What does the triangle with an exclamation point in place of a photo mean?

it means that iPhoto has lost the connection to the high resolution photo - backup your iPhoto library and depress the option and command keys and launch iPhoto use the repair library option - if that does not fix it use the rebuild library

LN

I too am having this issue all the time now that I have upgraded to iPhoto 11. Why must I have to constantly backup the library!!!! This is ridiculous. Isn't there a way to solve this problem. What a waste of time. I had an album all set with over 100 photos ready for me to email and when I went back to it the next day all the photos were "gone" with that stupid black box. I have not tried this backup as you have suggested. But each and every time?????? Why is this happening?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.

If that fails:

Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

. Why must I have to constantly backup the library

You care about your photos, don't you? Only an idiot would use a computer without a back up of important data.

Regards

TD

It's a corrupted database, and frankly, not one that Apple can fix in every case. This corruption can happen when the app is interrupted while writing to the database - by a crash, for instance, a force quit, a sudden loss of power to the Mac - it can happen when the Library is stored on an inappropriately formatted disk, it can happen if Users change the path to the file in the Library etc etc

To protect against things like the crash etc, there is the automatic back up of the db file mentioned in option 1, to protect the Library being manipulated by inexperienced users it's in a package and so on. But there's only so much that can be done - hence the endless mantra: back up back up back up

Regards

TD

I didn't mean why constantly back up on a regular basis, that I do everyday, what I meant was everyday I see this black square and exclamation point and I didn't want to have to rebuild the library everyday.

I had (and still have) this problem with photos that I file in iPhoto but edit in Photoshop Elements 9. I read about a little trick in Apple Discussions that works all the time. When that ugly old triangle with the exclamation point appears on my screen, I tap Photos up at the top (you can tell I don't speak computer talk), then scroll down to Revert to Original, tap that. Wait about one second, and the photo appears like magic. I have no idea why, or what's going on, but it works for me. Painful after one has edited a bunch of photos outside of iPhoto, but at least there's a solution short of rebuilding the library and doing all that scary stuff.

Robert Z, you hereby get promoted to the Genius bar. Bravo. Your simple trick worked for me too as soon as I tried it. What a relief. Like you, I get the black triangle when I edit in Photoshop Elements. I also find that the problem can be avoided if I "Save As" from Elements, rather than "Save". The new iPhoto creates a duplicate photo when you Edit in Photoshop; Save As overwrites the duplicate properly, but Save does not.

Terence says "It's a corrupted database, and frankly, not one that Apple can fix in every case."

It seems as if a rather large number of us have a corrupted database! I seem to have got mine after I made the involuntary conversion to iPhoto '11 v.9.1 (now 9.1.1) with my new iMac.
Clearly, this bug needs an urgent fix, although it's easy to ask for and no doubt harder to do.

As of 3 days ago, Aperture 3 is selling for $79 on the Mac AppStore, less than half its old price. A tempting time to move beyond the limitations of iPhoto, perhaps?

null

Terence says "It's a corrupted database, and frankly, not one that Apple can fix in every case."

The key being the phrase "in every case"

A corrupted database is the symptom. There are many, many possible causes.

Regards

TD

You sir are genius!
You have given a simple solution to a simple problem.
Many thanks.

- Sophie