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An Overview of the Backup Workow
To safeguard your photography portfolio, it’s important to establish a reliable backup system and
back up regularly. You can use the Aperture backup system to back up the entire Aperture library
on a regular basis. Aperture clearly indicates how up to date your most recent backup is, and
you can update your backups immediately whenever you wish. In the event of a rare equipment
failure or unforeseen catastrophe such as a re or weather-related damage, you can easily restore
the entire Aperture library onto your computer or a new computer.
Making backup copies of the library aords you the reassurance that should an unforeseen
incident cause the loss of your les, you can easily restore them from your backup vaults later. If
you back up the library regularly and store backups osite, you run little risk of losing your work.
When you back up your photos, Aperture makes a complete copy of the library in its current
state. If you remove items from the library, those items are removed from the backup when it is
next updated.
You can make and store as many complete backups of the library as you wish. If you want to
keep a historical archive of the library, you’ll need to devise a system of storing separate backups
in some regular chronological order.
You set Aperture to back up a copy of the library to a designated storage area called a vault.
For safety and redundancy, use external hard disks to hold your vaults. Aperture lets you create
as many vaults as you deem necessary. For example, you may want to create one vault on an
external hard disk for daily backups and a second vault on another external hard disk that you
keep osite.
All originals for managed images, all versions, and all metadata, previews, and adjustment
information associated with your photos are backed up. The versions, previews, and metadata
associated with referenced images are also backed up in the vault.
Important: Referenced images’ originals are not backed up in the vault with the library. Because
the originals for referenced images are stored outside of the library, you must manage the
backup and archiving of them yourself.
Although rare, mechanical failures and unexpected damage to your computer system can occur.
And from time to time you may upgrade your equipment and need to move your portfolio to a
new system. Aperture allows you to easily restore the entire Aperture library from your backup
disks onto your computer or a new system. For more information about restoring images and
projects, see Restoring Your Aperture System on page 586.
Backing Up Your Photos
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