User level: Level 1 (15 points)Am running OS 26.6.2 on an M2 MacBook Air and iPhotos lives on iCloud - just recently a large selection of my photos now show as black boxes. I have tried the Command Option repair but nothing has changed - have I lost these photos or can I retrieve them?
Posted on Nov 5, 2026 5:19 PM
User level: Level 2 (236 points)Nov 7, 2026 5:57 PM in response to stuberry
Nope, they should be on icloud. Go to https://www.icloud.com/ and you should see them there. To try and get rid of the black boxes, Toggle iCloud Sync: Go to System Settings > (Your Name) > iCloud > Photos, uncheck Sync this Mac, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on. This forces the app to re sync without losing your library.
Have a good day!
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)Nov 8, 2026 11:30 AM in response to stuberry
stuberry wrote: … I also realized that they are all Tiff's from images I scanned some years ago…
Can you export those Tiffs to Finder with File>Export>Export Unmodified Originals? I think that I would export the Tiffs and re-import them. Photos is confused by some old formats, but the originals should be OK. If you did edits and comments, you should be able to export those with File>Export>Export nn Photos.
Let us know how this goes…
User level: Level 1 (15 points)Nov 10, 2026 7:37 AM in response to Richard.Taylor
I just upgraded to Mac O/S 27.2.1 and my Tiff images are now visible
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)Nov 8, 2026 11:48 AM in response to stuberry
stuberry wrote: …I arbitrarily chose a couple of the files and unfortunately they still appear black
You exported unmodified originals to a folder on Finder? How did you view them? Did you try opening them with Preview or some other software?
User level: Level 1 (15 points)Nov 8, 2026 11:45 AM in response to Richard.Taylor
I arbitrarily chose a couple of the files and unfortunately they still appear black although I can read all of the info about the original image - I did these scans in 2002 and the files are fairly big
I really appreciate everyone's support
User level: Level 1 (15 points)Nov 7, 2026 6:11 PM in response to friendly27
Thank you - however when I go to icloud https://www.icloud.com/ the blackbox images are not visible. They appear with a triangle with an exclamation mark in the middle of the triangle.
User level: Level 1 (15 points)Nov 8, 2026 10:56 AM in response to friendly27
I also realized that they are all Tiff's from images I scanned some years ago - they always appeared in my albums but for recently
User level: Level 1 (15 points)Nov 8, 2026 11:59 AM in response to Richard.Taylor
I used preview - I also tried renaming as a png as this was a suggestion I found online but nothing - do you have a different viewer suggestion?
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256389492