It's been some time since people posted on this problem. I've tried various fixes that were proposed—reopening the program and selecting repair, rotating thumbnails and then rotating them back—and these have not changed the black thumbnails. So I'm still trying to figure out why a subset of my photos remain blacked out and also won't show up in full image when double clicked.
Help?
TCC
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14
What happens if you select one of the images, and then choose "revert to original" from the image menu.
Are you able to open the black thumbnails for editing (select and press enter)
Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities tccroc,
Thank you for contacting us regarding your photos on your Mac. You have come to the right place and we are happy to assist you. If we understand correctly, when you are looking at your photos on your Mac, the thumbnail is black and won't open. We can understand why you’d reach out for a solution. To start, we would like to probe a bit to better be able to answer the question and resolve the issue. Are these iCloud photos, and will they open at iCloud.com? Do you have the most current operating system on the Mac? Are you trying to open from the iPhotos App or the Photos App? Also have you tried the steps outlined in this resource?
Get help with the Photos app on your Mac
Thank you for contacting Apple Support Communities.
Best regards.
Where is your library located? In the pictures folder, or somewhere else.
Have you ever had the library operated as a referenced library? (Import items to photos not checked in preferences)?
You say not all photos are in iCloud. How is that? Icloud always syncs your whole library. Evey photo should be in iCloud, or none of them should.
Has this recently started? What happend before it started (eg system update).
Do you have a backup taken before the problem started.
To answer a few of your questions, most of these photos are not on iCloud. I only have a few years of photos on there. Older photos are not. My current operating system is macOS Mojave v 10.14.6. (This a MacBook Pro 13-inch, 2018). Should I be updated to Big Sur? I'm using the Photos app. I'm attaching two images that show how the images that do not display look...there are two different ways that thumbnails are not showing the images as you'll see.
I'm not sure anymore where my many different photo images live. Is there some way to determine where the images that should be displaying in Photos are supposed to be located?
If the most immediate fix needed is to update to Big Sur, I can try that.
Here's what I see in the Pictures folder:
I don't know what you mean about a referenced library. What do you mean by "not checked in preferences"?
It's been a while since I looked at Photos, but I never remember seeing this. I do wonder whether I need to both update system software and maybe do some renovation of the photos in the library. I'll have to look at an old backup to see what shows up there.
"Rever to original" is grayed out and cannot be selected. When I try to open the black thumbnail or the cloud-symbol images as you suggest, either simply shows a black image in the editor.
Hi
Have a look in photos preferences. That will tell you where your library is (See circled location below). Look in both tabs. What is different to my settings here:
Another question, have you used any "clean my mac", duplicate file removal or "speed up" apps? If so which ones.
Black Thumbnails in Photos
