iPhoto 9.2 - Black vertical thumbnails & pictures

There are several possible causes for the Black Screen issue

1. Permissions in the Library: 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. Include the option to check and repair permissions.

2. Minor Database corruption: 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.

3. A Damaged Photo: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). Will the file open in Preview? If not then the file is damaged. Time to restore from your back up.

4. A corrupted iPhoto Cache: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto folder from HD/Users/Your Name/Library/ Caches...

5. A corrupted preference file: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)

If none of these help:

As a Test:

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'

Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?

I've recently started having this problem too. I haven't found a fix but I did discover that the black version of the photo is a modified version created by iPhoto's auto-rotate feature. The black version is in the Previews folder. If you click on File > Reveal in Finder > Modified File you will see the black version (~200kb). If you click on File > Reveal in Finder > Original File you will see the correct original file (~4MB). I've seen in other discussions that it is possible to turn off the auto-rotate feature in your camera and then manually rotate pictures before or after importing.

I tried creating a new library. The problem was not recreated.

I trashed the preferences and the problem was solved. In 10.7 I first had to find preferences since the Library folder in my user folder was hidden.

I made it visible by going to Terminal and typing:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

and then restarted the finder by typing: killall Finder

Then I went to my user folder > Library > Preferences > com.apple.iPhoto.plist and deleted the file.

Finally I had to reimport the vertical photos that had the black thumbnails.

To access the User Library in 10.7 just hold the option (or alt) key when clicking on the Go menu in Finder. There's no need to go anywhere near the Terminal.

Regards

TD