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

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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. SigmaTheDJ 0 Reputation points
    2014-07-31T08:16:04+00:00

    Just a heads up to everyone using LibreOffice - the latest version (4.3.0.4) still has a bug related to the KindMap. Yesterday, I updated from the last version to the latest and it removed all of the previously affected file extensions from the KindMap altogether, so once again I had to fix the registry and rebuild the search index in Windows. I've re-opened the bug I reported to the LibreOffice guys, so hopefully one day it will eventually be fixed!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-24T14:12:09+00:00

    Thanks to Adam, the editing of the registry then indexing then reboot worked for me.  I did remove Libre prior to editing the registry, etc.

    Interesting in my case -- I didn't have a .JPG or .JPEG in /KindMap although the Photo App did display "some" of my photos but not others prior to applying the fix.  I did add .JPG but stopped there and want to check exactly what extensions for Pictures are the defaults.

    Is it safe to assume the file extensions for Kind Picture in the Dropbox file in this thread is complete AND correct?

    Kudos to Adam for digging into this problem and providing a fix.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-19T14:22:56+00:00

    A big thanks to all who found a workable solution for this. I'm just evaluating W8.1 Enterprise and hit this issue. Blank tiles in the Photo App, disappearing "icons" from folder view for pictures only once the App had been opened. I never suspected Libre office which was one of the first 3rd party programmes I installed.

    I encountered one weird issue with jekob's reg file, and that was actually saving it as a .reg. I've done this before, save "xyz.reg" and select "all file types". Would it save correctly... nope. It showed as a .reg, displays as a .txt and wont of course run like that. The solution was just to copy and paste the text into a new file and save it the same way, and that works straight off. Another bug or a deliberate safeguard ?

    I'm hoping this fix cures something else I had noticed. Windows Live Photo Gallery which I installed all works but every time its opened from a reboot it has to rebuild all the images, something that doesn't happen in Vista and W7.

    Many thanks to all.

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