Help: Iphoto 6 photos missing, gray box with exclaimation point

Hi all. I am a terrible manager of my 14K photos. My husband said my system could not process updates because I have so little hard drive space, so I went on this massive effort to purge photos I did not need. I thought I was being virtous by going to the pictures folder from finder, finding the album, and deleting there, but now I have learned that I actually need to delete from the iphoto library. Now, when I go into i photo, there are a lot of big empty gray boxes with an exclaimation point, including for photos I know I did not delete (I can still see the thumbnail in some cases). I am using i photo 6 and would hate to lose these pictures. We have an external hard drive and I was in the process of moving some of the files and videos. Can someone help? I am also wondering what the best way to clean up my library is. Thanks in advance for anyone who can help! I live abroad and so can't go into an Apple store for help. Thanks!

That's an indicagtion the the file path to the original image files has been broken. Make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of the library and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
Happy Holidays

Similar Messages

Cant see pictures- only gray box with !

please i need help i by accidently double clicked a picture twice (so i clicked the picture 4 times really fast by accident) and then instead of seeing an enlarged picture i saw a gray box with dashed lines with an ! in the middle. when i plugged my ipod touch in i looked and all my pictures were gone. i dont know how to fix it, please help me!

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

Photo transfer and update from 5-year-old Macbook to new iMac using Time Machine resulted in half of 2014's photos being un-viewable (only a gray triangle with exclamation point shows). How do I fix it?

I turned on my new iMac for the first time today and set it up using a backup on Time Machine from my old Macbook, which is running OS X 10.9.5 and has iPhoto version 8.1.2. When I went to open iPhoto on the new computer, it said I had to update the photos to work with the new version. Now, my photos from part of July 26, 2014 and onwards do not show up in the new iPhoto. The albums and spaces for the photos are there, but only a gray triangle with exclamation point shows in their place. Every other photo from 2003 to half of July 26, 2014 appears to have updated without issue. None of the fixes/rebuilds I tried worked. When I open up TimeMachine, it has no backups that I can use for the new computer (perhaps, because I wanted to still have access to use my old backups for my old laptop so told it not to use them for the new computer). My most recent half a year's photos are the ones I need the most. How do I make them appear on my new iMac?

Do you still have the old Mac? Then check, if the iPhoto Library has the newer events from July 26 onwards.
If yes, copy the iPhoto library from the old Mac to the new mac by connecting both computers. And then try to upgrade the copied library.
If you no longer have access to the old mac, you could try to inherit the backup of the old Mac and try to restore the iPhoto Library from it.
See Pondini's FAQ: http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html

My MacBook Pro recently shut down on me all of a sudden. When I restarted it, it popped up with a gray box with 'OS X Utilities,' then listed various options such as 1. restore from time machine backup, 2. reinstall OS X, etc. what do I do now?

My MacBook Pro recently shut down on me all of a sudden. When I restarted it, it popped up with a gray box with 'OS X Utilities,' then listed various options such as 1. restore from time machine backup, 2. reinstall OS X, 3. get help online and 4. disk utility. what do I do now? I have not backed up to Time Machine in a few days, so I'm not sure I should restore from time machine backup, is there something else I can do? Help!

Guitar21,
your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

Text shows gray boxes with letters and numbers?

Instead of showing certain characters/ASCII, it instead shows gray boxes with 4 letters/numbers. I have the "allow pages to choose their own fonts" checked, but it is the same with it on and off.
It was like this since I installed firefox, and fiddling with the font options did nothing. :/

Those are Unicode codepoints. They're displayed when there's no font that can display the character in question.
What are the websites where this happens?
What are the codes in question? Please provide a screenshot.
* [[How do I create a screenshot of my problem?]]
# Click the ≡ Menu Button.
# Click the Question Mark icon.
# Click Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
# Click Restart. Does the problem go away?

My camera roll pictures are gone and I'm left with a gray box with jpg in it.

my camera roll pictures are gone and I'm left with a gray box with jpg in it.

Guitar21,
your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

I'm running windows 8 with PSE11 some of my pic don't display only a gray box with a paper in side,

I'm running windows 8 with PSE 11 ans some of my pic don't display only a gray box with a paper in side it, when i go to a albums most of my pic don't display

Try selecting the thumbnails (Shift+Click) or (Ctrl+A) to select all, then click on the top menu
Edit à Update Thumbnail For Selected Items
If that doesn’t work close Elements and delete the thumbnail cache by navigating to:
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\MyCatalog
In side the MyCatalog folder (or whatever name you gave your catalog) you should find a CACHE file:
thumb.5.cache
After deleting that file restart the elements Organizer and wait whilst it regenerates thumbnails.
N.B. The ProgramData folder is sometimes a system hidden file, in which case please follow these instructions before starting.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Show-hidden-files

I need to know how to put a photo in a box with text under photo, so they all will move in page

I need to know how to put a photo in a box with text under it, so they move together in a page of text.

The Acrobat SDK might be a starting point.
From there, perhaps a plug-in (built with C+).
Perhaps with a licensed release of a PDF Library (this could be $$).
The viable and cost effective alternative is use the tried and true.
Authoring in an appropriate authoring application with appropriate tag management.
Example: Adobe InDesign; Adobe FrameMaker or MS Word with PDFMaker (comes with install of Acrobat).
This way you place "Alternative Text" when mastering content in the authoring file.
Going the route and with some look-see (research) you may find programmatic approaches to placing the alt txt in the authoring file.
Note: as discussed in the Matterhorn Protocols there is no programmatic method that provides a fully accessible PDF (specifically, that is an ISO 14289-1, PDF/UA-1 compliant PDF).
Regardless, here you have a sub-forum for discussions on Acrobat usage.
Consequently discussions on/of 3rd party software is rather out of scope eh.
Be well...

Lost photos and gray boxes

Hello,
Why is there a iphoto library icon in the pictures folder? I thought I was i pictures and therefore thought I had duplicate photos of what i have in iphoto. I turns out that I deteted all of the folders, thumbs, jpg, etc from the iphoto library that was located in pictures. Now I have a bunch of gray boxes. At the bottom of the screen it indicates that i have 1 of 82 pictures so i think they are somewhere, but i don't know where. I also have not emptied the trash.
I would like to restore my computer to an earlier date especially if it means that i would get all my pictures back and reverese anything i did...is this possible?

Hi Kathryn,
Take that stuff out of the trash right now!!!!!!!
You might be able to reconstruct the library.
take a look at the iPhoto Library folder info next:
This is a view of how the iPhoto Library looks in the Finder.
It is organized by Year folders. Inside the Year folders are Month folders. Inside the Month folders are the days of the Month. Inside the day folders are the photos you took on that day. If you imported video clips and RAW files on that day they will be in an Originals folder. If you have edited any photo imported on that day, the original will be in that folder also.
The iPhoto Library folder IS the folder that iPhoto imports all your images into.
Two Apple kbs for you to read
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
About the iPhoto Library folder
The Macintosh OS doesn't have the same option as windows do of "restoring to an earlier date"
If you can get the library put back together, launch iPhoto and if it recognizes the library it will open it. If it still is giving you gray boxes then you didn't put it back together right. With that few photos it might be easier to just create a new library and import the images back in.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
good luck and get back with what you tried and what happened.
Lori

Black box with exclamation point instead of photo

I recently switched from a PC to Mac and used a transfer cable to move my photos into iPhoto. Small thumbnails look fine, but when I open some of them all I get is a black box with an exclamation point inside a white circle. This seems to apply only to SOME of the pics that were originally SCANNED into my PC as jpeg files. Although I suspected this was how photos imported, I did try the Rebuild feather, but that didn't work. Is still have my originals on my old PC, but I'd like to get rid of it. Is there still a way I can access what's on my Mac -- or successfully import from my PC?
Thanks in advance for the assistance!

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

When I click on my uploaded photos a big box with an exclamation point pops up?

After loading my photos on Iphoto when I click the photo to try and view it larger or at all, a grey box with an exclamation point comes onto the screen. How do I view my photos?

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Lightroom not importing photos. Gray box appears.

I was tethering to Lightroom and suddenly the program failed to import photos. All that would come up was a gray box. I tired everything. I re-started the program, my computer, my camera. 2 days later, and I still cannot get an image to show up in Lightroom. Any advice?

Thanks Keith,
I talked to a support person, and it turns out that my cache was the problem. He re-named it and I am back in business. Thank you for your help!

My MacBook Air version 10.9.2 can no longer open Pages. It has a gray box with a ? in the center of it.

How to open pages when it has a gray box for the app with a ? in it

Hi there Rivercity9,
You may need to remove an reinstall Pages. Take a look at the article below for more information.
OS X Mavericks: Install, update, and uninstall apps
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14299
-Griff W.

Bob you sent a picture of the grayed box with X that is exactly what I have!

Bob
You sent a picture that is exactly the gray box I have on my desktop.

Your previous thread is here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/23929948#23929948
I'd suggest you continue in that thread. Starting new threads with only part of the situation just confuses things.
Regards.

Folder with Exclaimation Point Error AND Ipod cannot connect to itunes

I left my Ipod in my truck (cold out) for about a week, using it about every other day (always seemed to work fine)... then all of the sudden I went to turn it on and after the Apple icon, I get an error in the form of a picture of a folder with an exclaimation point. When I try to plug my ipod into my computer (to perhaps restore the settings or something) my computer recognizes the USB device, the ipod screen says "do not disconnect" and then shortly after, without it connecting to itunes, it disconnects itself and goes back to the apple screen. Any Ideas? The Apple instructions for dealing with this havn't worked.
My Ipod is I believe a "second generation"(?). It is a 20-gig ipod with a click wheel, about 2 years old now.
dell inspiron 8000 Windows XP

Hello,
If a sad iPod icon or an exclamation point and folder icon appears on your iPod’s screen, or with sounds of clicking or HD whirring, it is usually the sign of a hard drive problem and you have the power to do something about it now. Your silver bullet of resolving your iPod issue – is to restore your iPod to factory settings.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983
If you're having trouble, try these steps at different levels one at a time until the issue is resolved. These steps will often whip your iPod back into shape.
Make sure you do all the following “TRYs”
A. Try to wait 30 minutes while iPod is charging.
B. Try another FireWire or USB through Dock Connector cable.
C. Try another FireWire or USB port on your computer .
D. Try to disconnect all devices from your computer's FireWire and USB ports.
E. Try to download and install the latest version of iPod software and iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
For old and other versions of iPod updater for window you can get here
http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=7369
F. Try these five steps (known as the five Rs) and it would conquer most iPod issues.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
G. Try to put the iPod into Disk Mode if it fails to appear on the desktop
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651
If none of these steps address the issue, you may need to go to Intermediate level listed below in logical order. Check from the top of the lists to see if that is what keeping iPod from appearing on your computer in order for doing the Restore.
Intermediate Level
A. Try to connect your iPod with another computer with the iPod updater pre-installed.
B. Still can’t see your iPod, put it in Disk Mode and connect with a computer, instead of doing a Restore on iPod Updater. Go and format the iPod instead.
For Mac computer
1. Open the disk utility, hope your iPod appears there (left hand side), highlight it
2. Go to Tab “Partition”, click either “Delete” or “Partition”, if fails, skip this step and go to 3
3. Go to Tab “Erase” , choose Volume Format as “MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and click Erase, again if fails, skip it and go to 4
4. Same as step 3, but open the “Security Options....” and choose “Zero Out Data” before click Erase. It will take 1 to 2 hours to complete.
5. Eject your iPod and do a Reset
6. Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
For Window computer
Go to folder “My Computer”
Hope you can see your iPod there and right click on the iPod
Choose “Format”. Ensure the settings are at “Default” and that “Quick Format” is not checked
Now select “Format”
Eject your iPod and do a Reset
Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
In case you do not manage to do a “Format” on a window computer, try to use some 3rd party disk utility software, e.g.“HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool”.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=501330&tstart=0
C. Windows users having trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac user. In many cases when an iPod won't show up on a PC that it will show up on the Mac. Then it can be restored. When the PC user returns to his computer the iPod will be recognized by the PC, reformatted for the PC, and usable again. By the way, it works in reverse too. A Mac user often can get his iPod back by connecting it to a PC and restoring it.
Tips
a. It does not matter whether the format is completed or not, the key is to erase (or partly) the corrupted firmware files on the Hard Drive of the iPod. After that, when the iPod re-connected with a computer, it will be recognized as an fresh external hard drive, it will show up on the iTunes 7.
b. It is not a difficult issue for a Mac user to find a window base computer, for a PC user, if they can’t find any Mac user, they can go to a nearest Apple Shop for a favor.
c. You may need to switch around the PC and Mac, try to do several attempts between “Format” and “Restore”
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2364921&#2364921
Advance Level
A. Diagnostic mode solution
If you have tried trouble shooting your iPod to no avail after all the steps above, chances are your iPod has a hardware problem. The iPod's built-in Diagnostic Mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a "bad" iPod.
You need to restart your iPod before putting it into Diagnostic Mode. Check that your hold switch is off by sliding the switch away from the headphone jack. Toggle it on and off to be safe.
Press and hold the following combination of buttons simultaneously for approximately 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
iPod 1G to 3G: "Menu" and "Play/Pause"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Menu" and "Select"
The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold the following sequence of buttons:
iPod 1G to 3G: "REW", "FFW" and "Select"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Back" and "Select"
You will hear an audible chirp sound (3G models and higher) and the Apple logo should appear backwards. You are now in Diagnostic Mode. Navigate the list of tests using "REW" and "FFW". The scroll wheel will not function while in diagnostic mode. For further details on Diagnostic mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/
Try to do the 5in1, HDD R/W and HDD scan tests. Some successful cases have been reported after the running the few tests under the Diagnostic mode. In case it does not work in your case, and the scan tests reports show some errors then it proves your iPod has a hardware problem and it needs a repairing service.
B. Format your iPod with a start disk
I have not tried this solution myself, I heard that there were few successful cases that the users managed to get their iPod (you must put your iPod in disk mode before connecting with a computer) mounted by the computer, which was booted by a system startup disk. For Mac, you can use the Disk Utility (on the Tiger OS system disk), for PC user, you can use the window OS system disk. Try to find a way to reformat your iPod, again it does not matter which format (FAT32, NTFS or HFS+) you choose, the key is to erase the corrupted system files on the iPod. Then eject your iPod and do a Reset to switch out from Disk Mode. Reboot your computer at the normal way, connect your iPod back with it, open the iPod updater, and hopefully your iPod will appear there for the Restore.
If none of these steps address the issue, your iPod may need to be repaired.
Consider setting up a mail-in repair for your iPod http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
Or visit your local Apple Retail Store http://www.apple.com/retail/
In case your iPod is no longer covered by the warranty and you want to find a second repairing company, you can try iPodResQ at your own risk
http://www.ipodresq.com/index.php
Just in case that you are at the following situation
Your iPod warranty is expired
You don’t want to pay any service charges
You are prepared to buy a new one
You can’t accept the re-sell value of your broken iPod
Rather than leave your iPod as paper-weight or throw it away.
You can try the following, but again, only do it as your last resort and at your own risk.
Warning !!!! – It may or may not manage to solve your problem, and with a risk that you may further damage your iPod, which end up as an expensive paper weight or you need to pay more higher repairing cost. Therefore, please re-consider again whether you want to try the next level
Last Resort Level
1. . Disconnecting the Hard Drive and battery inside the iPod – Warning !! Your iPod warranty will be waived once you open the iPod.
In Hong Kong there are some electronic shops offering an iPod service for Sad iPod, the first thing they do is to open up the iPod’s case and disconnecting the battery and the Hard Drive from the main board of the iPod. Wait for 5-10 minutes and reconnecting them back. The reason behind which I can think of is to do a fully reset of a processor of the iPod. In case you want do it itself and you believe that you are good on fixing the electronics devices and have experience to deal with small bits of electronic parts, then you can read the following of how to open the iPod case for battery and HDD replacement (with Quicktimes)
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html
2.Press the reset button on the Hard Drive inside the iPod – Suggestion from Kill8joy
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2438774#2438774
Have I tried these myself? No, I am afraid to do it myself as I am squeamish about tinkering inside electronic devices, I have few experiences that either I broke the parts (which are normally tiny or fragile) or failed to put the parts back to the main case. Therefore, I agree with suggestion to have it fixed by a Pro.
2. Do a search on Google and some topics on this discussion forum about “Sad iPod”
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3597173#3597173
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2831962#2831962
What should I do with my iPod? Send it or keep it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=469080&tstart=0
Strange error on iPod (probably death)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435160&start=0&tstart=0
Sad Face on iPod for no apparent reason
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=336342&start=0&tstart=0
Meeting the Sad iPod icon
http://askpang.typepad.com/relevanthistory/2004/11/meeting_thesad.html#comment-10519524
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2236095#2236095
iPod Photo: unhappy icon + warranty question
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2233746#2233746
4th Gen iPod Users - are we all having the same problem?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2235623#2235623
Low Battery, and clicking sounds
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2237714#2237714
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2242018#2242018
Sad iPod solution
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=412033&tstart=0
Re: try to restore ipod and it says "can't mount ipod"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=443659&tstart=30
iPod making clicking noise and is frozen
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2420150#2420150
I am not suggesting that you should follow as well, but just read them as your reference. You are the person to make the call.
Finally, I read a fair comments from dwb, regarding of slapping the back of the iPod multiple times
Quote “This has been discussed numerous times as a 'fix'. It does work, at least for a while. In fact I remember using the same basic trick to revive Seagate and Quantam drives back in the mid to late 1980's. Why these tiny hard drives go bad I don't know - could be the actuator gets stuck in place or misaligned. Could be the platter gets stuck or the motor gets stuck. 'Stiction' was a problem for drives back in the 80's. Unfortunately the fix can cause damage to the platter so we temporarily fix one problem by creating another. But I know of two instances where a little slap onto the table revived the iPods and they are still worked a year or more later.”UnQuote

Help: Iphoto 6 photos missing, gray box with exclaimation point

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for