Photos App in 8.1 loses most of its best features e.g. Facebook/Flickr support...

Adding network locations to the Pictures Library did not work.  You can not add them directly, because the location is not indexed and adding them using symlinks worked to add the location to the Pictures Library and to the Photos App, but caused the Photos App to crash when trying to access any of the content from the network location.

As for using offline files, if you are referring to SkyDrive files available offline, I am.

Again, I am not ignoring that the functionality has been removed.  I just wanted to state this as what may be a temporary workaround for some, as it was for me, and to illustrate that, at least for me, the Photos App is displaying everything I have in my Pictures Library (because some people were stating that nothing was showing up in their Photos App.  Not even their Pictures Library).

Hope that clears things up.

Edit:  The main thing I wanted to address was really just the issue of people stating that the Photos App doesn't even display content from your Pictures Library anymore.

Using symlinks is a whole different issue and you should start a new thread about that on its own.

It is not clear from your above post if adding a network location without symlinks works or not. If you are using offline files for this, that too is different from what the complaint is here.

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

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It just worked.

And it still continuously works for me whenever I add another location to my Pictures Library.  I've even tried adding a network location to my Pictures Library (via creating a local folder, adding it to the Pictures Library, deleting the folder, and then creating a symlink from that folder to the network location) and while it shows up in the Photos App (and even separates it into a different group of tiles), clicking on any of the folders/files in the Photos App that are stored in a network location instantly cause the Photos App to crash.

I don't know what I did differently than everyone else, but at least this much of the Photos App's functionality is intact for me.

http://i.imgur.com/RUQxvfD.jpg

It is working for me.  However, in no way, am I stating that it isn't for everyone else or that I even doubt that it isn't for everyone else.

Edit:

http://i.imgur.com/QUihJ8i.jpg

Just wanted to add a picture of the Photos App when I'm in a folder located on my SkyDrive, illustrating that the "This PC" heading indeed does transition to saying "SkyDrive" instead.

I'm amazed. How did you manage that, or did it "just work"?

http://i.imgur.com/RUQxvfD.jpg

It is working for me.  However, in no way, am I stating that it isn't for everyone else or that I even doubt that it isn't for everyone else.

Edit:

http://i.imgur.com/QUihJ8i.jpg

Just wanted to add a picture of the Photos App when I'm in a folder located on my SkyDrive, illustrating that the "This PC" heading indeed does transition to saying "SkyDrive" instead.

Edit2:  Also, this doesn't really contradict the statement made by Carmen.  In the past, we were able to add locations to the Photos App outside of the native Pictures Library.  This is the functionality that has been removed and my being able to add my SkyDrive pictures to the native Windows Pictures Library is merely a workaround that has allowed me to view my SkyDrive pictures via the Photos App (and have it's pictures cycle through the live tile).  The functionality to add other locations natively in the Photos App, however, is indeed gone.  I merely wanted to point out that adding locations to the Pictures Library has worked for me, and could possibly work as a workaround in the meantime for others.