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

Barb Bowman 80,805 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2013-06-26T19:27:25+00:00

EDIT: October 18 – This has been edited to reflect the Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 official RTM/GA release.

I've just installed the 8.1 Preview on a desktop. EDIT: 10/17/2013-this is also true for RTM. The Photos App has changed:

  1. No longer includes the ability to show images from Facebook, Flickr, SkyDrive

 <10/18/2013deleted missing networked computers issue - for information on how to include content from supported Windows computers on a home network, see http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows8_1-pictures/add-network-folders-and-display-pictures-in-the/bf3252f8-9162-4129-8387-5367e24b5609 - note that many older versions of Windows are not supported and that there is no support for Linux based NAS devices>

  1. Does have some new editing features

 3. Live Tile functionality has disappeared.

Edit:6/30

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1_pr-pictures/possible-fix-for-photos-app-live-time-not-showing/e0eb3bb4-3e9c-4016-aa27-4a011ccc94a3 is what a possible solution is to missing Live Tile issues.

Edit: 7/04

Tiles are working, but images change only 1x per day. This needs to be a shorter period.

--

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

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Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-06-30T06:35:02+00:00

    When I open the Photos app; it shows nothing.

    There are photos in my User\Pictures folder. There are plenty of pictures in my SkyDrive folder. There are heaps of pictures in my Facebook account.

    The app doesn't allow me to change the location at the top. it just displays "This PC"

    If I use the "Create Folder" option the folder appears and is visible in the File Explorer on the desktop where I expect the pictures should be.

    I have this exact issue, plus this App does not have an uninstall charm for me to try to uninstall and reinstall.

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  2. Barb Bowman 80,805 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-06-30T11:06:22+00:00

    I have this exact issue, plus this App does not have an uninstall charm for me to try to uninstall and reinstall.            

    First, this thread is mostly about the removal of Facebook, Flickr, SkyDrive and network folders, so you are not alone.

    As for uninstall - it appears that the Photos App is more than an App and is part of the OS and can't be removed. Need clarity from Microsoft on this aspect.

    --

    Barb

    Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

    My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

    Barb's Connected World Blog Reader Windows 8 App -  

    http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/barbs-connected-world-blog/02f35769-52bf-461c-b1d5-06e54a58d298

    Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-30T18:26:13+00:00

    This is ridiculous. In addition I have discovered another flaw in the Photos app which may go some way to not only showing how bizarre this implementation is, but also how deeply it is ingrained.

    In order to get my photos to display in the Photos app (even writing that is making me more stupid), I thought I would change the location of the Pictures folder. I only store my photos on SkyDrive, however I have my photos set to "available offline".

    I opened Explorer, and opened up the Properties of the Pictures folder under Folders. In the location tab I changed the location to C:\Users\myusername\SkyDrive\Pictures

    Now when I click on the Pictures folder it shows my SkyDrive folder. I opened up the Photos app, but my photos still did not show up.

    Realising this didn't work, I attempted to restore the Pictures folder to its default location, C:\Users\myusername\Pictures.

    However I got an error message saying "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected."

    I had a look, and yes, there is an empty folder in C:\Users\myusername\Pictures. I assumed the Photos app must be looking in there. I decided to try changing he location of that folder, but you can't! The Location properties tab doesn't exist for this folder!

    So, finally I decided to delete that folder. Then I tried to change the location of the Pictures folder on This PC (the one I changed to point to SkyDrive) to C:\Users\myusername\Pictures. This time it said that the folder does not exist, and asked me if I wanted to create it. Now whether I answer yes or no, I get presented with the same message: "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected.

    So the OS thinks that folder still exists even though I've deleted it. It seems to be highly ingrained.

    What's worse is that I've emptied my recycle bin, and can no longer restore the original C:\Users\myusername\Pictures folder. Which means the Photos app will never show my photos.

    This is completely and utterly absurd. I refer to my initial question. How am I supposed to get my photos to display in the Photos app? Why am I even asking this question!?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-30T18:41:19+00:00

    More interesting info. If you have changed the location of you pictures to SkyDrive, as in my case, even though the pictures and folders never show, if you use the Photos app to create a new folder, the folder does get created in SkyDrive. You just can't see or use them in the Photos app.

    This app is beyond useless.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-06-30T18:59:25+00:00

    Right I see, it's because the Photos app is creating the folder to wherever the default save location has been set in the Pictures library. But it will only display the folders and files if the default save location is C:\Users\myusername\Pictures

    And you can't change the location of C:\Users\myusername\Pictures

    How can a new beta version of an app be so backwards compared to it's initial version?

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