Hi Katie,

Yes that is true. When you use the backup feature in Lightroom you are just backing up the Catalog (edits, star rating, exc.). You are not backing up the images. Currently I am using a Drobo 5D Thunderbolt that has 5 3TB drives. However I still backup to other external hard drives. At the present time I use SuperDuper (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html). Have it setup to auto backup the images on the Drobo to a couple of other drives. A few times a week. Every month or so I move one of those external drives off site (Safty Deposit Box). Should add I keep a copy of the Catalog Backup on the external drive I store off site. That way if for some reason my computer crashes and I needed a new system I could be up and running in a sort time after I installing Lightroom CC.

Cheers,

Katie, To add to Stuart’s sage advice, there is an option in Lightroom>Catalogue Settings>Backup ) that will prompt you to back up your catalogue (Lr’s instructions as to what changes you want made to your original photo). You can change it to remind you to do it every time you exit Lr, or once a month, etc.  I have mine set to remind me every time I exit Lr although there is an option to “Skip this Time” when you are prompted. I have it going to a folder on my external HD that houses all of my photos, then I’ll copy it every so often to a second external HD that I take “off site” to my office similar to what Stuart does.  Every so often I will delete old backs, say two or three months old just to free upside space, but these backups really don’t eat up much disc space. Hope this helps.

Good luck,

Florian

Hi Katie

I assume you do not plan to use Aperture anymore? Since Lightroom is referenced (meaning it just points to the images) at one time I used the same images for both Lightroom and Aperture. It worked ok until I would delete an image from Lightroom it would be missing from Aperture. Today I still have an external hard drive with Aperture Library (images) on it, but hardly ever use it. My main external hard drive now is the Drobo 5D Thunderbolt which I only use for Lightroom. Of course like I mentioned in another post that is backed up to other drives. The drives I was using for Aperture backup I just reformatted and use them for backup drives for Lightroom and Time Mechine. I should add that I had been using Lightroom along with Aperture for years. So moving to Lightroom full time for me was not a big deal. Let me also add I have setup Capture One Pro and giving that a try. Who knows what will happen down the road. No one really though Aperture would come to and end. Look what has happened.

Cheers,

Katie, Like Stuart I copied all of my Aperture photos into a single folder on my LaCie 6TG (two 3TB mirrored drives) when I moved to Lr using ApertureExporter.  My Aperture Library by that time was all referenced and not managed.  So I still have the Aperture Referenced Library of photos on the external HD as well and my single Lr library of photos.  I still have Aperture on my MBP Yosemite OS X.  I am holding off on El Cap until Apple releases it’s first update and Adobe releases its update to its disastrous recent Lr update.  If you have the standalone Lr 6.1 stay with it for now and don’t do the recent update.  If you have Lr CC, and haven’t updated, hold off as well.  If you’ve updated, it’s not the end of the world but the new update has lots of reports of bugginess and many are steaming mad because some of the import functions were removed. I’ve heard that Aperture is still alive on El Cap but some functions don’t work.  I’ll probably move my Aperture Library to a smaller external HD or just trash it.

Florian

I’ve automatically backed everything on my Mac for years now to a WD 1T hard drive, but I haven’t taken any steps to specifically back up Aperture files. I just assume they are there along with the rest of my stuff. Would this be an incorrect assumption? It’s about 12k photos. And would it not be a good idea to ride out Apertures and just use Lightroom to edit? I hate this!

No. 1, I really have no clue about the backups. I use Time Machine but since I’ve never had to search it, I don’t know if all my photos are there or not.  I also have the stand-alone WD hard drive (My Book) that is full but updates several times every day, tossing the oldest backup I suppose.

Is there ANY chance Apple will fix the edit image problem? I keep asking for the fix, no upgrade, just fix the product and get no answer.

What about moving all Aperture photos to Photos? I suppose that can be done?