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iPhoto bizarre behaviour
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matty-uk
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Aug 15, 2007, 05:59 PM
 
Something odd is going on with iPhoto. It seems that when the photos have been imported and are being viewed full screen they are fine but if I zoom out within my library all the thumbnails are black.

Everything imported from a certain date are the same but nothing has changed
     
Mike.Bowden
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Aug 15, 2007, 07:30 PM
 
Hold down the Apple and Option keys when you load iPhoto and try rebuilding the database of thumbnails. That should resolve the issue you're having.

MikeBowden.com: WordPress insights from a full-stack developer...
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 16, 2007, 02:51 AM
 
Well I tried rebuilding the caches and database and now only 1 photo in the entire library is viewable as thumbnails. Everything is just a black square

I'm just trying to re-build the cache first and see where it gets me.
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 16, 2007, 03:18 AM
 
Hi matty-uk,

Control/Right-Click on one of the black squares in your library and select "Show File" from the contextual menu. A Finder window will launch and you can check the integrity of the original. I'd be very surprised if it is a photo of blackness and nothing like what you would expect to see ...

This is a new one for me ....
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 16, 2007, 04:03 AM
 
Originally Posted by Max_Doubt_M'Wham View Post
Hi matty-uk,

Control/Right-Click on one of the black squares in your library and select "Show File" from the contextual menu. A Finder window will launch and you can check the integrity of the original. I'd be very surprised if it is a photo of blackness and nothing like what you would expect to see ...

This is a new one for me ....
Using "Show File" I can see the file and open it in photoshop/preview but in iPhoto when looking at my library and having more than 1 photo on screen at a time all I get it black squares. If I zoom in so I can only see 1 photo it loads the photo and I can see it fine so I know the file is there.
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 16, 2007, 06:01 AM
 
Why don't you try creating a new iPhoto Library .... import a whole lot of photos into it and see if the problem is replicated ... hold the Option key while you launch iPhoto and select New Library ...
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 16, 2007, 06:16 AM
 
ok cool I'll try that tonight. Need to do some house keeping on the iBook anyway as I'm down to 5gigs of free space on a 120gig drive
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 17, 2007, 04:20 AM
 
well I tried doing all the options available when you hold down alt+apple and that took nearly 3-4 hours as there is over 10k of photos. The only difference it made was a couple of photos have appeared back in the library the rest are blank still. I'm just trying to remove some files that don't display when you zoom in to see if that makes a difference.

Max - which is the option key again??? Is that the Apple key?
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 17, 2007, 06:27 AM
 
Originally Posted by matty-uk View Post
well I tried doing all the options available when you hold down alt+apple and that took nearly 3-4 hours as there is over 10k of photos. The only difference it made was a couple of photos have appeared back in the library the rest are blank still. I'm just trying to remove some files that don't display when you zoom in to see if that makes a difference.

Max - which is the option key again??? Is that the Apple key?


Might be worth it to run Disc Utility and repair Permissions and repair Disc too ... also you needn't import all your library of photos when you create a new library ... just a few hundred will be enough to troubleshoot this problem.
( Last edited by Max_Doubt_M'Wham; Aug 17, 2007 at 06:35 AM. )
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 17, 2007, 07:25 AM
 
ah ok, so that is the alt key??
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 17, 2007, 01:59 PM
 
well I created a separate library and imported the photos and they are still blank
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 18, 2007, 03:51 AM
 
Hi again matty-uk ...

We need to ascertain if this very strange issue is System Wide or just User Specific. Create a new User Account in System Preferences and log in. Launch iPhoto in this new account and have some photos ready to import into the brand spanking, clean as a whistle, Library. Then quit iPhoto and relaunch it and test if the blank squares persist.

Another plan of attack is to collect all your valuable photos, just drag 'em out of the iPhoto Library, click on Command + A to highlight them all, and drag them onto a new folder you need to create on your Desktop. It'll probably take ages to copy them all over to this new location. When it's done, quit iPhoto and open the new folder and see if all your photos are intact.

Then, if this works, you could try deleting the iPhoto library folder in your User Account. Be very careful though, because remember that iPhoto keeps duplicates of a lot of photos when you crop, resize, retouch etc etc so if you want to keep all the photos that are in:

MacintoshHD -> YourUserAccount -> Pictures -> iPhoto Library

Then you should just make a duplicate of that folder and drag it to your Desktop. Then remove the iPhoto Library folder to the Trash but don't delete it quite yet.

Now launch iPhoto and it should tell you it can't find a library so you will need to create one from scratch.



Just import a small batch of photos say ... a couple of hundred out of your whole collection which you should have stored on your Desktop, and let me know the result .. remember not to empty your Trash yet!

FInally, if there's no joy with the above you could try retrieving all your photos out of iPhoto altogether, and then delete iPhoto. Run a Spotlight search for any files that are lurking in the deep dark recess of your hard drive and delete them too. Then download and install Pacifist which is an app used to extract the applications stored on your Macs install media. So you extract iPhoto and install it fresh and then import your photos a batch at a time, always checking to see that the problem doesn't come back .....

Please read my instructions very carefully matt, I don't want you to lose any of your valuable photos as a result of you not fully understanding or following the above advice .... if there are any questions, please ask away ....


     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 18, 2007, 05:29 AM
 
Thanks for the advice Max.

After removing iPhoto 6, reinstalling 5 from my iBook restore disks and upgrading to 6 again I still have a small library with black photos

Some deeper digging on google turned up a result. It's all down to a colorSync profile. That is the reason I didn't have previews, the file was missing. I restored it using pacifist and I'm all working again now wooo!
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 18, 2007, 12:53 PM
 
Well it appears when I now try to edit a photo I get the photo bar along the top which shows the thumbnails but the window where the changes are is blank
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 18, 2007, 01:50 PM
 
The last issue was sorted using this
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 19, 2007, 05:16 AM
 
Well I'm glad it's all sorted out matty ... you did a great job of troubleshooting your own issue!
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 20, 2007, 07:51 AM
 
You wouldn't believe it but I'm trying to create a project in iMovie and the clips I import have no preview!!!

I launched ColourSync and ran the Verify option and it found two corrupt profiles .... I had to log into my Admin account to repair them but I wonder if that's why I have no preview. Even after the Repair there's no preview but I'm still working on it.
     
dlefebvre
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Aug 20, 2007, 09:00 AM
 
Are your photos in RAW?
I have had problem with RAW photos. I've been using Aperture since to manage RAW photos. I only use iPhoto to manage JPEGS photos now.
     
matty-uk  (op)
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Aug 20, 2007, 10:02 AM
 
Originally Posted by Max_Doubt_M'Wham View Post
Well I'm glad it's all sorted out matty ... you did a great job of troubleshooting your own issue!
Well it certainly was an experience and nice to see there are people with similar problems and also the fact that I didn't have to re-install my OS or anything to get it working

Originally Posted by Max_Doubt_M'Wham View Post
You wouldn't believe it but I'm trying to create a project in iMovie and the clips I import have no preview!!!

I launched ColourSync and ran the Verify option and it found two corrupt profiles .... I had to log into my Admin account to repair them but I wonder if that's why I have no preview. Even after the Repair there's no preview but I'm still working on it.
Arse! Hope you manage to get it sorted soon. Further problems occured last night when my bluetooth status icon disappeared from the menubar Turns out all the "Menu Extras" stuff has vanished I have to open Pacifist again to restore them.

Thankfully this morning there doesn't appear to be any issues with the iBook touch wood!
     
Max_Doubt_M'Wham
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Aug 21, 2007, 02:31 AM
 
Are your photos in RAW?
I have had problem with RAW photos. I've been using Aperture since to manage RAW photos. I only use iPhoto to manage JPEGS photos now.
I don't really mess with my photos enough to really know what RAW is ... this all seemed to happen last night and although iPhoto has previews, iMovie doesn't ???

I tested out iMovie in the Admin account on this iMac and it worked fine and previewed as it should. I used the same .avi movie that I'd tried earlier in my own account.




( Last edited by Max_Doubt_M'Wham; Aug 21, 2007 at 06:25 AM. )
     
   
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