mlestes
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: Dark gray photos in camera roll

This evening I was taking photos at dinner. The camera app and photos app were both working  correctly, I locked my screen, and when I tried to use my camera again, the camera just showed a gray box instead of an image. I closed the camera app and began taking pictures successfully. When I attempted to view the photos from the evening, thousands  photos from my phone did not appear in my library and the phone said "recovering". After turning my phone off and on again several times, all of my photos showed up in my library, but some photos from the evening only showed up as dark gray boxes. I'm hoping that when I connect my phone to my Mac that the "corrupted" photos will reappear, but I'm not holding my breath. Any tips or help on recovering the gray photos would be greatly appreciated!

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jul 18, 2016 5:26 PM

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mlestes

Q: Dark gray photos in camera roll

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  • Helpful answers

  • by AppleJen77,

    AppleJen77 AppleJen77 Jul 19, 2016 10:48 AM in response to mlestes
    Community Specialists
    Jul 19, 2016 10:48 AM in response to mlestes

    Hello there, mlestes!

     

    Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! It sounds like you are having an issue recovering photos. I know how important it is to be able to recover photos from the iPhone. You might want to check out this article that talks about iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library. Specifically:

     

    To rebuild the iPhoto library:

    1. Quit iPhoto if it is open.
    2. Hold down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard.
    3. Open iPhoto.
    4. Keep the keys held down until you are prompted to rebuild the library.
    5. A dialog will appear with rebuild options. Select the options you want to use.
    6. Click Rebuild to begin the rebuild process. This may take a few minutes to complete.
      rebuild photo library

    Use these guidelines to determine which options to choose in the rebuild dialog:

    • Select the option(s) to rebuild thumbnails only if the thumbnails appear to be an issue (gray, blank, missing or mismatched).

     

    Just remember to check the Recovered Photos album for the pictures this process will recover for you.

     

    Cheers!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 20, 2016 2:38 AM in response to mlestes
    Level 10 (105,852 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 20, 2016 2:38 AM in response to mlestes

    AppleJen77'spost is showing how to repair an iPhoto Library. For a Photos library the dialog will be a little different.

     

    To repair your Photos Library follow this procedure:                 Repair your library      

    Important: You should back up your photo library before repairing your library.

     

    • If Photos is open, choose Photos > Quit Photos.
    • Press Option-Command and double-click the Photos icon in the Applications folder (or click the Photos icon in the Dock).The Repair Library window opens.
    • Click Repair to rebuild your photo library.

     

     

    You could also first try to recreate the thumbnails:  If you click the grey thumbnails where your photos should be, do they appear again?

     

    Then you can repair the thumbnails by selecting several of the grey photos at once and entering the key combination ⌘ R to rotate them. Wait for the thumbnails to reappear agin, then enter ⌥⌘R to state them back.