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Problems with the "old" photo gallery

D. Johnson 0 Reputation points
2025-06-20T17:58:19.76+00:00

As a pro photographer, I have about 13K photo files stored on my W11 PC. I used W7 for years, and the associated photo gallery, with it's "tagging" system. Once on the W11 PC, I had to download (I believe) the Windows Essentials pack, to get back, to the original photo gallery with tags. It kept me from losing thousands of tags, by using the older photo gallery. I do not use the built-in W11 gallery. Problem #1 - Sometimes, the older gallery won't tag a group of highlighted photo files, it only tags one, or two, instead of tagging them all.

Problem #2 - Another, more concerning problem is that, when I use a Photoshop (CS6) "Action", to downsize a photo file, and send the downsized file, to the folder, where the original is stored, it woks perfectly, and sometimes, it works for the moment, then the older gallery magically CHANGES the downsized file size, to another completely different file size. I deleted my manually created "Action", in PS, and created a new one, but got the same result, in the old gallery.

HELP!!

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
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  1. D. Johnson 0 Reputation points
    2025-06-24T15:39:33.0033333+00:00

    Thank you, Henry for your response. It's no wonder, that some pro photographers are ready, to give up photography, and dump their PC - I've read their comments/complaints - I am one of them. W7 worked great, considering Bill Gates hasn't ever put out an OS that actually worked. He made himself a billionaire, foisting OS's, one after the other, on us, and not a one of them worked without being full of bugs, that were up to us, to try to find a fix for. W11 is universally hated. The Photo Gallery that worked perfectly with W7 was great, and other than job security, there was no reason, to "fix" it, then ultimately, junk it. I've got thousands of hours invested, in my photography, and keeping digital track of it. To dump a perfectly OK method of keeping up with thousands of photos, in search of a "newer/better" way is unacceptable. I guess his programmers have to maintain their job security, by coming up with this crap, but why not consult PHOTOGRAPHERS, before they destroy what went before. Never used Apple, but it's no wonder, they have a following!

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  2. Henry Mai 8,220 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-06-24T01:40:05.7466667+00:00

    Hello Johnson, I am Henry and I want to share my insight about this issue.

    The core issue is that you are running unsupported legacy software (Windows Photo Gallery) on a modern operating system (Windows 11).

    1. Short-Term Workaround (To Stop File Corruption)

    The file size change is happening because Photo Gallery's background process is trying to re-index the new file from Photoshop and is corrupting it. To prevent this:

    Change your Photoshop Action to save the downsized files to a separate, temporary folder that Photo Gallery is not monitoring.

    Once you are done working, you can manually move the finished files into your main library. This prevents Photo Gallery from automatically "touching" and damaging the new files.

    1. Long-Term Solution (The Permanent Fix)

    You must migrate to modern, supported software. The good news is your thousands of tags are likely safe, as they are stored in a standard format (XMP metadata) within the photo files themselves.

    • Use Adobe Bridge: Since you use Photoshop CS6, you already have access to Adobe Bridge. It is a professional-grade asset manager that fully supports tagging and is designed to work seamlessly with Photoshop.
    • Test the Migration: Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to a copy of one of your photo folders. You should see all your existing tags appear automatically.

    Hope this helps.

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