Photos app cycling same pics always

[vvs]

The photos app live tile keeps cycling the same 5-6 photos always even though the app has been linked to thousands of photographs. Any way to change this? Thanks.

 

[awiklendt]

i had the same issue. somewhere there is a suggestion to uninstall and reinstall the app from the store, which i did, now *no* photos are shown in the photo app. library has 1000s of photos, also i cannot open a photo to the photo app via right-click > open with... . this issue is irritating because it appears windows uses this app to change lock screen and user picture.

what visually happens:
(-) when i first upgraded to win 8, the photo app live tile did the same as described by OP - cycled through just a handful of pics from within my 1000s in the library (incidentally, these were ALL taken by a really old phone camera ages ago). i tried rectifying this by reinstalling the photo app (after having to reset windows update), but this has caused the following behaviours:

(a) if i try to open photos app, the ferriswheel background of the app opens and says 'add some pictures'. i click on this, and it goes to a black screen saying 'we couldn't find any photos in here' with no error codes, no suggestions, no buttons to click except 'back' to the ferriswheel.

(b) if i try to send a photo to photo app, the blue photo app background with white icon appear and remain until i drag off the app. sometimes the background remains for up to 15 or so seconds, then the picture flashes for a fraction of a second before the screen changes to the start screen.

(c) if i try to click the 'browse' button under 'change PC settings' > personalise > lock screen (or) account picture, the screen flashes for an instant. if i click this button repeatedly in quick succession, i can just make out two buttons in the bottom right which say 'change picture' and 'cancel'.

so basically, it seems metro / settings can't function properly without 'photo app' and 'photo app' just doesn't work (well, for me). any suggestions to fix this? been googling for ages but i mostly get descriptions of 'photo app'. i don't think system restore will help because the app never seemed to work from the beginning. i am happy to delve into registry hacks if it will fix the problem.

ta Agnieszka.

 

[vvs]

oops...sad to know you have run into so much trouble with this app, hope you get a solution soon. Thanks for explaining everything with so much detail, others with similar problem like me can stay away from the troublesome reinstall process.

 

[awiklendt]

OK i've found a solution that works for me!

SHORT ANSWER:

- go to the library icon in the navigation pane of windows explorer and right-click, then select "restore default libraries".

This allowed me to not only view photos in 'photos app', but it also allowed me to browse for a lock screen and account picture. i knew they were linked issues, ha!!

LONG ANSWER:

Restore default library is what i expect made the difference on my system, but I did try a host of other things and just in case any of these were necessary for the process, i'll detail what i did here:

(a) i enabled permissions as suggested here: When i go into the photo app it says can't find picures - Microsoft Community. Though my SYSTEM and Administration permissions were as recommended in the post, I also enabled full permissions in the 'Users' group.

(b) i enabled indexing as suggested in another post on microsoft forums (sorry, i didn't get the url) but the process goes: open charm (win + c), select 'search' (the magnifying loop), select 'settings' and type the keyword 'index'. "indexing options" ought to come up as the first result. click on it, then add the C: drive (mine was not there), by selecting "modify", if i remember correctly. This takes a while to process.

(c) rebooted once (b) was complete, but there was not change in photos app or image browsing in customisation settings.

(d) created new user

- a microsoft MVP suggested, in answers.microsoft.com, to create a new user and see if that user has a working photos app. Copied all photos to the pictures directory. Went to photos app and 'add photos here' - screen said 'updating…. This can take a while if you have many photos". left on while I went to work (I have just under 10,000 photos, so didn't think this was so unreasonable). 11 hours later screen and message had not changed.
- checked windows explorer and libraries icon there, but no actual 'libraries'. Tried to right-click 'create new library', but got an error. Right-clicked again and checked out what else there was to choose from in the context menu and saw 'restore default libraries' - clicked that and libraries appeared showing the pictures folder.
- Back to photos app - YAY! Displaying all photos (haven't checked, but there are a lot). only a couple of minutes to bring up all photos.

(e) switched back to my account. restored default libraries and this triggered photos app to show photos. yay!

so the next and last step is to remove the duplicated photos from the test user account and remove that account, but i'm ecstatic that i finally figured this out for myself, even if it did take 5 solid hours of troubleshooting! hopefully this post will help others avoid the same frustrations!

Agnieszka.

 

[vvs]

hi..happy that you solved your problem. I tried the short answer method that you gave, but it did not work for me. Regarding the long answer, since I am not technically strong on these aspects, i would rather leave the photo app as it is than messing up something else as well while attempting those steps though you have wonderfully explained every aspect of it. Thanks.

 

[awiklendt]

Sorry the quick option did not work for you. If you are ever inclined to revisit this solution, i would recommend first trying option (b): enabling indexing on the c drive. Of all he processes, it is this one that seems to me most likely to need pairing with using libraries. i can make a series of screenshots to add once i get back to my computer so that the procedure is easier to follow and a little less scary!

 

[vvs]

Hi..thanks for the help offered. I have stored my photos in a different location and that has been linked to the app. But i fear enabling indexing on the C drive and the photos folder might slow down the overall search process. You have already spent a lot of time explaining all steps in detail and I don't want to trouble you more with the screenshot explanation. Since this is not a problem that seriously affects the utility of the system, its okay to let it be and use the pre-win8 ways to access photos. Thank you once again for your help.

 

[dirtyvu]

you should have indexing of all your drives. yes, in the beginning, it's slow. but once your system is indexed, it'll be very fast to index files as they're added.