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good thumbnail, corrupt mater file

Some of my old photos are no longer accessible. The thumbnails look fine, but when I click on the thumbnail I get the ! image. So when I show the contents of the iPhoto Library these masters show up as documents and not photos. How do I recover the original image?

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

mini, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Nov 29, 2015 12:17 PM

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11 replies

Nov 29, 2015 12:37 PM in response to s3murphy

Can preview open the original files? Have you tried to open one of the files with the document icon in Preview?


Are the files indeed corrupted, or does iPhoto just not find them? If even preview cannot open the originals restore the library from your last backup.



What happened, before iPhoto stopped to recognize the originals? Did you run a cleaning application? Did your move your iPhoto Library to a different drive?

Nov 29, 2015 2:03 PM in response to s3murphy

I went back to my old, old backups and found the original before they were uploaded to iPhoto from my PowerPC. The original extension was .pct which got stripped off along the way. If I add the .pct back onto the the library file, then preview can see it. But i tried adding it back to the master in the Library Package, iPhoto does not recognize it. Do I need to make the changes and rebuild afterwards?

Nov 29, 2015 2:15 PM in response to s3murphy

But i tried adding it back to the master in the Library Package, iPhoto does not recognize it.

Try first to run the option "Repair Permission"s as well. perhaps it is a permissions problem.


Copy one of the old master files out of the package, add the .pct extension, and try to reimport it.

Can iPhoto import the file and show it correctly?

Nov 29, 2015 2:51 PM in response to s3murphy

I get the error for all photos during the import process of "unrecognized format".

That is what I suspected, that iPhoto cannot read the old format.


You can use Preview to batch convert the photos.

  • Select all pct files at once.
  • Drag them onto the Preview icon in the Dock.
  • It will open all photos at once and show them in the sidebar.
  • Select all photos in the sidebar and use File > Export. Click "options" to change the format to JPEg.
  • User uploaded file

good thumbnail, corrupt mater file

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