I currently use both iPhoto and Aperture 3. I use iPhoto just for iOS photos from my iPhone/iPad. It's simpler for me to edit and upload to FB or Flickr from iPhoto, so I don't want to give it up. But, if I upgrade to Aperture 3.3, something I've been reluctant to do so far due to losing the color icons, am I correct in thinking that it'll be redundant to have the same iOS photos in both iPhoto and A3 since I'll be able to easily open an A3 library in iPhoto whenever I want to use iPhoto for the above stated purposes? If this is correct, then I'll gain 64 GBs of space by eliminating most of my iPhoto library. That might make it worth it to lose the color icons (though I'll still be bummed). Has anyone used this feature and does it work well?
Debbie,
First off, losing the color icons isn’t as bad as it sounds. I didn’t like it either at first, but now that I’m used to it, the previous version looks amateurish.
Second, you could still maintain two separate libraries; one that just has your Photo Stream (or manually imported photos from your iDevices) which you open in iPhoto, and another for everything else that you open in Aperture. Or, just do it all in one place — remember with the new iPhoto and Aperture, the libraries are the same, so you can open either library in either application.
I’m not sure where you’d aging 64 GB though… are you saying that everything that is currently in your iPhoto library also already exists in your Aperture library? If so, then yes, you would be able to eliminate one of those libraries. But please please ensure that you do in fact have everything in Aperture before deleting the iPhoto one. I’ve seen too many users lose photos because they didn’t look closely to ensure that they did in fact have a complete duplicate.
@PhotoJoseph
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Debbie,
There were loads of discussion on 3.3 here; just hit command-F in your browser right now and type “3.3”, and you’ll see them all. There were also discussions about upgrading in the forums.
There were a few problems on upgrade for a few users (as is to be expected), and the 3.3.1 update addressed many of those. Just ensure that you have a backup before upgrading so you can go back to where you started, just in case.
As far as Vaults, I’m sorry to say that personally I haven’t been able to successfully create Vault for my main library since the upgrade to 3.3. But most users have (many failed at updating a vault, but creating a new one is usually fine and the advised path anyway), so I think I’m pretty isolated here.
So yes, update your Vaults, I’d even do a finder backup of your Library before upgrading just because that’s the easiest thing to go back to, and go for it!
Oh and yes Photo Stream can only go to one app at a time.
@PhotoJoseph
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Great! Thank you! And sorry I suck at searching. I think I get too wordy and then nothing is found. I’ll use your suggestion. I just did a Time Machine backup, so that’s covered too. Here goes nothing… :)
~Debbie
Thanks for your reply, Joseph.
Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit the photos I have in iPhoto are also in Aperture. They’re only iOS photos, and I didn’t think they’d take that much space, so I uploaded them there too for the easy FB and Flickr integration, plus simple editing. But I was shocked when I used the desktop app WhatSize yesterday to measure my user folder and found out iPhoto was up to 64 GBs. I was so sure iPhone 4S photos wouldn’t take that much space. LOL! But as a long time iPhoto user I guess I should’ve known better. ;)
So, I’m finally going to update Aperture and eliminate most of what I have in iPhoto. I will definitely miss that “amateur” look of the colored icons considering I’m just an amateur photographer. I’m very visual and find the colors very helpful, but I guess the sacrifice will be worth it.
About Photostream… we were only able to use it in either A3 or iPhoto before, has that changed? I’m currently only using it on my iOS devices b/c I like to be in control of my A3 imports in order to use import presets. I figured Photostream would just mess that up.
Lastly, what do I need to do other than update vaults to prepare for the update? iPhoto is already updated to the latest version. I don’t want to mess anything up as I have over 60,000 images in my main A3 library, and three other libraries with scanned heritage photos in them. These are all managed libraries. I searched the site for tips on updating but didn’t find anything. Maybe it was Macworld where I saw update tips back when the update came out?
Thanks again!
~Debbie