Word 2013 "This image cannot currently be displayed"

I am having the same problem, but I think I can shed some light on it.  I notice that some of my images can be inserted into the Word 2013 doc and some cannot.  Moreover, I notice that images with a file size somewhere above 1000 kb to 1400 kb and up cannot be displayed.  In my case the three images of file size 1457, 1440 and 1533 kb could not be displayed.

I think that with this info, Microsoft should be able to better define the problem and provide a resolution.  Please provide a prompt fix as I am sure that this problem is affecting many users.

Dan, please ask your colleagues to fix this problem. It's affecting a very basic function of word.

Office 365, Windows 7, images can't be displayed.

Hello Albert

Please provide more information to help you better:

1. What are the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far?
2. Does this issue occur with specific images? If yes, provide property following information of the images:

a) How was the image created?

b) What is the R esolution, Size, DPI, format of the image?

Try the following and verify the result:

1. After inserting the image, Go to Picture Tools> Adjust Group> Reset Picture> Reset picture and Size and see if it helps.
2. Also toggle the option "Do not compress images in file" from File> Options> Advanced> Image Size and Quality > OK and verify the result.

You may also refer to the following thread which discusses about the similar issue and see if it helps:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-powerpoint/powerpoint-2010-images-cannot-currently-be/fdbb3cb0-8d0c-4ff0-ba70-da63c182647d

Reply with the result and I'll be happy to help you further.

Thank you.

Hi Daniel,

I'm experiencing similar problems as the TS with inserting images in Word 2013. I believe its a bug in MS Word 2013 since I didn't have the problem with MS word 2010. Moreover, files created in Word 2010 on the same computer now show problems when opened in Word 2013. I'll try to explain below in detail, so the problem for me and many other users can be fixed.

Problem description

Some of the pictures I insert in word 2013 are not properly inserted and only show a white frame with text "This image cannot currently be displayed" (see img1). Various times when a picture is inserted (or a previously saved document opened) only the space required for the picture is visible, the picture itself is not shown, the white frame is not shown and the notification text is not shown either. Once a picture is inserted (or saved document is opened) and picture cannot be shown I often experience that Word freezes and becomes unresponsive. Now and then the document can be closed and a box popups to save the document, however it also occurs that the save box pop ups but no text/buttons are visible within the box (see img2). Word can only be closed through Windows task manager then.

I also noticed that when I have 2 word documents open at the same time and I insert an image in document 1 resulting in only a white frame instead of the picture, the pictures that did show properly in document 2 now have also been replaced with the white frame. When document 1 becomes unresponsive, document 2 becomes unresponsive as well. Closing document 1 through taskbar allows to continue working in document 2 and images are suddenly shown correct again.

Img1

Img2

System details

Win 7 Pro (English) 64 bit

CPU 3.40 GHz

RAM 8 GB

Office 2013 (15.0.4623.1003)

Troubleshooting steps tried

Image details

I’ve created various sizes of basic images with Inscape and inserted them as png file in a new blanc document to verify if the problem occurs.

Images are created with Inkscape and exported too png format.

Images of 260 DPI (12386 x 8693 pixels) and higher/larger cause the problem when inserted in Word 2013. At 260 DPI the image was only 436 KB for a png file.

With Irfanview I converted the PNG image to BMP, JPG and TIF, and the same problem occurred with these files when inserted in Word 2013.

Tried suggestions

Method 1. check Disable hardware graphics acceleration. > no result, also when document is reopened problem still exist.

Method 2. Change the default printer driver to Microsoft Onenote.****> no result, also when document is reopened problem still exist.

Method 3. start Word in safe mode**.** > no result, also when document is reopened problem still exist.

Method 4. Toggle the option "Do not compress images in file". > no result, also when document is reopened problem still exist.

I see this as an annoying bug in Word 2013, since before I updated from 2010 I did not experience these problems. I would like to see a bug fix asap, since this is a basic and important feature that should function in word 2013. If you need more details I’m happy to answer them or send the image file so you can try yourself.

Hello –

I ran into this recently and would like to share a workaround that worked for me and a bit of insight. I was getting the same “image cannot be displayed” when inserting or copy / pasting a few specific jpegs to MS Office Word 2013. This issue would not happen in Word 2007, my issue was related using Autocad and exporting an image to a PDF and then copying or exporting the PDF image into a Jpeg to Word document. I was using Acrobat Standard (Adobe PDF) and had the issue. The workaround was to use a different software to convert the pdf from AutoCad (I used PDF995) and then I was able to retrieve the image and insert into the word document fine. I read MS Word 2013 has blocked a few vulnerabilities coming from specific picture files. I suspect it seeing what it thinks is a vulnerability in my previous method mentioned and therefore blocks it.   Hope it helps