Moving Items Between Referenced and Managed
We’ve written a lot on the Aperture Network site about the differences between referenced and managed files in Aperture. Our primer on this can be found on our site here. Even with this advice people seem to get confused about how to move images between referenced and managed.
A quick refresher: Managed files live inside Aperture’s Library, so they’re not visible in the Finder but instead inside a single Library file. This makes for a less complicated workflow as Aperture simply keeps the files inside it’s main Library file. Referenced files live anywhere you want—in your Pictures folder, on the Desktop, on a remote hard drive, on a server, wherever you want.
There are two ways to make files Managed or Referenced. Both have slightly confusing interfaces.
On Import
The first place to select if a file is Managed or Referenced is on import, but it’s rather subtle. The Store Files drop down has at the top In the Aperture Library. If this is selected (and it is the default) then the images are managed. If anything else is selected, files are referenced. This makes sense when you think about it, if the files aren’t stored in the Library they are stored somewhere else and that’s referenced. You can use Choose to put them anywhere you’d like. You can also put different files in different locations. Older images could live on an external drive while this year’s projects live on your internal, for example.
Aperture is totally flexible about when you use Managed or Referenced as well. You could bring images in as Managed on import and then later reference them. (This is a system I often use when shooting to a laptop in the field.) But to move files between Referenced and Managed you’ll need to know the second system for moving files between the systems.
Relocate or Consolidate
The File menu contains the keys to Referenced or Managed files, though you wouldn’t know from looking a it.
To take a file that’s Managed and make it Referenced, select File>Relocate Master… What? When you Reference a file you’re moving it from the Aperture Library to another location, so you’re Relocating it. If you’re moving it from one referenced location to another, you are likewise relocating it. Personally I’d prefer if that menu said Reference/Relocate or something more obvious to the new user.
If you want to take any image that’s referenced and make it Managed, select the Consolidate Master… command from the File menu. I have no idea why Consolidate is a good term to present in the menu. Of course it make sense from a literal standpoint—any image that’s in the Library is in one place so technically that’s consolidating, but since the phrase consolidate isn’t used anywhere in Aperture it doesn’t make sense here.
Once you grasp the concept that the tools to Reference or Manage your images don’t actually say Referenced or Managed it should be easier to grasp the file-management power of these options.
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Author: David Schloss
David Schloss is the director of the Mac Create Network and the Aperture Users Network, a professional photographer, writer, editor and photographic educator who specializes adventure sports, travel and lifestyle photography. Schloss is the author of the books Blue Pixel Personal Photo Coach: Digital Photography Tips from the Trenches and Blue Pixel Guide to Travel Photography: Perfect Photos Every Time. Schloss is the former Technical Editor for Photo District News, a position he held for six years.
2 Comments
David Schmidt
July 30th, 2010
Just a note that there *is* a badge shown on images that indicates (with an arrow) if an image is a referenced image so that you can easily tell which are which.
Nik Player (27 comments.)
July 30th, 2010
I think the word ‘consolidate’ may have come from iTunes terminology – just a wild guess though
You can also create a Smart Album based on File Status to quickly see Referenced and Managed files.