Exclamation Points in iPhoto

[kikuchiyo]

I was browsing some old photos in iPhoto '08 and nearly had a heartattack. Some of my photos from a few years ago showed up as icons but when I double clicked on them, they came up as exclamation points.

So I googled this and found out that it means the connection between the thumbnail and the original photo was broken. So I used the "Show original file" command and looked in the folder and they were all there. However, the photos that were not showing up were ones that had been rotated (they had beet shot vertically, for example, and then rotated).

Is there anyway to get the connection back? Can I rebuild the database? What might have caused this.

Macbook Pro, Leopard 10.5.2.
Latest version of iPhoto 08, 7.1.3 (364)


Thank you!

 

[theBB]

The rotated photos should be in "Modified" folder. You may have deleted or renamed it or some of its subfolders.

 

[millap]

Copy the originals to another location on your HD, then delete them from iPhoto. You can then re-import them as if they are new photos. It might mess up the date/time stamp though.

 

[skybolt]

A rebuild may be in order. Look here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107947

You did not do anything to your photos from within the library in finder, did you? Doing anything to/with your photos in that library can cause the problem you are experiencing.

 

[larrybob]

Revert to Original

I had the same problem in iPhoto '08 with rotated photos turning into big blurry exclamation points. I spent an hour rebuilding the library and they still didn't work.

What DID work was going to Photos/Revert to Original.

I don't like the idea of my photos all being stuck in a big database file which can become corrupted instead of in individual photo files.

 

[baldmacguy]

I have a similar problem ion iPhoto '08. I was uploading photos from my camera, and after I thought everything was compete I pulled the camera USB cable out of my computer. But I made a mistake, I pulled the cable to my external hard drive instead---and the iPhoto library is on this hard drive. Apparently iPhoto wasn't quite done saving everything.

I can see the photos (even the most recent ones I uploaded) with show package but the thumbnails are blank in iPhoto and I see the blurry exclamation point when I click on the thumbnails.

I tried rebuild and no discernible effect.

I haven't mucked around in the library with finder.

Any more advice?