Just looking for yea/nays on this idea from those who have been down the path; I Glenn F’s TCo Networking 2.0 open and ready to read.
I’ve computed with Apple stuff for decades but am a networking neophyte.
As I transition from a MBP on Sierra to a Sequoia MBAir, keeping the contents of the MBP available while doing most daily activities on the MBA, I am wondering if it would work, to keep my photos, organized in a folder structure on the MBP and to manage them (referenced) either directly in Aperture on the MBP or Nitro on the MBA (over the network).
For instance, it would be cool to connect iPhone or my Canon and Fuji cameras to the MBA from a comfortable location and import them with Image Capture to the correct location on the networked MBP at the not so comfy desk.
Then, I could use Nitro on the Air for RAW files, or through screen sharing use Aperture on the MBP from the Air.
I am not creating any artworks for sale or fancy books, just personal use, so if the color is a tad off that’s ok.
If you’ve done this and it sounds like it should work, a thumbs up or yeah would suffice, or “sounds doable, get researching and let us know” or if it has clear deal breaking flaws, please also reply something like “Nah, unfortunately due to [xyz] that won’t work at all”.
Any sort of photo management over a network will be (relatively) slow - only you can determine if it’s too slow. If you’re planning on doing this over wi-fi rather than ethernet even more so.
The key will be where you keep the catalogs - it would not be wise to keep them on a remote volume. If you kept (for instance) a Lightroom Classic catalog on your machine, did smart previews (which allow you to work offline) and kept the originals on the remote volume it might be useable - although it’s not something I’d do.
If you want access to photo management on multiple machines you’d be better off using something designed to work this way, eg. a cloud service like Lightroom (the cloud version).
As much as I love Aperture and bemoan Apple’s decision to kill it, I definitely wouldn’t be planning any sort of long term future use of it. I feel it’s painting yourself into a painful corner of rebuilding catalogs and adjustments.
Thank you @trilo, I hadn"t thought about ethernet, I suppose I could just run a cable between the two laptops, like usb-c to usb-c.
David, the short answer to your proposal is yes it is feasible, though maybe not desirable. You don’t specify the model or year of your laptops so I’ll just guess that the MBP is 2014 or earlier and the MBAir is at least 2021 or newer with M-series processor. Assuming that is the case, this seems like a good opportunity to make a break with the past.
The old MBP is bound to fail sooner rather than later and if you are still managing your photo collection on it using Aperture you will be left in quite a bind. Transitioning to a modern photo manager (receiving security and compatibility updates) running on the much more capable MBAir while entirely avoiding the networked two–machine solution would be my first choice. Keep it simple—less to maintain and fewer points of failure!
Thanks @Scott5 , the MBP is from 2016 if my notes are correct, and yes the Air is a 2022 M2.
The goal here is not to break with past but find a way to keep using the right tool for the job. Aperture has some unique features that I like using and as the MBP still works fine I would like to keep using it.
Back when Aperture was abandoned I tried to arrange things to be independent of it for eventual breakage. That is, moved all photos out of Aperture’s Library and into a Finder Folder structure similar to the Project setup in Aperture to enable use of photos as referenced from any future photo manager.
I back up the mac multiple ways so that should preserve photos and the Aperture Library of modifications, which I think can still be imported to Photos App and others in future if necessary.
One project for a long winter is to use Aperture’s book layout feature for a variety of books both as pdfs (for use on mulitple platforms and to keep them outside Aperture) and to be printed. I haven’t found such a flexible book layout feature in contemporary photo managers (I haven’t looked very hard I admit) and am not keen to learn a new software for it when I have something that meets current needs.
Yeah I’m kinda stuck in my old ways but the good old way suits me fine.
I plan to start reading TCo Networking shortly and when I find out how this idea plays out will add to the thread.
i just tried this a few days ago. I was using Adobe Bridge on my M2 Studio to access photo libraries on the internal drives of my MacPro and it was slow. Very slow…
I respect your decision to continue using Aperture whilst still thinking it’s unwise.
There are several book extensions available for Photos but I haven’t investigated any of them. I do miss Aperture - I was a very early adopter and used it until the day it died (I’m a photographer by trade).
As to the networking I’ll be blunt - it’s a bad idea. Nothing you read will fix the fundamental slowness of trying to push large amounts of image and catalog data over a network.
I use both Lightroom Classic and Capture One from catalogs on my MBP with images stored on a thunderbolt RAID enclosure using very fast SSD storage. It’s usable but I wouldn’t call it ‘fast’, and the thought of moving everything to network drives is the stuff of nightmares.
Of course as I said in my original reply, this is all relative. What I think is horrible you might find acceptable - but it sounds like you’re going to invest lots of time and effort on a dead horse.