Apple killed support for Aperture, its photo editing suite, back in 2014, but photographers have still been able to use the software even on modern Macs.
Apple now confirms that Aperture will cease working on future versions of macOS.
After Mojave, the most latest macOS release, Aperture will be no more. Apple quietly made the announcement on one of its support pages, as first spotted by MacRumors. There, Apple gives instructions on how users should import their images into either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Photos.
"For technical reasons, Aperture will not run in future versions of macOS after macOS Mojave. To continue working with your Aperture photo libraries, you must migrate them to the Photos app included with macOS, or migrate them to Adobe Lightroom Classic."
Apple Kills Aperture For Good
As previously mentioned, Apple killed Aperture back in 2014 and replaced it, along with iPhoto, with Apple Photos a year later. Apple then pulled Aperture from the Mac App Store shortly thereafter, but since then, existing owners have been able to continue using it. Apple is expected to release the successor to Mojave this coming September, and Aperture will absolutely not be functional on that version, according to Apple.
Part of the incompatibility springs from the fact that Apple is slowly transitioning all Macs from 32-bit to 64-bit apps. That makes certain media files created using older formats or codecs incompatible with forthcoming versions of macOS after Mojave.
Aperture Alternatives
For those looking for an alternative to Aperture, Adobe's powerful Lightroom photo editing software remains the one to beat. Existing Lightroom Classic v5.7 users, on the other hand, should be able to migrate Aperture libraries to Lightroom catalogs using a built-in tool. Stuff such as library organization, metadata, and image adjustments should be preserved through the transition, with a few exceptions.
In any case, Apple has yet to announce what the next version of macOS is going to be, so there's still some time to prepare, especially for those who have still massive photo libraries saved on Aperture. Alternatively, users can always stay on Mojave to keep using Aperture instead of immediately updating to the new version once it's released.
That's merely a stopgap fix, though, and it means the user would have to skip all future macOS versions if they're that committed to Aperture. A better course of action is subscribing to Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography plan, which includes Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and even Photoshop. It's an expensive plan, sure, but it'll save users potential headaches in the future.
