in one project as 10,000, I have never seen a reason to go that high.
My basic structure is: Continent> Country> Project. So one click shows me every image on a continent, or one click shows every image in a country; so they are never divided up unless I want them to be.
Thus you might have:
Africa(folder)> South Africa(folder)> Natal, Cape Town, Sabi Sabi, JoBurg, Misc, etc. (projects)
Then you could have Albums (smart or otherwise): Animals, People, Vehicles, etc., for cross cutting. These are populated by drag and drop or by keywords. The power of Aperture is that you need not ever worry about the physical arrangement of your images; you can see them any number of ways.
--
DiploStrat ;-)
What bugs, as my Nikons/Leicas and I certainly haven't noticed any? And, in fact, we gave all things "Adobe" the boot, as not up to Aperture 3 standards, quality and ease. :|
--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)
--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)
O.k., let's look at just one design bug.
Aperture3 has a new feature, borrowed from iPhoto09, called "Places." I have a Project with 752 images in it, but, because my digital camera lacks GPS, to date I have had to enter geodata manually, and I have done so for only 18 of those 752 images.
Now, if I click on Places in the Library Inspector or on Places in the View menu or on the Places icon, I am allowed to select a place from the places identified among the 18 tagged images. Fine.
But, after I am finished with my Places tour, can I get back to my view of the 752 images in the Project? That is, can I choose among all of the images in the Project instead of the limited subset of 18 geotagged images?
(The answer is yes, but if you try a similar exercise, you will have a devil of a time finding how to do it.)
Good software design would make the Places icon a toggle switch (like the Import icon) where one could exit Places by clicking on the same icon that took one out of the Project View that showed all of the images in the Project. Or clicking on the specific Project line in the Library Inspector. Or unchecking Places in the View menu. You will find, if you try them serially, that none of those three obvious tactics to get out of the limited subset of Places will allow you to see all of the non-Places images in the Project.
(The tactic to return to Project View: switch to Browser View, then click on the tiny unmarked magnifying glass icon just to the left of the search bar that has a larger magnifying glass icon, and in the HUD that pops up, uncheck the filter for Places.)
That is such a dumb software design, it cannot be called anything less than a bug.
Alpha Doug
Veteran Member
Well Prime, one man's bug is another's "feature I studied up on how to use". First, if you are in the "Places" mode, you have tagged some images, and you click on the red pin so you can see just the images that belong with that pin, you have automatically filtered your Project data set for just those images. So logically, if you want to "un-filter" a data set, what do you do? You go down to the metadata filter at the lower right corner of the map viewer, and you click on the "X" to clear the filter. Voila!! Back to the unfiltered view. Really. Buy the book, read it, practice.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
B
Basalite
Guest
iDefrag is well known for very noticeably increasing OSX performance. The first time I used it on my Mac it was like starting off with a fresh and optimized install. The difference is quite noticeable, much more so than I ever get with a windows defrag.
Try listening to others that have had positive experiences with their Macs and maybe you will not have so many issues.
So how are you distinguishing a beach ball due to "processing slowness" and one that may be due to a fragmented drive?
B
Basalite
Guest
Why are you using a feature in Aperture that your camera obviously doesn't support.? Logic would dictate that most people are not gong to be imputing gps data for hundreds or thousands of images, which you yourself have alluded to, so why get so worked up over something that is not going to be a commonly used or even useable feature for you?
Now I use Metadata for people tagging and locations/places. However a program called Maperture has caught my eye. I may have to check this out:
http://www.ubermind.com/products/maperture.php
http://www.ubermind.com/products/maperture.php
- I was born before 2007; I can harken back to the days that geographical coordinates existed even without GPS technology.
- I have a digital camera.
- I also have slides and negatives, now scanned and digitized, that I recorded with film-based cameras over four decades.
- I have a desire to tag with the exact location where taken some of the images that I have exposed both with the film camera and with the non-GPS-enabled digital camera.
- Aperture3 does support that capability.
I guess that I must not be "most people"; I am an individual, clearly different from you. I think, however, that "most people" do not confuse with the concept "logic" the fact that something can be presented to them on a platter without the need for mental input.
It is a usable feature for me. I am quite competent, thank you, to enter gographical coordinates into digitized photographs that I have taken, even photographs that were exposed before GPS satellites were placed into orbit. I understand that this feature of Aperture may not be useful for you, and think none the less of you for your unfortunate disability.
All well and good, but on my copy of Aperture3, there is no metadata filter at the lower right corner of the map viewer, just a set of buttons allowing a choice among satellite, road, or terrain, and a toggle box for Show labels. Do you have a screen shot of that to which you refer? Typically, the Help documentation provides not one whit of information relative to either of the search phrases "map view" or "metadata filter."
Sea Hunt 2
Forum Enthusiast
Don't know Aperture, but I am so satisfied with Lightroom 3. It's nearly perfect...
In this case, you don't know whether "Aperture 3" (after all, it's created by Apple for Mac Computers) will make you even more satisfied than "Lightroom 3" (must rely on Adobe for making sure this remains compatible with your Mac computer and Apple's OS/firmware updates --- something I am not about to gamble on with something so important as my photography; as, I have "been there done that before" --- and, in my case, it was a "disaster"). 
--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)
--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)
Keyboard shortcuts
- f
- Forum