Adding folders that contain Aperture libraries to the Catalog

[srphoto1]

I have images organised in folders by year. Each folder contains 12 subfolders, one for each month, plus an Aperture library file for that year. I'm not using the Aperture libraries anymore but want to keep them around "just in case".

If I set PM to catalog the yearly folder, it will add all the subfolders as expected, but also adds the Aperture library file (which is a package) as if it were another standard folder. So I get hundreds of thousands of extra thumbnails and previews scanned into my catalog.

Is there a way to exclude the library package from the scan? The "Exclude folders" dialog won't let me pick it because it doesn't appear as a standard folder. Adding "aplibrary" as a file extension to exclude also doesn't work.

Any suggestions? Can we have a setting to ignore packages when scanning?

Thanks,
Simon

[Kirk Baker]

We'd need something that works on both platforms so it would be best to know how the Aperture library folder is named.  Does the folder name end in .aplibrary?

-Kirk

[srphoto1]

Yes, an Aperture library is named XXXXXX.aplibrary and is a package. If you right-click on the file and "Show Package Contents" it appears as a standard folder containing multiple sub-folders. Currently PM+ will scan all the sub-folders inside the package and add all the thumbnails and previews to the catalog.

[Kirk Baker]

Yes, an Aperture library is named XXXXXX.aplibrary and is a package. If you right-click on the file and "Show Package Contents" it appears as a standard folder containing multiple sub-folders. Currently PM+ will scan all the sub-folders inside the package and add all the thumbnails and previews to the catalog.

Thanks.

Does the .aplibrary folder only contain items useful to Aperture, or could it contain actual photos from a camera?

-Kirk

[srphoto1]

Aperture allows both a "managed" and "referenced" library. So you can choose to keep all your master files in other locations or you can have them copied into the library itself, in which case the master images are stored inside the library package in a "Masters" sub-folder.

[Kirk Baker]

Aperture allows both a "managed" and "referenced" library. So you can choose to keep all your master files in other locations or you can have them copied into the library itself, in which case the master images are stored inside the library package in a "Masters" sub-folder.

If I modify the catalog scan to ignore .aplibrary folders when encountered, then the "Masters" folder will also be ignored.  If you really want the masters to be cataloged, is it too bothersome to have to specifically pick the Masters subfolder as one of the paths to scan?

Otherwise, if this needs to be automatic (meaning everything but the Masters folder should be ignored) then I can do that too, but I need to know what the best approach would be.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[srphoto1]

Personally I don't have anything in the Masters folders so I'm not bothered about scanning them. For my purposes just excluding the Aperture library file altogether would be fine. I want to avoid scanning in all the thumbnails and preview files.

Its not a huge hassle to pick the Masters folder if you did want to scan it - there's one Master folder inside each Aperture library. Currently the "Add folders to scan" dialog doesn't let you open the package file to select the folder so its not possible.