Question mark instead of a photo

[theresebaudin]

I have an iMac (Retina 5120x2880 display)

When I click on a single photo in Organizer, I get a grey screen with a question mark. When I zoom out a little bit, I can see the pictures. When I push the zoom lever all the way to the right again, I again just get the grey screen with the question mark.

It doesn't work with "reconnect all missing files", I know that the pictures haven't been moved from the folder where I imported them from. I have upgraded to the latest version of Photoshop Elements 15. It doesn't work with "update thumbnail" either...

I have this problem on ALL my photos. The strange thing with all this is that I can see the picture if I see it in full screen.

I am really really confused. Can someone PLEASE help me?

[99jon]

What happens if you select a thumbnail and click the editor button at the bottom of Organizer? Does the Editor app launch with the photo?

[theresebaudin]

Yes, the Editor app does launch

[99jon]

And can you edit and save the image?

[theresebaudin]

Yes, I can do that too

[99jon]

Can you go to the Organizer menu (top left) and choose:

Preferences >> General (tab)

Click the button at the bottom of the dialog to reset default settings

Quit Organizer and re-launch.

Let us know if that makes any difference.

[theresebaudin]

It doesn't help.

I realized that when I made the window a little bit smaller, I saw the picture. But when I use the program in full screen, it doesn't show...

[99jon]

I’m wondering if it is to do with your retina settings. Try going to the dock and choosing:

System Preferences >> Display

Choose scaling and try one or two different settings.

If you already have scaling turned on try the Auto setting.

[arshla jindal]

Hi

This might be due to corruption of thumb db.

I would suggest you to rename the the thumb cache to let the thumbnailing happen again. For this do the following:

1. In Organizer, go to Help menu > System info.

2. In the dialog that appears, copy the Catalog location field value.

3. Quit Organizer. Open Finder. Press Cmd + Shift + G and paste this location.

4. In this catalog folder, you will find a file with name thumb.5.cache. Rename this to thumb.5.cache_old.

5. Relaunch Organizer and let the thumbnailing happen.

After the thumbnailing is done, check if the issue is resolved.

Try this and get back with your results.

Thanks,

Arshla

[JosephKarpinski]

Have the exact same problem.

Repaired, optimized, rebuilt indexes. Nothing worked.

Created new catalog. Deleted old catalog. Imported some files in Organizer.

Same problem.

Then I clicked on a image thumbnail. Got the question mark display.

Clicked on Tags/info.

Images show across all thumbnails.

Unclick Tags/Info, Question marks across all thumbnails.

Workaround is to leave Tags/Info option active.

All clicked thumbnails in Organizer now show images.

Regards,

Joseph Karpinski

[lucd62623381]

Joseph Karpinski's info set me on the good way.

In Elements 2020 You find right/beneathe a button Keyword/info. Activate that button and the problem is soved. You don't have the photo's in fullscreen but at least in 85%screen.

I still believe that the questionmarkscreen must be a bug in Adobe or Apple and that this solution is only a good workaround to have the system at work. But I can live with it.

Many thanks to Joseph Karpinski and Akash Sharma for the help.

[trippluke]

Anyone still having this problem ... here is what I found that fixed it.   Since I am not technical .. it may be a bit wordy.   I am using 2020 on apple imac retina display.   I had my screen completely covered, with the organizer screen.  When I resized my organizer screen just a bit, making it smaller .. let's say 1/4 inch all around ... then I was able to see any of the photo's full screen.    another way to say it ... on the top left there are three lights .. the one on the right is green, the middle is yellow the left is red and closes the applilcation.   If you select green, full screen, you then cannot zoom in to one photo without getting the grey and question mark.   If though, when it is green and you get the grey screen, move your cursor to the corner, top left, and drag the screen just a bit to make it smaller.  The image will then appear.   you can play around with the sizing to see just how big you want to make it before it becomes grey again, but this does work.

[MichelBParis]

Just a note from a Windows only user:

I have noticed a new behavior of the question mark icon: in recent version it does not only show 'missing' and 'thumbnail not processed' but also it shows briefly when the thumbnail creation is not fully saved. Maybe this possibly new behavior is more critical on high res displays?