RIP: Apple Aperture will no longer work after macOS Mojave

crApple

Discontinuing Aperture not only pushed me immediately to Adobe, but out of the Apple ecosystem altogether in 2015. I'd built a pretty decent freelancing business centered around Aperture, and wiping out years of editing put a pretty major damper on that.

Apple user confirms won't be upgrading past OS X Mojave.

It's very, very sad! I really love Aperture, has used from the start........ So now no reason to upgrade to Mojave......

Apple is notorious for its lack of backward compatibility.. windows and linux run decades old software just fine.

very very sad, apple killed my photography post creativity by being greedy stupid useful idiots, got it from the first release , no more apple products for me period.
never liked the lightroom, tried but NO.

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hi
it's very sad ,i really loved aperture ,and the output quality
i prefer to lightroom/acr
the only program that can come very close is capture one
i shoot canon and nikon
really sad

Who needs digital asset management?

Buy 1TB of Dropbox or OneDrive (you choose).

Keep all your RAWs there as read-only files.
Edit with *any app* you have on *any* device that can access Dropbox/Onedrive
Save in a lossless format, in case you want to make multiple edits.
Maintain a simple directory/file naming structure so you can find stuff.

Since Aperture launched file syncing, OS native support for images, search, and mobile device apps have completely changed. I would argue you don not need a 'silo' to do this anymore. What you might lose in ergonomics you gain in total platform independence.

I also bought Aperture at release and paid NZ$800 for it, so thanks Apple.

I'm so sad.

A lot of things will break with 10.15 - but the more interesting part for me ist that there are no positive aspects with the upgrade - no new features worth the hassle. So not updating ist very easy for me.

I am still using Aperture. Tried migrating to photos, but photos is extremely crippled and far from what aperture was. I will need to look into what linux has to offer, my days with Apple are counted.

Aperture will stop working because the next macOS will drop support for 32-bit applications entirely, along with a whole bunch of other legacy stuff.

I think Apple discontinued Aperture because the market was crowded, and it was about the same time that the huge iPhone volumes seemed to have caused Apple to take its eyes off the ball on more niche products (even “bigger”products like the Mac Pro, Mac mini, MacBook Air anyone?).

It’s water under the bridge though at this point, Aperture has been discontinued for years. My Aperture library is basically archival at that point, and at some point I’ll move it all over to Capture One.

Loved aperture, simple yet functional. Apple photos is awful, even at my local apple store nobody there uses it or even knows anyone that uses it. I eventually went with pro one, not quite as good of an interface but allows much more versatility in editing.

Is there a best option for replacing Aperture and migrating all the photos therein, other than Lightroom? As a senior, I cannot justify Adobe's subscription.

Shame. I still use Aperture. An excellent product.

LOL! Happier every new day for never using an Apple product.

Killing Aperture is (to me) one of the major negatives of recent Apple behaviour. The other is removing all the useful ports from their Macbook laptops. Who can tell what they are thinking?

The big puzzle, beyond even killing a successful and useful product (Aperture) is the program they replaced it with (Photos). I reach screaming point in seconds when trying to use it. How is this thing even a released product? What is the target audience? Who is actually expert in using it? When I see other people use it, they seem as lost as I am (though they also seem happy, so go figure).

So to summarise in one sentence: Aperture, old and dead, is still better than Apple's current product in this space.

And that makes me sad.

I've been with Aperture since v1.5 and I knew this day was coming so I jumped ship for Capture One 12 for Fujifilm cameras. Didn't regret it for one second. Not quite as intuitive as Aperture, but more powerful. Still way easier to learn than an Adobe product.

Tried Photos and instantly hated it, but it can be made more useful via Affinity Photo which will work as an extension. The Nik collection will as work with Photos as well.

So currently Photos is used for routine family stuff, the serious stuff goes on Capture One and when I need PS like tool I flip on Affinity Photo. The Nik Collection gets used as well.

The reason Apple dropped Aperture might be as simple as Adobe threatening to pull all of their apps from the OS if Apple didn't stop competing with them on at least video or photography. Apple chose to keep video.

I have absolutely no evidence for such a statement but it's the only good reason I can think of for dropping such a fantastic program that made them money.

Apple March Quarter results:
$31.05 billion iPhone
$11.45 billion: Services
$5.51 billion: Mac
$5.13 billion: Wearables, Home and Accessories
$4.87 billion: iPad
I guess that all the Apple h8rs are wrong about the impending demise of the Mac computer— $5.51 billion in sales ain't chopped liver.

It's a pity. I still haven't found a solution that's as intuitive as Aperture. Photos tries but editing is more cumbersome (although I can see that for the average user, Photos might be easier to learn). Aperture has a steeper learning curve, but if you know the basics of image processing (levels, curves, etc) nothing is better and faster. I tried Lightroom but it just takes more time to do the same.

So, why is no other software company providing a serious alternative for Aperture? Is it patented? Are others more focussed on technology users and not on photographers? A photographer want to shoot, not post-process...

I used Aperture when it came out and for many years after. When they stopped updating I switched to Photos, so now my old Aperture and iPhoto files still live on in Photos. I did not notice a huge difference, at least after an update or two, between editing individual photos in Aperture and Photos. However, there were some tools for batch work in Aperture that I do miss. For those of you holding on to old hardware to run Aperture, I understand, I kept an old machine running for years to run a music program that failed to make the jump to OS9, eventually I had to switch to a new program when my computer died and it was not worth the hassle to buy a used machine for one program. I have tried several music apps since and finally ended up on Finale, but I still miss the old one. Finale is powerful but it has been kludged over the years way too often and the user interface is very inconsistant.

On Windows, I'm still using my 1999 Micrografx Picture Publisher. How come Microsoft keeps compatibility for older programs and Apple doesn't? It isn't as if Apple is even trying to force you to buy an upgraded version of Aperture. Are there technical reasons that make this impossible in the Mac OS or do they simply not want to include the compatibility coding?

Is it wrong for me to want Apple to go into the finance market, lose everything in the next downturn (except IP) and have to become an honest company again?

It's a shame to see Aperture support discontinued, but us photographers really are spoiled for choice. In case you're looking for an Aperture replacement, here's what I've used and enjoyed:

Apple Photos + Serif Affinity Photo is a great combo for DAM + RAW developing + Image compositing.

Adobe has their CC Photographer's plan at $10/mo—subscriptions are a touchy subject but the price is right, and LR Classic performance has gotten a lot better as of 8.x.

And finally, switching to Fuji got me using Capture One more regularly. Pro 12 is jaw-droppingly good.

I'm guessing it's a 32-bit app and Apple can't be bothered to rewrite it for 64 bits?

I read somewhere that 32 bit support os being deprecated in OS X.

I purchased a Mac Mini and a pro Apple Cinema screen for Photo Editing.
Cinema Screen dies 1 day past warranty. I take it to Apple & they replace it.
Mac Mini dies. Take it to Apple & they recommend a new one.

Take new Mac Mini home... it doesn't plug into my Apple Cinema Screen because the new screen has Thunderbolt cables. Try to buy older model. Apple no longer makes these monitors. Have to get a refurbished one.

Then Apple Mac Mini HD fails during Yosemite Firmware/Security update. Take it to Apple. HD Disk is corrupted. Apple erased HD & re-installs latest update. Now Mac Mini does not work with my monitor: glorious sound is gone. Turns out it's a known defect. ALSO: All my expensive editing software is now incompatible with new Mojave Operating System.

Apple announce new 2019 Mac Mini. Does not plug into 'older' Apple Cinema Screen. Apple no longer makes one. "Buy Aperture", they said. "It will be fun", they said. Time to show Apple the loyalty they've shown me.

Apple lost of a lot of people when it changed and dumbed down FCP. They went to Adobe Premiere Pro and never came back. And that runs just as well on Windows.
I hear that FCPx is a lot better now, but once a user base is gone it stays gone.
I suspect that many people saw that Aperture was on its last legs and bailed for Lightroom. Again, Adobes gain is Apples loss.
Which is odd because they are deadly rivals. One might think that Apple would continue to pump money into their pro software just to keep people in the camp. Even if it meant rebuilding from the ground up and made little profit.
They are after all one of the most cash rich companies in the world. They could afford to do it just because.

No Mac Pro, No Aperture, No Pro Apps, No good for nothing Mac?

Aperture was a great program that should have improved as it aged. I still find it a pleasure to use when I check my old library periodically for orphaned images. I switched to Capture One because I detest Adobe and didn't like Lightroom, but Aperture did a lot of things easily and did them well, although not everyone's cup of tea. Unfortunately, Apple is becoming a strictly popular consumer product company, gone are the days of catering to niche users. I still prefer their OS to windows, but they are making a lot of bad design and software decisions ever since Jobs died. For a company with a oil tanker full of cash, they sure don't act like it.

Apple has shown time and again, that they cannot be depended on to take care of their customers. If you "fit" into their current marketing schemes - great! However if you don't , you can just "honk" off.

Sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in cash, with a decent piece of software that could easily pay for its incremental development and support on newer platforms, with $50/year upgrade licensing... but instead Apple just threw under the bus the 1000s of photographers who use it along with their credibility in recommending it to others who were getting into photography - "just buy a Mac and Aperture, and everything will be fine..."

A few years ago I was commissioned by a publisher to write a book on Aperture 4. "Just write about Aperture 3, then, when 4 comes out, update it quickly and we'll get it into the stores."

Hmm. I shouldn't have listened but I wrote the book as requested and we waited...and waited... until eventually Apple admitted it was going to abandon any further development of Aperture.

The reason? Shortage of ready cash? Surely not? It's just the way Apple operates. For example, my iPad 1 still worked perfectly, but it rapidly became useless because Apple stopped upgrading its iOS.

I still run Aperture 3 on a Mac simply because I have several libraries of archived images which I like to view occasionally. I much prefer my Dell XPS for just about everything else. I have abandoned Apple -- and I wish I'd never bought either the iPad or the Mac in the first place.

DAM Apple.

I wish you had upgraded it like you did with FCP and Logic Pro. Now there isn’t going to be an Aperture X but an eX Aperture.

I used and loved Ap for years, but when Apple discontinued it, I realized it was time to move on. I switched to Lightroom and really enjoy it. I have the cc plan, and enjoy being able to easily edit pix on my iMac, phone, or iPad. LR is preferable to Ap in some ways, in some ways it's not. But it works great as a DAM and multiplatform program, which are the two things I wanted. I realize LR is not everyone's preference, and I would have preferred to stick with Ap. But life moves on, and we have to move with it.

Don't forget - you don't have to upgrade. You can keep using it forever with your current setup and don't have to worry about a thing. At some point you may not be able to get the latest web browser for future secure sites, but deal with that then.

I'm sure someone will say, "you have to upgrade to get the latest security updates. blah, blah blah." True, but you probably don't need the latest security updates. How often do we see Windows 10 broke something on the latest update. With all of the security updates that we see you'd think the entire OS would be the most secure possible. Another patch seems to need another group of patches to fix the probelms it caused. It's never ending on the merry-go-round of the update ride!

There is a lot of misconception about Aperture - even by Apple. Many people think it is about RAW conversion and things like that. It isn't. It is about the DAM and the DAM alone. And to all the blaming of Apple for not further developing Aperture I'd like to add that in 5 years not one maker of professional photo software was able to create a DAM that is even remotely as intuitive or easy to handle or as fast to go with their software. And that is the true shame! Not Adobe, not Capture one, nobody. In five years! And just to mention it, even Apple supporters were surprised to learn that I am still sticking to Aperture for the DAM and the DAM alone. What a failure of perception! And no, I do not like external solutions. I want a single spot to go to for my photo work on my computer. A single spot I can rely on, not breaking functions or connections because a developer stops working or updating.
Go, get my money. Build such a DAM! (Yes, I could live with almost any RAW converter.)

Hate light room and am not switching. I have hundreds of thousands of photos in Aperture. Looks like I will have to get an isolated machine that wont be updated to continue running and keeping my photos. Its a shame that companies are literally deleting photos from peoples machines without our knowledge like this.

Loved Aperture but migrated to Capture One last year. The writing has been on the wall for a while

Yeah if you want things to keep working get windows. I have an iMac it is a very nice piece of hardware but I think it will be my last.

Apple just have to make Aperture run under newer OS. At least for another 50 years. I have like 80% of my images (several hundred thousands?) in the Aperture library, with literary years of work done to them. It would be possible to move the RAW files to Lightroom, but all the work done to them will be lost. Not acceptable.