Potential display bug for Microsoft Photos when editing-only small cropped section of opened pictures can be seen

Question

Potential display bug for Microsoft Photos when editing-only small cropped section of opened pictures can be seen

C 0

Hi,

As of recently, I'd say Thursday, two days ago, I began to encounter a display bug(?) when clicking 'edit'

I am still on Windows 10, and there had been no signs of any issues up till when this issue happened. I'd still been editing pictures just fine until then. This didn't happen in the direct aftermath of any update or anything.

When I open the pictures in Photos, it shows up just fine. But it is when I click to edit, then all I get is a white picture and then it shows the outline of the photo with a small black rectangle within. Only when I zoom in or out then that black rectangle becomes whatever part of the original image that corresponds to the part of the rectangle. And when saving, the picture is blank EXCEPT for that part of the original image. I have attached the relevant images so that it'll make more sense.

First, opening the picture in Photos shows no issues whatsoever

But upon clicking 'edit', several things happen in sequence as shown below

It 'zooms in(?)' and goes white.

Then it switches to this outline of the picture and a black rectangle

After saving, this is what I get

And I have absolutely no idea what is the issue. I want to mention that I have repaired, reset and reinstalled the app just as nearly every website tells you to do. I have restarted the app, my pc, ensured the file types are correct, made sure the app is up to date etc. I can't say I'm IT-savvy so frankly I'm kinda stumped. Could this be a driver issue or something I haven't considered or am just unaware of? The app also tends to just work once in a while for a single photo after a long while but then anything after is the same issue again.

I really would like to be able to keep using Photos as what I really like and need is the ability to crop and rotate at the same time, especially the rotation slider with the very precise rotation allowance to my liking, while being able to move the picture within the selected crop outline to see if the bottom of the cropped picture is in perfect horizontal alignment. Everything else I've tried to use tends to have those two functions separate which doesn't work as well imo.

Would really appreciate if anyone has any idea how I can fix it as I haven't seen any mention of a similar problem that I can find anywhere.

Thanks!

Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-06T07:40:11.4666667+00:00

That is such a bizarre display bug to deal with, C, but the good news is your original pictures are completely fine. What's happening here is a rendering handshake failure between the Photos app and your graphics card. When you simply view a photo, Windows uses a very low-overhead, basic display pipeline. But the exact millisecond you click "Edit," the app tries to spin up a high-performance rendering canvas using hardware acceleration to track your crops and adjustments in real time. If your graphics driver drops the connection or gets confused by Windows' display scaling, the canvas coordinates crash instantly—leaving you looking at a blank white screen or a tiny, misplaced black bounding box.

To kick the editing canvas back into gear right now, try hitting Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + B all at once on your keyboard; your screen will flicker and beep for a second, which safely restarts your graphics driver and flushes the stuck window layout cache. If that quick refresh doesn't do the trick, head into your system Settings > Apps > Apps & features, find Microsoft Photos, click Advanced options, and hit Reset. This will completely clear out the app's corrupted temporary UI files and database states without touching any of your actual pictures, forcing it to open a perfectly clean, unbugged editing canvas!
C 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T00:56:13.98+00:00

Hi @Rayyan Fawad,

Thanks for your answer! I'll give your suggestion a try over today and the next and see how it goes. I'm really hoping it does because the next step you mentioned, hitting Reset, is something I've already previously done multiple times to no success.

Fingers crossed and I'll update if it works!
C 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T01:41:48.4233333+00:00

I encountered something I've never seen before previously after editing one photo (there's been no issues today but it's the first one and usually nothing happens with the first), and I'd like to ask if you know whether this is normal or another indication of what's been going on.

After saving the edits, I went back to the folder where the file is and suddenly there is a .TMP file. I have a general idea of what .tmp files are ~~but this is the first time I've seen one after saving an edit~~ I decided to go back to files I edited last Saturday to have a look and have found the same thing for the two files I managed to successfully edit that day. I've also always had the show hidden files option checked all this time, and when I clicked 'hide' to test, the file didn't disappear.

Any idea why it's showing up? Is it safe to delete?
Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-08T06:07:44.54+00:00

Ugh, that is such a frustrating bug to deal with! It looks like a rendering breakdown between the Windows Photos app and your graphics driver. When you try to crop or rotate, the app requests a high-performance boost from your hardware, but the connection drops and leaves you staring at a black canvas with annoying leftover .tmp files. To quickly get things working again, try forcing your graphics driver to refresh by pressing Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + B—your screen will flicker for a second, which often clears the glitch. If that doesn't fix it, head over to your Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Microsoft Photos, click Advanced options, and hit Reset to totally clear out the app's corrupted cache without messing with your actual pictures.

Your answer

Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-06T07:40:11.4666667+00:00

That is such a bizarre display bug to deal with, C, but the good news is your original pictures are completely fine. What's happening here is a rendering handshake failure between the Photos app and your graphics card. When you simply view a photo, Windows uses a very low-overhead, basic display pipeline. But the exact millisecond you click "Edit," the app tries to spin up a high-performance rendering canvas using hardware acceleration to track your crops and adjustments in real time. If your graphics driver drops the connection or gets confused by Windows' display scaling, the canvas coordinates crash instantly—leaving you looking at a blank white screen or a tiny, misplaced black bounding box.

To kick the editing canvas back into gear right now, try hitting Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + B all at once on your keyboard; your screen will flicker and beep for a second, which safely restarts your graphics driver and flushes the stuck window layout cache. If that quick refresh doesn't do the trick, head into your system Settings > Apps > Apps & features, find Microsoft Photos, click Advanced options, and hit Reset. This will completely clear out the app's corrupted temporary UI files and database states without touching any of your actual pictures, forcing it to open a perfectly clean, unbugged editing canvas!
C 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T00:56:13.98+00:00

Hi @Rayyan Fawad,

Thanks for your answer! I'll give your suggestion a try over today and the next and see how it goes. I'm really hoping it does because the next step you mentioned, hitting Reset, is something I've already previously done multiple times to no success.

Fingers crossed and I'll update if it works!
C 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T01:41:48.4233333+00:00

I encountered something I've never seen before previously after editing one photo (there's been no issues today but it's the first one and usually nothing happens with the first), and I'd like to ask if you know whether this is normal or another indication of what's been going on.

After saving the edits, I went back to the folder where the file is and suddenly there is a .TMP file. I have a general idea of what .tmp files are ~~but this is the first time I've seen one after saving an edit~~ I decided to go back to files I edited last Saturday to have a look and have found the same thing for the two files I managed to successfully edit that day. I've also always had the show hidden files option checked all this time, and when I clicked 'hide' to test, the file didn't disappear.

Any idea why it's showing up? Is it safe to delete?
Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-08T06:07:44.54+00:00

Ugh, that is such a frustrating bug to deal with! It looks like a rendering breakdown between the Windows Photos app and your graphics driver. When you try to crop or rotate, the app requests a high-performance boost from your hardware, but the connection drops and leaves you staring at a black canvas with annoying leftover .tmp files. To quickly get things working again, try forcing your graphics driver to refresh by pressing Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + B—your screen will flicker for a second, which often clears the glitch. If that doesn't fix it, head over to your Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Microsoft Photos, click Advanced options, and hit Reset to totally clear out the app's corrupted cache without messing with your actual pictures.