Can't rotate some photos in Windows 7 (but can rotate others)

Anonymous
2011-10-27T10:30:27+00:00

Hi all. I cannot rotate some pictures that I've recently copied from my new iPhone to my hard drive.

I've copied them from my iPhone 4S to my Windows 7 PC, to a Subfolder within Pictures.  I can view them all without problems.  If I highlight any/all pictures that need rotating, right click, 'Rotate Clockwise', then sometimes the images will rotate successfully.  But sometimes I get an error saying 'You cannot rotate this image. The file might be in use or open in another program, or the file or folder might be read-only.'  Before I got my iPhone 4S, I have had no problems rotating images.  I'm a bit doubtful that the new phone / iOS5 is somehow to blame, as it's not attached to the computer, but who knows.

The files are not read only.  I've tried doing a clean boot to minimise the number of running processes, but I still can't rotate some of my images.  Does anyone have any other clues what the problem might be, or how I might investigate it further?  Thanks...

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

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Anonymous
2012-02-19T17:17:31+00:00

Just transfer all the pics you took to a a file in windows (as you would if you back up your iphone and ipad to your PC) and open the file in using Windows Office Picture Manager. This program is included as part  the Microsoft suite so it was free for me. I run windows vista  Choose to see the folder in "thumbnail view" the little box with 4 little rectangles on it right under the Shortcuts menu command. You will then see all the pics in the folder. Now you can individually rotate pics or highlight a bunch of them and rotate them at once using the rotate button up on top. Its a button with too little triangles on it. One of the triangles is laying on its side. Then hit "save" and voila! All your pics are now saved right side up! I didn't experience any sacrifice in quality of the pics or any changes. I hope this provides further clarity. These links have some add' info on Office picture manager-

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/about-picture-manager-HP001001721.aspx

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Anonymous
2011-10-28T16:54:23+00:00

If you search the web, many people have this issue only with iPhone 4s.

It appears that the Meta data attached to the picture by iPhone is corrupt and that is why the picture can't be rotated, etc.

It is suggested that the meta data be remove from the picture an then it can be manipulated.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-02-19T18:34:51+00:00

    Just transfer all the pics you took to a a file in windows and open the file in using Windows Office Picture Manager. Choose to see the folder in "thumbnail view" the little box with 4 little rectangles on it right under the Shortcuts menu command. You will then see all the pics in the folder. Now you can individually rotate pics or highlight a bunch of them and rotate them at once using the rotate button up on top. Its a button with too little triangles on it. One of the triangles is laying on its side. Then hit "save" and voila! All your pics are now saved right side up!

    What is 'Windows Office Picture Manager"? Is it something you have to download? Do you need to own Office 2007/2010 to access it? Is it free? Where do you get it?

    I don't see how this is easier than the free JPEG Lossless Rotater (JLR) that I suggested above. With JLR you don't have to load your pictures into any app. It's integrated right into the shell. Just right click on the image (or group of images) you want rotated in windows explorer and 'poof' its/they are rotated. Easy as pie - with no loss. If my recollection is correct, rotating within Windows Photo Viewer results in a substantial loss in image quality. You'd want to be sure that rotating in Windows Office Picture Manager doesn't also reduce the picture quality (you can check that by looking at the file size before and after rotation to see if the file size has changed much).

    Also Joe, you posted your latest response twice here. Might want to delete the second one.

    ...Dale

    Thanks Dale, I edited my initial reply so it clarifies the fix a bit.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-19T17:42:14+00:00

    Just transfer all the pics you took to a a file in windows and open the file in using Windows Office Picture Manager. Choose to see the folder in "thumbnail view" the little box with 4 little rectangles on it right under the Shortcuts menu command. You will then see all the pics in the folder. Now you can individually rotate pics or highlight a bunch of them and rotate them at once using the rotate button up on top. Its a button with too little triangles on it. One of the triangles is laying on its side. Then hit "save" and voila! All your pics are now saved right side up!

    What is 'Windows Office Picture Manager"? Is it something you have to download? Do you need to own Office 2007/2010 to access it? Is it free? Where do you get it?

    I don't see how this is easier than the free JPEG Lossless Rotater (JLR) that I suggested above. With JLR you don't have to load your pictures into any app. It's integrated right into the shell. Just right click on the image (or group of images) you want rotated in windows explorer and 'poof' its/they are rotated. Easy as pie - with no loss. If my recollection is correct, rotating within Windows Photo Viewer results in a substantial loss in image quality. You'd want to be sure that rotating in Windows Office Picture Manager doesn't also reduce the picture quality (you can check that by looking at the file size before and after rotation to see if the file size has changed much).

    ...Dale

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