# No photos, only grey boxes (I've tried EVERYTHING!)



## key333 (Oct 9, 2009)

Hi there, 

This forum seems really helpful so I thought I'd attempt a thread here. I've been searching the internet for days and tried everything to stop my Lightroom 2.5 (Vista, 2GB, NVidia) from showing only grey boxes instead of my photos. The photos are all still there and I can get to them on other programs. There's no crosses in the corners, just blank grey boxes.

I've tried:
http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/2''8/12/28/corrupted-monitor-profile/
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb4'2376&sliceId=1 (though my "remove" button isn't clickable at all)

...and I've tried deleting the Previews folder and renaming the preferences one to make it creat a new one. And also uninstalling and reinstalling.

Any ideas or am I just doomed? I love Lightroom so much and have batches of photos piling up on me now! :(

Thank you,
Micha


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## sizzlingbadger (Oct 9, 2009)

Hi welcome. Have you ever seen these images in LR ? Do you shoot RAW ? what camera are you using ?


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## key333 (Oct 10, 2009)

Hello, 

Canon 45'D, some are RAW, some JPEG. I've tried both one's I've seen before in Lightroom and dragging new ones in from other folders but no luck there.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 10, 2009)

Grey boxes everywhere within LR (including Develop) is one of two things - a corrupted monitor profile - but you mention you've tried assigning sRGB to check that one, or graphics card drivers.

Try 2 more things:

1. Export an image to jpeg and open it in another program? Does it export ok? If so, it's definitely just a display issue.

2. Check for updated graphics card drivers from nVidia.

3. Just triple check that your monitor profile is definitely set to sRGB with no other profiles listed.


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## larsrc (Oct 11, 2009)

[quote author=key333 link=topic=8'6'.msg5496'#msg5496' date=1255119782]
Hi there, 

This forum seems really helpful so I thought I'd attempt a thread here. I've been searching the internet for days and tried everything to stop my Lightroom 2.5 (Vista, 2GB, NVidia) from showing only grey boxes instead of my photos. The photos are all still there and I can get to them on other programs. There's no crosses in the corners, just blank grey boxes.
[/quote]

The gray boxes appear when you have no preview in the preview database and LR can't find your pictures. If you go to the Folder part in the Library module, are all the folders grayed out? Do the gray boxes have little question marks in the upper right hand corner? If that's the case, try right-clicking the folders (the individual folders), pick "Find missing folder" and point it at where the original pictures really are.

-Lars


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## marcovay (Oct 17, 2009)

Hi,

I had this problem come up all of a sudden (after a windows update, so somebody may want to blame Microsoft). I spent a lot of time checking that my files were still there, loaded a recent backup of the database, checked the previews folder... And finally came to this thread suggesting that this could be due to a corrupted video driver or monitor profile.
Anyway, after recalibrating my display, and thus replacing the monitor profile, I restarted Lightroom and everything was fine. Now, if Lightroom was smart enough to complain about the monitor profile rather than start and show nothing, that would be useful to users. Adobe are you listening?


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 17, 2009)

Good thinking marcovay, welcome to the forum! Here's the http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform"]Official Feature Request/Bug Report Form[/URL]


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