this file format is unsupported or the file is damaged error message after Windows RT 8.1 upgrade

Anonymous
2013-10-18T23:14:42+00:00

After I upgraded my Surface RT 64/gb to Windows RT 8.1, the photo app no longer recognizes the file format of jpegs!  You CAN see the photos within the photo app, and browse thru them. The photo app tile, however, will not display any pics whatsoever (it did just great BEFORE the upgrade).  If you try to set a static tile photo, it tells you that "this file format is unsupported or the file is damaged"!  THIS EVEN HAPPENS IF YOU TAKE A PIC WITH THE BUILT-IN CAMERA AND TRY TO USE IT FROM THE CAMERA ROLL -  It still says that the photo format is unsupported or damaged!

Interestingly, even though you cannot assign a photo to the Photo tile, you CAN set that photo as a lock screen photo.  So, therefore, it seems that this issue is only with the Photo App.

Also, after the upgrade, the "Turn Live Tiles On/Off" option is now missing.  You can only resize the photo app tile or "unpin" from start menu.

Mircrosoft PLEASE FIX THIS

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

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Anonymous
2013-10-21T18:20:45+00:00

Hi Lyle,

The issue you are hitting with file is an unsupported format is a known issue.  We are working to get a fix out to windows update.  It tends to be intermittent, if you shut down and restart the app it sometimes goes away.  Try doing this from Task Manager -> select Photos -> End Task

The ability to set as static tile is also available in 8.1.  You can either find a picture and click on "set as" -> "photos tile".  Alternatively, you can also swipe the right side->click "settings"->"options"->"shuffle photos on the photos tile" ->"off".

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-07T07:32:49+00:00

    Hello LyleFischer. I have been using Windows since v3 (yep a long. long time!) and have found my first foray into Windows 8 world kind of frustrating... As well as this issue, I have a Lenovo Yoga 13 with a Realtek wireless card and that kept dropping off wireless every few minutes. Several driver and config changes later that now seems stable (can't blame Windows, except that loading an older Realtek driver rather than the Windows v8.1 driver helped!). Anyone need help with that, let me know ;-)

    Getting to grips with Windows 8 slowly, but surely and some nice features like child account control. Compares nowhere close to the simplicity of my Apple iOS devices though (but then Windows is still a computing OS and iOS isn't)...

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-07T00:00:13+00:00

    fasteddie - THANKS! You are the first person who actually came up with a "solution" to this frustrating issue!

    It'll hold me until Microsoft finally decides to fix this -something that should have worked from the beginning

    Lyle

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-06T14:31:02+00:00

    Click the View tab and unselect (untick) the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option and click Ok

    OK, this also fixes the problem with the photos taken with the Camera app, now when you swipe to the right as soon as a photo is taken, this time the photo appears correctly.

    But if you tick that "always show icons, never thumbnails" the Camera app problem comes back again.

    This is a temporary solution, it works, but I hope a fix will come out by Microsoft.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-06T11:33:37+00:00

    As an update, after a lot of reading various threads/experimenting the solution below that worked for me:

    1.  Go to file Explorer -> View -> Options - > "Change folder and search options" (you can also do this through Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalisation -> Folder Options)
    2.  Click the View tab and unselect (untick) the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option and click Ok
    3.  Switch to Start, open the Photo app, open the Charm, select Settings -> Options and turn OFF "Shuffle photos on the Photo tile" and close the Options pane
    4.  Close the Photo app by swiping from top to bottom of the screen
    5.  Re-open the Photo app, open the Charm, select Settings -> Options and turn ON "Shuffle photos on the Photo tile" and close the Options pane. Hey presto, within about 5 seconds the photos appear and start changing!
    6. Now if like me you want to stop 100's of thumbnail files being created on your drive, or just want to see icons instead of thumbnails then follow steps 1 and 2 again, but this time re-select (tick) the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option. I have rebooted/logged back in as all users and the Photo tile live is still working

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