Use Case: Aperture referenced library folder already shared with Lightroom

I thought this was an interesting use case for AE that others would be interested in.

I changed to Lightroom about one year ago. I have all files in the Lightroom library, the metadata in Aperture. All files in the two libraries are reference and point to the same structure. Is it possible to export only metadata out of Aperture, and not the images?

What you’ve done to share the Aperture referenced file with Lightroom was smart… and I think I have a simple solution for you and it revolves around Aperture’s ability to write IPTC metadata back to the originals.

Option A:
You just need the demo version of AE for this. It will add keywords to each image that is in an album(s), smart albums, books, etc.
The first stage of AE processing works through all the album like containers and tags with keywords images in those containers. These tags are also visible in Aperture.

Once AE has finished that stage, you can cancel the AE export and delete any of the folder(s) that AE started working on prior to being canceled.

Next, select all your images in Aperture and use the menu item Metadata->Write IPTC metadata back to the originals.

Option B:
Assuming you want to keep the other metadata that Aperture uses such as custom tags, and colour labels.

You’ll need a licensed version of AE. Export the library using AE sending it to some temporary folder. Once complete, you can trash that temporary folder. Now all the other metadata will be in Aperture as keywords.

Again, select all your images in Aperture and use the menu item Metadata->Write IPTC metadata back to the originals.

How did it work for you?
That should work for the majority of your images. There are some file types that don’t accept IPTC metadata, but you can record any of the images that Aperture complains about and updated them manually in lightroom.

Hope that helps you at least get started. Let me know if that works out for you!