Why does iphoto screen go grey and a spinning wheel in the middle of the page and nothing else

Question

can someone tell me why i always get a spinning wheel in the middle of the page and nothing else when trying to open iphoto

Answer 1

Either the program, the iPhoto Library or the iPhoto preference file is hosed.
First thing is first, backup your user file folders to a external hard drive and disconnect.
The easiest (and most likey the cause of your issue) to fix would be the iPhoto preference file
iPhoto preference file fix
Look in your /Users/Library/Preference for a file like
com.apple.iphotopreferences.plist
or
com.apple.iphoto.plist
and delete it and reboot, restart iPhoto and re-enter your preferences.
If your on OS X Lion, your going to have to use the Finder's "Go To" to get to the Library as it's hidden as in Snow Leopard it's not.
Reinstall iPhoto
If that doesn't resolve your issue and your on Lion, you can redownload the iLife software from the MacAppStore and simply reinstall it, which will overwrite iPhoto and fix it.
If your on Snow Leopard you reboot holding c from the 10.6 grey installer disks (only) that came with your comptuer and simply reinstall OS X 10.6 which will reinstall iPhoto (the 10.6.3 Snow Leopard retail disk doesn't have iLife)
If you purchased iLife from the boxed set, then reinstall it.
If you had iLife from 10.5 and your on 10.6 or 10.7, or got it free with 10.6 and now on 10.7, then your going to have to wait until you try the next step (then extract iPhoto from the installer disk using Pacifist or purchase iLife)
Rebuild iPhoto Library
If that doesn't resovle your issue you can right click (or control click) on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package Contents" inside will be a folder with all your original photo's. Copy these out and move the iPhoto Library out of the Pictures folder and rename it (if you can) so iPhoto can't find it.
Then restart iPhoto and see if it creates a new iPhoto Library, then simply import the pictures from the copy you made.
If it fails to work after this, there is a corrupted picture in your iPhoto, you'll have to repeat the same process with importing a few pictures at a time until you can locate the corrupted ones.