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/

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

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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

354 answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-07-03T12:27:27+00:00

    So you didn't read the thread... and see the PM say the features were removed.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-07-03T13:03:41+00:00

    Barb kicked off this thread with a couple of strikes against the current version of the Photo App in the Windows 8.1 Preview.

    I’ll add another couple.

    • The editing functions will likely corrupt any Makernotes in the Exif that your camera may put there.
    • If the Exif section in your original image was created by your camera in Little-endian file order, then when the Photo App saves an edited image, it will reverse this to be a Big-endian file order.

    The Exif corruption is a long-standing issue. It’s been present for years in the Windows Photo Gallery application of Microsoft. They have acknowledged it as a bug, but they still haven’t bothered to do anything about it.

    The Little-endian to Big-endian switch is also a carry-over from the behaviour of Windows Photo Gallery. It’s also highly ironic. The guidance from the Metadata Working Group states that applications that change the contents of an image file should preserve the existing byte order. It’s ironic because Microsoft is one of the founder members of the Metadata Working Group. They can’t even be bothered to follow their own guidance.

    The Photo App as it stands is worse than useless.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.


    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  4. Barb Bowman 80,805 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-07-03T13:55:05+00:00

    OK... I finally got the File Brick app back to working almost like it used to.  For me, this has now become the Photo App substitute.  I have it linked to all my computer files and external and network drives and it also links to Flickr, Skydrive, Dropbox, Facebook and YouTube.

    The 1 bug that remains (compliments of Win8.1, AFAIK) is my Facebook Timeline photos only allow me to see the oldest Timeline photo and I cannot scroll to others, even though it identifies the number of photo files sitting out there... I have the same issue in the People App, which is why I believe it to be a Win8.1 problem.

    Interestingly, when I tried to link to Flickr through my Yahoo email account in the File Brick app, the account connect button would not click so I could not sync with Flickr.  I originally blamed Win8.1.  I then identified though a web browser that the Yahoo account <submit> button was also not working, making me think it is a Yahoo problem and not a Win8.1 problem, or maybe a compatibility issue with IE11?  By coincidence, that terrible Yahoo bar appeared at the top of my Flickr screen yesterday as well... making me think Yahoo implemented some silly stuff recently and coincidental to the Win8.1 release.

    Anyway, I finally linked to Flickr in File Bick app through my Google email address.  While not quite as polished as the Photo App was, File Brick is actually more functional as I can set up access tiles to more folders than just picture folders and now I have both physical and cloud access consolidated in 1 place.

    I'd rather have the Photo App back like it used to be, but so far, this App is the best substitute I have found.

    If there is an incompatibility with the File Brick App (which is NOT the same as the Photos App being discussed here) please notify the developer of that app. May I suggest that you edit this post to reflect just the issues you have with the Photos App and create a different thread to discuss the other points you raise.

    --

    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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-07-03T14:01:55+00:00

    Thanks for the feedback, everybody.  In Windows 8, we wanted to provide a way for folks to view their photos on other services knowing there would be few (if any) apps in the store at launch that would do so.  Now there are many apps in the store that offer ways to view photos on other services and soon there will even be a Facebook app from Facebook.  We’re confident Facebook will offer great ways to view and engage socially with photos on Facebook.  We welcome Flickr to do the same.  In addition, the People app still offers the ability to socially engage with your friends and even your own photos.

    Hi Carmen, since the Photos app is now redundant for 90% of people, can you allow us to uninstall it please? There's limited enough space on my Surface Pro as it is, without wasteful apps that do nothing remaining on my SSD.

    Cheers

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments