iPhoto 6.0.2 (#3): Possible fix for issue where photos do not display (blank screen) in Edit and other viewing modes

We continue coverage of an issue where photos in iPhoto 6.0.2 (and earlier versions) display only as a blank (black) screen when viewed in edit mode or in a slideshow.

Deleting rolls and albums We've been experimenting with a fix for this issue that involves the following: Delete every afflicted roll, delete every album based on said rolls, and delete every slideshow based on it. Of course, this fix requires having a backup of your photos.

MacFixIt reader Bill Cheeseman, who enacted this fix, writes:

"I deleted them using the appropriate iPhoto delete command, not by using the Finder to drag them to the trash. I believe I was careful to empty iPhoto's trash immediately after deleting them, but I may have missed some and that might account for some of the issues discussed below. I then reimported the original photos from my master folder of saved good originals, and I recreated the albums and slideshows from the newly imported rolls. This eliminated the symptoms completely within iPhoto -- no more blank slideshows and edit windows.

"My conclusion is not strictly scientific, but it goes something like this: When I initially imported some of these rolls, or immediately afterwards when I was creating albums and slideshows from them, iPhoto somehow sucked the data out of some of the picture files so that they remained an empty shell. It is possible that the problems were created, not in the import phase, but when I deleted rolls (as I did several times while learning iPhoto 6). Retrospect and System Preferences saw that these bad files existed in the file system, but they couldn't find any data in them. Retrospect, in particular, doesn't like 0K files.

"I have a vague recollection that my early importing routine was a little different than I use now, but I can't recall the details. In any event, I've imported dozens of rolls since then without a problem on any of my machines."

Revert to QuickTime 7.0.1 Meanwhile, some readers were able to resolve their inability to display photos in iPhoto 6.0.2 by reverting to QuickTime 7.0.1 from QuickTime 7.0.4 using Apple's re-installer.

One reader writes:

"iPhoto wasn't working for me. I would get a gray screen with dotted lines framing the locations where the pictures should be. I solved the problem by going back to Quicktime 7.0.1 from 7.0.4."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• iPhoto 6.0.2 (#2): Photos do not display (blank screen) in Edit and other viewing modes
• Apple releases iPhoto 6.0.2

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