Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Latest High Sierra, latest Photos (3.0). Some/many of my most recent photos are showing up as white or invisible (see screenshot).
I have rebuilt my Photos library by repairing it (launch Photos while holding down cmd-option) already. No change.
My photos really are there. If I try and edit one, it shows up. If I look at it on another device, it shows up fine. But no matter what, I can't get this to stop happening. Any clues?
Mac Pro, macOS 10.13
Have you checked, if Optimize Storage is still disabled (in Photos > Preferences > iCloud, and in System Preferences > iCloud? Sometimes the options change back to the defaults after a system update.
If Photos cannot create thumbnails, there may be a problem with the permissions of the library. You have already tried to repair the library. You may want to repair the permissions of your Home folder as well. See: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support
After repairing the user home folder, the repair of the library may be more successful.
If all fails, test, if there is a problem with the particular photos.
Does reimporting bring the thumbnail back?
Have you checked, if Optimize Storage is still disabled (in Photos > Preferences > iCloud, and in System Preferences > iCloud? Sometimes the options change back to the defaults after a system update.
If Photos cannot create thumbnails, there may be a problem with the permissions of the library. You have already tried to repair the library. You may want to repair the permissions of your Home folder as well. See: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support
After repairing the user home folder, the repair of the library may be more successful.
If all fails, test, if there is a problem with the particular photos.
Does reimporting bring the thumbnail back?
The thumbnails may need rebuilding. Try to select one of the white thumbnails and use the key combination ⌘R to rotate it. Does that make the thumbnail appear? If yes, use ⌥⌘R to rotate it back.
Then select several white thumbnails at once and try to batch rotate them all at once with ⌘R and ⌥⌘R.
Are you perhaps running out of storage on your Mac? What does the Info for the system drive show? Do you still have more than 10GB of storage free (unused, not just purgeable)?
I have occasionally seen white thumbnails, when Photos had not any storage left to create new thumbnails.
Your library seems to be syncing with iCloud Photos. Do you have "Optimize Storage" enabled in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud?
418GB free on the boot drive (and the Photos library is on the boot drive, in the Pictures folder).
I do not have "Optimize Storage" clicked on this Mac. This is my main machine so I like everything downloaded and local.
I followed the instructions to repair permissions. No change to the white thumbnails.
I exported a "white" photo to my desktop. It shows up fine there. When I reimport it to Photos, it shows up fine there too.
I'm getting inconsistent results. I took one white thumbnail, double-clicked it, then tried to rotate it. This caused its thumbnail to come back. But I did the same for a second photo, and it didn't work. (My experiment doing this a few days ago was doing some batch rotations, not single rotations.)
Furthermore, I've noticed that many of the "white" ones are taken by my iPhone XR, and it only affects photos. Movies are always fine. So I clicked on one of the white thumbnails and clicked the "i"info button. This is a HEIC photo. But when I export to my desktop it becomes a JPG. I'm not really familiar with HEIC photos. Is it possible Photos is having a problem with HEIC files? (I'm sure it SHOULDN'T have a problem with them, but I'm just guessing at possible causes at this point. I still have a lot of white photos, and remember, they are only white on this machine, not when viewed on iCloud.com.)
Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried it, and no, it doesn't solve it. The white borders rotate 90, 180, 270 degrees, but remain white, and I never see the photo.
White/invisible photos! help.
