Red X on slide thumbnails in Master View

Anonymous
2013-06-19T15:47:32+00:00

In PowerPoint 2013, in the presentation I'm creating, the thumbnails view doesn't show the thumbnails, but instead displays a large red X on every slide. The slides look fine in the slide view itself.

Diagnosis and recommendations welcome.

Mini screen shot here

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-21T16:17:01+00:00

    When I try to install KB2817625, this is what I get. 

    And I have Powerpoint 2013 (64-bit) installed on my system.  Just for grins, I tried the 32-bit patch and received the same message.

    What gives??  My PowerPoint is a part of Office H&B 2013, so that is the only thing I can think of that might cause this message.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-23T01:16:10+00:00

    For some reason I have found that searching doesn't always find it even though I can see it!

    Try checking down the list manually (there won't be many for PowerPoint) or maybe select the first 2013 update and then search for KB2817625

    Hi John,

    I have tried looking at installed updates manually and still unable to find it. However as mentioned previously we no longer have the problem with Red X on slide thumbnails in PowerPoint 2013 after installing all Windows updates for Microsoft Office 2013 the problem was resolved.

    Let's add to this mess.  Today I noticed that it didn't matter if I was saving my files to DropBox or SkyDrive (sorry, OneDrive).  I would receive the red X on either.  What I did notice in addition to all my previous saved copies being corrupted, some files that I opened from a different location (again either DropBox or OneDrive) also started displaying the red X, although these files did not seem to be permanently corrupted.  

    My initial files that I had been working on remained corrupted but the files from the different folder that I mentioned in the previous paragraphy did not have the red X remaining.  I am starting to believe this problem has something to do with PowerPoint running for an extended period of time, as ridiculous as that sounds.

    Now here is where it gets more interesting.  Using SkyDrive OneDrive, I could open the file in the PowerPoint web app and it was not showing the red X, yet if I chose to then open it in PowerPoint locally, viola, there they were again.  Note: I still had the PowerPoint application open from when I was seeing the red X.  So in conclusion, the only way I was able to get my work done was to save my document and then close all instances of PowerPoint frequently and then open up my presentation again to continue to work on it.  Talk about a long day!

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-26T09:47:42+00:00

    Microsoft have just released Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817430. Trying installing that

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-26T18:49:06+00:00

    Hopefully this helps someone else out.  The Powerpoint update that is being discussed in this thread would not install on my system as it said I had "no products affected by this package".  Today I tried the newly released Office 2013 SP1 in an attempt to get the PowerPoint update and again I received the "no products affected by the package" message.  None of this made sense as I have Office H&B 2013.

    After some digging I found a MS suggestion to try disabling office updates and then re-enabling office updates.  After doing this, my system immediately said (in the system tray) it was downloading and installing an update to my Office.  A little balloon came up saying this.  After about 10 minutes, or so, it said the update had been installed.

    Here is where I disabled, and then re-enabled, my Office Updates.  I did it in Word, but I supposed you could do it in any Office app.  If you can't get your office/powerpoint updates to work, try this procedure and see if it helps.  I think this procedure may only be applicable with "click to run" installs of Office, but not sure.  They seem to get updates different than msi installs of MS Office.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-02-26T18:59:03+00:00

    And here is another tidbit of info on PowerPoint/Office Updates.  Someone above said they could not find the Powerpoint KB listed in their installed updates.  After installing Office 2013 SP1, I too could not find the KB listed.

    I found this on a TechNet page about the Office 2013 SP1 release:

    How to tell if you have SP1 installed

    In order to determine if SP1 is installed for Office 2013 or a related product, look for the program version in the list of installed programs in the Programs and Features control panel. If SP1 is installed, the version will be 15.0.4569.1506 or higher. Additionally, if you've installed the SP1 update for an MSI product, SP1 will be listed in Installed Updates in that same control panel.

    The source page for this is here:

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2014/02/25/announcing-the-release-of-service-pack-1-for-office-2013-and-sharepoint-2013.aspx

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