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Time Machine Now Safe To Use With Aperture

OS X Leopard introduced Time Machine and simple automated backups. A good thing.

However, Leopard had barely been out a week before it was discovered that Time Machine could corrupt an Aperture image database if a backup or restore occurred while Aperture was running. A bad thing.

And that the only fix was not to backup Aperture files. Also a bad thing.

Now, Apple tells us that this issue is resolved in Mac OS X 10.5.2, and that photographers using Aperture 1.5 or 2.0 can now safely use Time Machine to backup their images.

A good thing.

The Digital File Management Crisis

According to a recent InfoTrends survey of a 1,000 professional photographers, 89% of the images they capture are now digital.

In addition, over 90% of those images are saved and stored, which points to a rising need for new software and hardware to manage workflows and to archive and backup images.

Consider that a RAW file from Canon's new 21MP 1Ds Mark III digital SLR is 25MB. For just one image. Now do the math. Take hundreds or even thousands of photos for a shoot. Now multiply that for every working day of every year for the life of the photographer.

"Terabytes" of storage doesn't even cut it.

Time Machine Can Corrupt Aperture Data

According to a new tech note on Apple's web site, running a Time Machine backup or restore operation while Aperture is running may lead to "inconsistencies" in the Aperture database.

Apple currently recommends that you exclude the Aperture Library from Time Machine backups, and provides instructions for doing so for those unfamiliar with the process.