APALBUM File

What are APALBUM files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an APALBUM file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your APALBUM files.

What is an APALBUM file?

An .APALBUM file is an Aperture Album file.

Aperture Album files are data documents used by Apple's Aperture photo management software to store One of an album's organizational layouts and metadata rather than the image files themselves. They record the structure, rating, color-labels, query rules (for smart albums), sort settings, and album membership for a collection of photos managed in the Aperture Library.

These album files are created and maintained by Aperture when a user makes a standard or smart album inside a project. The album file does not embed the original image data but references the images that are stored elsewhere in the Library. Aperture reads them to display the album and apply the saved criteria (for Smart Albums) or manual assignments (for standard albums). When the Library is moved, copied or exported, these album files travel as part of the project so that the same organizational structure is preserved.

These files are proprietary, binary files specific to Apple's Aperture application. They remain supported in macOS environments that still access old Aperture Libraries. Internally they use Apple's property list archival formats, including tools like NSKeyedArchiver, dictionaries and arrays, mutable and immutable collections, and custom classes for queries, sorting, rating, and color labels. For identification, these files commonly begin with a "bplist00" signature at the very start of the file. They also contain various strings used by Aperture for its album metadata, such as "RKSINGLEITEMQUERY", "BASICPROPERTIES.MAINRATING", "QUERYSTACKPICKSONLY", "SORTKEYPATH", "ZFOLDERUUID", and others.

How to open APALBUM files

Important: Different programs may use files with the APALBUM file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your APALBUM file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 18, 2026

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