Windows 8.1 Photos app does not show any photos, only videos

Anonymous
2014-02-17T22:09:31+00:00

The Photos app in Windows 8.1 does not display any of my photos.  The subfolders of my Pictures Library are shown but only the thumbnails for videos are shown.  The photos not seem to exist at all.  The pictures show fine in Explorer and Picasa.

Adding new photos to the library presents the same result, folders and videos show but not photos.

I have already tried all of the solutions given in this community with no success:

  • I already tried running the Modern App trouble shooter and it did not find any problems.
  • Indexing is enabled for my Pictures folder and the permissions for System are full access.
  • The app is up-to-date

Please help!

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.

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Anonymous
2014-09-04T09:15:44+00:00

Same issue App shows folders no photos.  I scrolled through all threads and tired all the suggestions about kind and regedit and reindex. Nothing worked UNTIL I renamed the folder containing the pictures. Viola!! The photo app displayed and opened the photos. All I did to rename was add an "x" to the folder name. A few weeks ago I did post this issue on the Libra community. The only reply I got was a snarky one from someone who seemed offended that I posed a question about compatibility of the app and Libre.  Hope this helps. I saw one other person in the thread fixed theirs the same way. It's easy enough to try.

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Anonymous
2014-03-08T01:00:57+00:00

For those users who see the Kind property marked as "document" instead of "picture", this is what is causing your pictures to not show up in the Photos app. To further investigate this, please answer the following:

  1. When did this start happening for you?
  2. Did this start happening after installing a certain app? What photo/document software have you installed on the computer? During installation, apps can change registry values.
  3. Did this start happening after upgrading to 8.1? After a fresh install of Windows? Did it occur after installing updates from Windows Update? The most likely case is that an app got installed that changes the Kind for these types of files.

To fix this, you could try uninstalling the app that was installed just before this behavior started. You could also try changing the Kind property for each filetype you own. To do that, perform the following:

  1. Launch the Registry Editor by launching search (Windows key + S) and typing in "regedit", and clicking the first result "regedit.exe".
  2. In the left navigation pane, navigate to the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\KindMap
  3. Find the filetype(s) your images are of in the right pane listing all known filetypes. 
  4. Right-click on the filetype and click Modify.
  5. In the Value data field, change the word "document" to "picture" (do not include quotation marks), then click OK. Repeat this process for any additional filetypes that aren't showing up.
  6. Close Registry Editor.
  7. Launch the Photos app and check to see if your photos are now appearing.

You may need to restore default libraries and rebuild the system index if you are still not seeing a change after performing the above steps. To restore default libraries:

  1. Launch File Explorer (Winkey+E).
  2. Click the View tab at the top of the window.
  3. Click the Navigation pane button and make sure the "Show libraries" option is selected.
  4. Below, in the Navigation pane, expand the Libraries tab.
  5. Right-click on the Pictures library and click Properties.
  6. Click the Restore Defaults button.
  7. Click Apply, then OK.

To rebuild the index:

  1. Launch search (Windows key + S) and type "Indexing Options", and choosing the first result.
  2. In the Indexing Options window, click the Advanced button.
  3. Click the Rebuild option.
  4. Let the computer run for a while without touching it while the index is rebuilt (interacting with your computer during this greatly slows it down).
  5. Launch the Photos app and check to see if your photos are now appearing.

Please let us know the answers to the earlier questions I asked so we can prevent other users

from hitting this problem, and let us know if the steps listed fix your problem!

-Adam

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-24T23:12:53+00:00

    Hi Tommy,

    If you changed the registry value in Registry Editor for the KindMap, you should be seeing JPG files appear in the Photos app after rebuilding the index. Changing a JPG file to an AVI file will not fix the problem. Please let me know if you're still having this problem after applying the full fix.

    -Adam

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  2. SigmaTheDJ 0 Reputation points
    2014-03-24T14:32:30+00:00

    BTW, if it helps, as I have this issue on 2 separate machines, I can give you a list of only the software that's installed on both, which should be a rather short list.

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  3. SigmaTheDJ 0 Reputation points
    2014-03-24T06:30:24+00:00

    This is a shambles.

    The fix worked for me initially, but then yesterday I added a folder of BMP images to my pictures library. When I launched the Photos app, the folder was there, but when I opened it I got the dreaded "there are no files or folders in this view" message again.

    I then launched regedit and browsed to the KindMap key, and all of the keys for image extensions like JPG, GIF and BMP have changed back to "document" again. That means that any new photos I add to my pictures library do not show up in the Photos app, as they are thought of as documents.

    I have created the KindMap_Products text file as requested, so please let me know where you want me to send it.

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