OK, Where The @#R@# Are My Pictures!!

[Kevin Gallagher]

 Can some kind soul please tell me where the heck the picture files end up when you import into Aperture?

[CatOne]

Wherever you put them.  What settings did you use when you imported them?

Oh, that's right you didn't pay attention ;-)

So the odds are then that they are inside Aperture's "library," which is probably called "Aperture Library" and in your Pictures folder.  You won't see them in the Finder, unless you right click on the Aperture library and select "show package contents," at which time you can root around there.  My recommendation is to NOT touch anything, though, unless you want to screw things up.

If you don't like this, it is very easy to move the files around.  You just select the project(s) within Aperture, and choose File->Relocate Masters for Project.  Then pick where you want them to go.  Aperture's file management runs circles around most anything else in this respect, because you can put them wherever you want, and it's trivially easy to relocate them.  Pick a target location and Aperture will move them.

In the future, you can choose where the files go upon import.  In the import pane, there is a box that says "Store Files:" and it probably says "Aperture Library" in your case.  Change this to a specific location that you've defined.  You can have it copy to a backup location at the same time, if you want.

Do have a read of the importing and file management sections of the Aperture documentation… it will clear this up.

[Kevin Gallagher]

 Thanks Cat, I'm a recent convert to thew MAC world and am still thrashing about sometimes. I knew they went into the "library" but didn't know how to access them. Point well taken about not messing around inside the library structure!! I did find an option "File/Export Master" which did what I wanted.

  Thanks Again!!!
 
        Kevin in CT

[digitaldog]

They are imported into a “package” that is the Aperture library. If you control click on it in the finder, you can access the buried files (Show Package Contents) but the way to get em out is to do so from inside Aperture (export master if memory serves).

[CatOne]

You can relocate the masters as well as export them.  It's trivially easy to do so.

I was faced with the fact that I had about 400 directories that I wanted to rename (I originally imported as YYYY/MM/DD and then I figured out in Lightroom that stunk as using the rapid project manager just showed DD and thus I couldn't use it reliably).  Trying to rename those 400 directories in Lightroom was an impossible task, where in Aperture I could do it in about 5 seconds.

[kikashi]

You can relocate the masters as well as export them.  It's trivially easy to do so.

I was faced with the fact that I had about 400 directories that I wanted to rename (I originally imported as YYYY/MM/DD and then I figured out in Lightroom that stunk as using the rapid project manager just showed DD and thus I couldn't use it reliably).  Trying to rename those 400 directories in Lightroom was an impossible task, where in Aperture I could do it in about 5 seconds.

Just for future reference, one way of doing what you wanted would be to drop from LR into the Finder, use something like Name Mangler to change the names and then, back in LR, synchronize folder.

Jeremy