Iphoto 08 photos all blank with Exclamation mark

Hey everyone... so I've been using Iphoto for years had a bunch of photos on there and then wanted to import old photos which I had in my picture file in finder, into iphoto so I could organize them better and view them easier... so I imported them and then all of a sudden all of the pictures in iphoto became blank even those from before and even pictures in the trash and recovered photos all blank when I go to open any of them there is an exclamation mark.
The files names and album names are all there all same as before no actual pictures.. so I went to help and it said that this was a common problem in iphoto 5 and to upgrade and restart iphoto i did this but nothing happen..
anyone who can help?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The ! is an indication that the library has broken the file path to the original files. First make a backup copy of the library and run the three fixes below in order as needed:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select all options.
2 - rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - 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
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos.
3 - start over with a new library and import the Originals folder from your original library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1. Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
2. Open the library package like this.
3. Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4. Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library if you have the Finder checkbox unchecked in the Events preference pane.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

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Image blank with exclamation mark when editing

I can see the image in the thumbnails but when I double click to open it, I get a dotted square with an exclamation mark in the middle. By using Find, I have located the picture - there are three copies- one in trash. When I try to move them back to the library, I still get the square with the exclamation mark. If my pictures are corrupted, is there any way I can restore them? I do not have backup copies.
Thanks ahead for any help.
Ilze

Ilze:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The "!" occurs when iPhoto loses the link to the original file. Run the three fixes below in order as needed:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select all options.
2 - rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - 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
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos.
3 - start over with a new library and import the Originals folder from your original library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
Open the library package like this.
Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open Photo window
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library if you have the Finder checkbox unchecked in the Events preference pane.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

How do i group all songs with exclamation marks

How can I get all of those songs (that show exclamation marks following consolidating files) to group so that i can delete enmasse

Not easily, use iTunes Folder Watch and set it's option to check for dead tracks on start-up.
tt2

How-to find all songs with exclamation mark?

Hi,
Is it possible to have iTunes show all songs for which it can't find the file? The external hard disk with all the songs failed and I want to verify that I have restored all of the library.
Regards,
Al Malin
iMac 17 Flat Panel w/Super Dr Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.1

Here's a few scripts which should help.
Super Remove Dead Tracks v1.5
Bring Out Yer Dead v1.1
Fix Broken Tracks
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
List MIAs v1.2
Remove Dead Tracks v1.1

Why do my photos appear as an exclamation mark when i open them?

Why do my photos appear as an exclamation mark when I open them?
I used my time machine back up from my old expired power mac and uploaded the contents onto my new iMac.
All of the files uploaded successfully as far as I can see (except the old programs don't work and the consequently all those files are cactus :-( )however when I opened iPhoto only a few photos (500) where in some of the folders.
I went back and found the photos in the back up machine (25000) and dumped them on the iPhoto icon. They down loaded successfully into the correct folders and the thumbprints are visible. When I click on an individual photo the enlarged picture appears for an instant and then an explanation mark in a triangle appears in its place.
The original 500 pics actual worked... now after days of mucking around and with lots of advice I have doubled the number of 'photos' to 50000!!! Ahh,,,, and still the exclamation mark appears
Is there anyway out of this predicament??

This went wrong here:
I went back and found the photos in the back up machine (25000) and dumped them on the iPhoto icon.
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the link to the original photo.
I would suggest that you restore that library from Time Machine again, and then try repair it.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, 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.

How to delete the tracks with exclamation marks?

I have just moved about 10 gigabytes of music I don't listen to off my hard disk to an external hard drive. This was to declutter my hard drive and get me down to about 50% free. Itunes now has all the moved tracks still listed with exclamation marks next to them all now. I want rid of these songs from my Itunes view. How can I get rid of these moved tracks now without manually deleting the batches. Annoying that exclamation mark field is not sortable or would be easy to mass delete.
Anyone got a neat solution out there?
Thanks in advance.
Lorne

Yes, but now you have lost all your regular playlists, ratings, play counts, last played dates, non-embedded artwork etc.
Hope you don't miss them. If you do it might be possible to restore an earlier version of your library file and then bring it up-to-date with the free scripts at Doug's site.
An all iTunes, no loss of data approach would have been as follows:
Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist. Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist. You can delete them all with a Command-A to select them and Option-Delete to remove them. You can then delete the Lost & Found playlists.
I normally recommend the scripts as being an easier way to do things that you may want to do again.
tt2

Syncing ipod to itunes with exclamation marks

Hi,
I was wondering if I sync my ipod with exclamation marks on some of my songs in itunes, will those songs disappear from my ipod if I sync it? There are quite a few songs in my playlist that have exclamation marks next to them saying that they can't be found, however they are already on my ipod. I have been afraid to hook up my ipod to add new songs I've added for fear the ones I already have on it that now can't be found will dissappear. I did move some of the songs to an external hard drive to make some room on my computer hard drive, but some I can't find. Can you help me?

You should understand how iTunes managed your music.
If you move, edit, delete or otherwise change a music file listed in the iTunes Library with a program or tool other than iTunes, you may end up with a "!" in front of the song name or a message like “the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" It is important to note that iTunes does not keep track of music file changes made outside of iTunes.
See these Threads for ways of finding &/or removing the Broken Links:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=818692#818692
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=607582
EASIER:
Download this to your Desktop: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/FindDeadTracks.txt (right-click, save-link-as)
and this, as well: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/RemoveDeadTracks.txt (right-click, save-link-as)
Rename each to FindDeadTracks.js & RemoveDeadTracks.js respectively.
Run iTunes.
1) While iTunes is running, double click FindDeadTracks.js to run the script.
It will give you a list of all the exclamation marked tracks.
2) While iTunes is running, double click RemoveDeadTracks.js to run the script.
It will remove all the exclamation marked tracks.
This well-written iLounge Article is a must-read for anyone who wants a better understanding of how iTunes manages your music.
Best of Luck

ITunes Match sometimes skips / plays songs with exclamation marks

Using iTunes Match (v10.5.3) from my MacBook (OS X 10.6.8) I synched about 60G of music located on an external hard drive connected to my home-based AirPort Extreme base station into Apple's cloud. It works great from my iPhone and the iMac in my remote office, but occasionally when I connect with my MacBook I get these confounding exclamation marks between the song list number and the selection check box.
When this happens and I attempt to play a song with an exclamation mark sometimes iTunes prompts me to connect to the hard drive connected to the Airport and when I don't the exlamation points appear. Other times I can play the songs, but only if I individually select them; otherwise it skips all the songs with exclamation marks until it finds a local song (or recording) (i.e. without an exclamation mark).
Sometimes restarting iTunes gets rid of the exclamation marks, sometimes it doesn't. I've noticed that I often have this problem when I upload new music to the Airport-connected hard drive. But sometimes it happens without me uploading.
Through trial and error I'm starting to get a sense of what's happening but it still feels kind of arbitrary. Can someone explain what's happening?
Many thanks in advance.

The problem is that iTunes thinks the external HDD is not connected so it can't find the actual song files. So the problem you need to solve is why is the external HDD not connected.

File with exclamation mark and cannot connect

My ipod stopped working. I had a low battery so I charged it. Now when I try to turn it on, it just churns and churns and then the file with exclamation mark comes on the screen. Also, when I try to connect it to my computer, the computer doesn't recognize it.

Unbelieveable, since last Saturday, I needed to fix up 3 iPods with similar problems from family members and friends, 2 connected with PC and 1 with Mac. I guess it will be a good idea if I can share with you all and hope that it can give you some hints when you try to fix yours before sending it for repairing.
Before you do anything I suggest that you should read the following carefully..
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/index.html
Most problems came from the iPod not being recongzied by the computer (mainly PC and I find it less often with Mac). Second issue is iPod not being charged for quite some time.
I must say that I am not an expert but I did learn something during the past experience on fixing for more than 10 iPods but none of them are shuffle.
The first thing you need to do is plug your iPod directly to the AC charger not the USB of your computer, and leave it for 2-3 hours and most of the time you will able to wake up your iPod.
Secondly, do a reset of your iPod when it hangs, it is simple just press "Select"+"Menu" keys, which will not erase your data of your iPod.
In case the above both do not manage to fix your iPod problem then you may force to do the following, but it will erase all your data therefore it is always to be wise to have a backup before your iPod got problem.
1. Reinstall the latest iPod updater after the reset
If 1 still not able to recongize your iPod by the computer then you have to put your iPod to DiskMode i.e. plug your iPod to the AC charges, do a RESET and press "Select"+"Play" keys, you will see the message "Disk Mode" in few sec. Then you need to connect your iPod with your computer, and hope that it will be recongized. If you are lucky to reach this stage then you simply need to restore your iPod updater, and your iPod should be back to normal.Please note that You may need to plug and unplug few times in order to let your iPod to be recongized.
If your iPod still not able to be recongized then you have to format your iPod while it is in a Disk Mode, you need to use the Disk Utility software (for Mac - I am not sure about PC) to erase the Partition of your iPod then do a formatting and disk verify straight after. Then you should able to reach the final stage i.e. restore the latest iPod updater and sysc your iPod with your iTune.
Additional hints which may help your during the fixing ..
1. Try to do few attempts, which could take you as long as 1 hour
2. Try to exchange cables to connect with your computer i.e. USB and Firewire
3. If you fail to solve your iPod with your PC then try to fix it with Mac and vice versa. Surprisingly, I do have experience that the iPod got recognized by my Mac after I connected it with a PC
Above are my experience and I am glad that more than 90% chance I am able to solve the iPods' problem with only one iPod Mini needed to be repaired.
Good luck and hope it works in your case

In iMovie: I open a project that has been finalized. source fragment is missing. I see a yellow triangle with exclamation mark. Why is that and how do I solve the problem?

in iMovie:
I open a project that has been finalized. source fragment is missing. I see a yellow triangle with exclamation mark. Why is that and how do I solve the problem?
please help.
J. Aalbers

Shouldn't really be the MPE at fault here ... what is the codec of the footage/sequence/project?
Second, can you create a new project in PrPro, then in the media browser, import that sequence from the other project?

HT203288 I have updated software on itunes and my iphone4 and at least 100 of my songs in itunes will no longer play or sync on to my iphone. They all have an exclamation mark! to the left of the song title in the library. Please help!

I have updated software on itunes and my iphone4 and at least 100 of my songs in itunes will no longer play or sync on to my iphone. They all have an exclamation mark! to the left of the song title in the library. Please help!

Read the threads over on the right under the heading of More Like This
Allan

Red stopsign with exclamation mark when I try to open iTunes!

When I click on the iTunes icon in the dashboard, a window comes up that has a stopsign with an exclamation mark. This can't be good..... What does this mean and how can I get back my iTunes?
Help!
Thanks.
PS: I just did the last software update a few days ago and remember there was something regarding iTunes there. Not sure if that is relevant. I also had a system crash a couple of days ago and got nothing but the blue screen until I removed my battery and reinserted it....again, not certain if this is relevant either.....

Thanks for responding Chris. I repaired permissions (there were alot) but not sure how to run Disk First Aid as the repair permissions area is actually under the "first aid" button. If there is another step, can you walk me through it?
After I repaired permissions I rebooted but I still cannot open iTunes - the same stopsign with exclamation mark and iTunes logo come up....

I'v downloaded a tv series,paid for it, its in my itunes but with exclamation marks next to it, every time it tries to download the series it says "part of the file seems to be corrupted" and tells me to redownload it.Tried that and it comes up the same.

I'v downloaded a tv series,paid for it, its in my itunes but with exclamation marks next to it, every time it tries to download the series it says "part of the file seems to be corrupted" and tells me to redownload it.Tried that 8 times and it comes up the same. What do I do?

Clear the contents of ...iTunes\iTunes Media\Download and try one more time.
If the problem recurs use the "report a problem" links in your account history and explain what has happened so far. There may be a problem with the source rather than your download of it.
tt2

Syncing hebrew notes with icloud distorts them by replacing spaces with exclamation marks. how do i fix this?

syncing hebrew notes with icloud distorts them by replacing spaces with exclamation marks. how do i fix this?

I'm syncing my iPhone 5 and my iCloud account. I open the account on my PC with a Google Chrome browser.
iPhone:
The same note on iCloud:
So.. Any ideas?

Re iphoto: when I double click on a thumbnail i get e grey screen with exclamation mark..can't access my photos to edit, order prints etc

Was wondering if anyone can help...I am not very computer friendly but want to be able to edit my photos, use them as jpegs, order prints etc. When I double click on a thumbnail ( am presuming the thumbnails are the small photos ) I get a grey screen with an exclamation mark on it. I cannot drag the thumbnail onto the desk top it just pings back. This doesn't happen with all the thumbnails and has been a problem since we upgraded to snowleopard. I recently reinstalled photos from the memory card from my camera and they are alright. I am presuming that the old photos are stuck in there somewhere if only I knew the right buttons to press to get them out. Thanks, Jane Thomas

Easiest: Restore from your back up.
Otherwise:
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download <a href="http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/"><b><u>iPhoto Library Manager</b></u></a> 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.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 6* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Roll Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.

Iphoto 08 photos all blank with Exclamation mark

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