When importing photos from my iPhone black boxes appear in place of random photos in the library and in Photostream.

Question

When importing photos from my iPhone black boxes appear in place of random photos in the iPhoto library and in Photostream. It has no apparent pattern, the photos are just blank. It's not just icons, when I go to edit the photos externally in Photoshop it opens an image filled with nothing but black.
This is more than annoying. It's effectively deleting photos I'm taking on vacation and so forth.
Anyone?

Answer 1

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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)
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. 
Regards
TD