Disappearing images on powerpoint

Winter 0 Reputation points
2026-04-23T19:04:40.3466667+00:00

I am working on a set of 14 presentations for a client. Each presentation has several slides, each with multiple .svg images on them. The first few presentations I sent her were fine, no issues. But with the past 3 presentations I emailed her, she cannot see the pictures and gets a "this picture cannot be displayed" error. I have also tried uploading the presentation to OneDrive and Google Drive, but the files do not show pictures for me or her there. I emailed the problematic presentations to another person as a test, and there was no issue. The pictures show up for me when I open the powerpoint, but when I open it with mac preview (i.e. select the file and hit space bar), the pictures are blank for those 3. If someone could help me figure out what's up, that would be great.

What I have already done:

  • checked if the .svgs were linked. They are not, they are embedded.
  • I have enabled Save Preview Picture; it did nothing.
  • I have tried replacing the problematic images and re-saving the powerpoint, and saving it as a different name. Neither worked.

I have a suspicion that this is because I used the presentations I created earlier in the project as the basis for the later ones, and simply saved as a different name once I replaced the appropriate images. But if this is the case, I'm not sure why it wasn't a problem before now.

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | Other | MacOS
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  1. Kai-H 26,760 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-26T08:37:16.04+00:00

    Hi, Winter

    This sounds more like a rendering/file issue than an email issue. PowerPoint for Mac does support SVGs, but certain SVGs, or a slightly damaged deck, can look fine on one machine and still fail in Preview, cloud viewers, or another Mac.

    Here are some suggestions you can try:

    First, save a copy of the presentation to your Mac’s local drive, reopen that copy, and only share that version. It is recommended that the file not be edited directly from Google drive, iCloud, or a USB drive, because image problems on Mac often start there. OneDrive or SharePoint are safer if cloud storage is needed.

    For the 3 bad decks, re-export the affected SVGs as PNGs, then reinsert them. It is suggested that more complex SVGs can render inconsistently in Mac PowerPoint, even when they seem embedded.

    If the file already seems damaged, try opening it in LibreOffice, then save a fresh .pptx copy and reopen it in PowerPoint. That has worked in similar cases where image-heavy decks showed the same red-X error. Also make sure both macOS and PowerPoint are fully updated.

    Note: This information is provided as a convenience to you. LibreOffice is not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above app. 

    Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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