Windows 7 not auto rotating pictures

Anonymous
2010-04-28T18:17:17+00:00

I use Nik and Adobe software to edit photos and currently use Nikon Transfer to import photos, these programs read the exif auto rotate imformation stored by my nikon D80.

My problem is that when I view my pictures in Window explorer or Windows live photo gallery they are not auto rotated to portrait mode, it has become apparent that these programs are unable to to read the exif information.

I have tried rotating to portrait mode in explorer and photo gallery only to discover that when I view these pics in another non microsoft program that they revert back to landscape mode,  I have also used win 7 autoplay to import pics and they are rotated correctly using win7 programs but not in other programs I use.

Is there a current fix for this problem?

Using Win7 64bit

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2011-11-21T14:32:29+00:00

Hi,

 

Some photo applications will display a photo as rotated which is referred to as soft rotating by reading metadata on the photo itself. Although the Photo Gallery rotates photos on import using this same metadata, many a times it doesn't also rotate all un-rotated photos in their collection for them automatically, or at least display the photos as rotated like some other applications do.

The reason that the Photo Gallery rotates on import, but not after that is because there are a number of applications that don't correctly update the photo metadata after rotating. This metadata is supposed to reflect the state of the photo, but if the photo is rotated without updating this metadata, another application using this metadata to determine whether or not to rotate it will incorrectly rotate the photo.

During import, the photos are coming directly from the camera, at which point the integrity of this metadata is not in question. So although it's safe for the Photo Gallery to rely on this metadata to make an accurate rotate decision during import, as soon as the photo makes its way to the PC, any other application could interact with the photo, and potentially corrupt this metadata. Therefore, the Photo Gallery doesn't soft rotate at this point.

 

Regards,

Syed N – Microsoft Support

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

The great part of Microsoft's answer is this explanation and this is how it reads to me; well if other programs don't read and write Exif data correctly, Windows and MS products shouldn't either.  Don't cater to the bad programs, program to a higher standard and then people will make the choice not to use these ones that don't work correctly, or allow your software to update or correct the metadata to repair these photos with bad metadata, making your product superior and the product people actually want to use.

Microsoft, any fixes expected for Windows 7 Explorer and Photoviewer coming soon?

Come on Microsoft, get your act together, there is a reason people are leaving you so quickly for Apple!

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-11-30T22:19:44+00:00

    This really is a funny thread,

    Complaining about auto rotate, really :)

    Right click and select rotate.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-03T12:01:49+00:00

    Is there an option to turn on "soft rotate" somewhere?

    So if I understand correctly, because some programs might not manipulate the EXIF data correctly Windows completely ignores it?  If those applications don't handle the EXIF data correctly then they have a bug and need to be fixed.  Unfortunately the way Windows has implemented the feature has caused Windows to be the issue.

    For example, I've spent a huge number of hours working on my photos in Picasa which does this correctly.  However, now when I use the slide show feature in Windows Media Center all my portrait photos are displayed as landscape!  Really frustrating.  Please at least make this possible .  If I could go set a registry key somewhere I'd be thrilled and I'm sure tons of other people would be too.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-29T19:00:28+00:00

    Thank you for your explanation.

    After searching several forums it appears that this is happening with other people who are using different progams, your explanation states when you import directly to photo gallery pictures are rotated correctly this is correct. What happens after that is my other programs will not rotate on open so I then do a manual rotate to view only, I do not save the picture I just view, now when I open the same picture in windows explorer or photo gallery the picture reverts back to landscape view.

    To test your theory I imported pictures using Nikon transfer, I viewed pictures using Adobe Elements and Capture Nx first, photos were rotated correctly, no edits or saves, I closed these progams and opened windows explorer and photo gallery and the same picture thumbnail is in landscape.

    It would appear that explorer and photo gallery are corrupting the metadata so that other programs do not read the orientation correctly.

    As of 4/28/2010 windows update, pictures that I import and manually rotate are now reflected in all programs however the issue still remains that when I import pictures using other photo applications windows explorer and photo gallery will not read metadata and rotate correctly.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-04-29T15:11:13+00:00

    Hi,

    Some photo applications will display a photo as rotated which is referred to as soft rotating by reading metadata on the photo itself. Although the Photo Gallery rotates photos on import using this same metadata, many a times it doesn't also rotate all un-rotated photos in their collection for them automatically, or at least display the photos as rotated like some other applications do.

    The reason that the Photo Gallery rotates on import, but not after that is because there are a number of applications that don't correctly update the photo metadata after rotating. This metadata is supposed to reflect the state of the photo, but if the photo is rotated without updating this metadata, another application using this metadata to determine whether or not to rotate it will incorrectly rotate the photo.

    During import, the photos are coming directly from the camera, at which point the integrity of this metadata is not in question. So although it's safe for the Photo Gallery to rely on this metadata to make an accurate rotate decision during import, as soon as the photo makes its way to the PC, any other application could interact with the photo, and potentially corrupt this metadata. Therefore, the Photo Gallery doesn't soft rotate at this point.

    Regards,

    Syed N – Microsoft Support

    Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments