Can any Mac even read/use Aperture anymore?

What kind of computer are you using? If you are also having a Mac - which system version is installed on your Mac? Do you also have an Aperture licence or an Aperture version installed from the App Store? And which version of Aperture created the libraries you need to open? is it an Aperture 3 version or an older version?

Apple stopped selling Aperture in 2015, when it released the last compatibility update Aperture 3.6. Since then we can access Aperture Libraries with the Photos.app.

• Aperture 3.6 can run on any Mac with OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite to macOS 10.14 Mojave. On this system versions it is relatively easy to create Photos Libraries from Aperture Libraries, as we can open the libraries in Aperture and fix problem or compare the original library to the new Photos Library. The new Photos Library will include the original image files, the current previews of the edited versions, the album, and the projects and smart albums saved as albums, some of the metadata.
• Aperture can no longer on macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. But Photos can still convert Aperture Libraries to Photos Libraries on macOS 10.15 Catalina to macOS 12 Monterey. But we can no longer prepare the Aperture Library for the migration or compare the results to fix problem.
• Since macOS 13 Ventura Photos can no longer convert Aperture Libraries to Photos Libraries. All we can do is import original image files from an Aperture Library into a Photos Library. The third party app Power Photos can create Photos Libraries from Aperture Libraries on Ventura.

So, to help you, we need to know which kind of computer you are using, which system versions you are using, and if the Aperture libraries in question are Aperture 3, Aperture 2, or Aperture 1.

"Photos.app can read and recover images from an old Aperture Library."

there appears to be some question regarding this ability applying to the edited version of an image having been processed by the non-destructive alteration applied in Aperture. If memory of my reading late yesterday is correct, basic recovery of an altered image will return the 'master' on which that alteration was made, not the altered version created in Aperture.

Regards,

Barry

HI Daisey,

This Wikipedia article on Aperture may provide some hope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(software)

Highlights are information regarding an 'update' app that updates some versions of Aperture to compatibility with MacOS versions requiring 64bit apps.

Regards,

Barry

If you can save the originals plus edited versions losslessly will depend on how you are retrieving the photos from the Aperture Library.

When can migrate the Aperture Library with Photos for Mac to create a Photos Library (possible on OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite to macOS 12 Monterey), Photos will migrate the the photos as a master and version pair, stacked as one photo. Photos will use the preview of the edited version to migrate the edited version. You will be able to revert the edited version to the original in Photos, and you have to revert to the original and discard the edits, if you want to add adjustments in Photos.

Because the adjusted version is migrated by the preview, we have to prepare the Aperture Library in Aperture and ensure, that all edited versions are having high-resolution previews. Remember, that Aperture allowed to remove the high resolution previews, if wanted to save storage. Or render only smaller previews. To save the adjusted versions properly, we have to select all adjusted aperture images and let Aperture render full sized previews, before we migrate the library to Photos. For this, we need a Mac that still can run Aperture macOS 10.14 Mojave or earlier.

I saved the way Aperture is handled on the different system versions as a new user tip: How to access the Photos in Aperture Libries… - Apple Community

If you have a current Mac then Photos.app can read and recover images from an old Aperture Library.

If not, there are ways to access the master images from a library as well, depending on what you choose for their final destination.

Let us know what you want to have at then end, and we can suggest ways forward for you.