Photos and images not opening on windows 11

Anonymous
2021-10-27T14:18:46+00:00

Ever since I have upgraded to windows 11 I have been having trouble opening image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .png) using the default "Photos" application.

I get the following message: "The specified procedure could not be found"

Weirdly enough, if I right click on the file and use "open with" and chose the default Photos app it works. And if open the file in paint, it opens without any problem. It is only when I double right-click on the file it gives me this error message.

Can anyone help me?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2021-12-06T21:31:21+00:00

I too had this problem. Don't know what happened but the link between the files and the program stopped working (was fine after upgrade to 11). I tried all of the suggested items below that I could make sense of but none worked for me.

I was at the last thing I could think of, uninstall the program and re-install it. Unfortunately it appears that Microsoft will not let you uninstall this app! It is grayed out!

But in trying to do this I found the fix.

  • Open Settings from the Window menu
  • Select Apps (5th one down) in the left hand menu
  • Select Apps & Features (first one) on right hand menu
  • Do a search or scroll down until you find "Microsoft Photos"
  • Click the 3 dot menu for this item and select Advanced Options
  • Scroll down until you see the option "Reset"
  • There are two options under this; buttons to "Repair" and to "Reset"

Clicking the "Repair" button did the trick for me and I can not double click a photo file and it will open in this app.

Was this answer helpful?

900+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

104 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-21T18:13:21+00:00

    The point is that there IS no .jpg in the list anywhere, nor does Windows 11 find it if you manually search for it.

    The result is that no picture viewer works and if you remove the built in 'Photo viewer' app then you get a PRINT dialog screen whenever you double click a JPG or PNG file (!!) Which makes things even more annoying.

    I've tried installing and uninstalling several picture viewers including FOUR versions of IRFANVIEW (4.58, 4.54, 4.52, and the version in the Microsoft Store) as well as some other picture viewers. The problem is the same no matter which picture viewer you use.

    So to me this is clearly a big fat BUG in Windows 11.

    Was this answer helpful?

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-11-21T18:17:35+00:00

    May I ask where I can find that? I have no 'Photos' under 'Apps' and also not under 'Apps - Default apps' either.

    Was this answer helpful?

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-11-21T18:52:31+00:00

    This is what did the trick for me in the end.

    1. I uninstalled 'Microsoft Photos' using Powershell,
    2. I installed Irfanview from the Microsoft Store,
    3. I reinstalled 'Microsoft Photos' via the Microsoft Store,
    4. I went to Settings --> Apps --> Default Apps and typed: '.jpg' in the uppermost field 'Set a default value for filetype' (something of that nature. My default Windows language is not English),
    5. Upon searching for the .JPG value I had entered, the result that Windows presented me with was (surprise surprise...) 'Photos' . Clicking the box on the right (with the little arrow in it) then gave me the option to change the default app from 'Photos' to 'IrfanView'.
    6. After choosing IrfanView, and confirming that I really wanted to do that I then went to File Explorer, double clicked a .JPG file and it actually opened with IrfanView.
    7. After that I repeated the steps for .GIF , .BMP and .PNG and these now also open with Irfanview.

    I think you have to install your favorite picture viewer before you go through these steps, otherwise Windows can't suggest a different app in step 5.

    The setting in IrfanView where you SET FILE ASSOCIATIONS remains uneditable, however!

    So hopefully you can set most of those file associations from within the APPS section in the Windows Settings.

    I hope this works for you guys as well. Fingers crossed!

    Was this answer helpful?

    8 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-12-04T07:46:34+00:00

    I have also been struggeling with this problem since I updated to Windows 11.
    The suggested fixes here did not work for me - problem came back what ever I tried.

    From what I can remember I think the problems in my PC started after I tested to install the "Power Automate" from Windows store. So my first step was to uninstall that app.

    Second I was running the Windows tool for fixing errors in "apps from Windows store".
    It reported problems with something called "BITS"
    Image

    Third I run the tool for fixing problems with Windows Update.
    (Because I found that recommendation in internet)
    Image

    And finally I runned a problem solver for "BITS".
    To find that tool I used the search in windows settings.

    Image

    Now my problem is gone and I can use the Microsoft Photos app as default for all pictures again :-)
    Maybe this can help somebody else...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments