Windows Photo Viewer can't open JPG picture because either Photo Viewer doesn't support this file format, or user don't have the latest updates to Photo Viewer

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

As per the description, I understand that you are unable to use Windows photo viewer and getting an error message.

You may try the methods.

Method 1:

I suggest you check the program associations of photo viewer.

1.    Press “Windows + X” From keyboard and select Control panel.

2.    Go to All control Panel Items and choose “Default Programs”.

3.    Go to Set Default program and select photo viewer

4.    Unselect all file type too check the result.

Method 2: I suggest you to check if any pending updates and install all windows update.

Follow below steps to check for Windows update and install them.

1.    Swipe from the upper-right hand corner of the screen (or if you're using a mouse, move your pointer to the upper-right hand corner of the screen), and then tap or click Search.

2.    In the search bar type Windows Update, tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Check for updates.

3.    Tap or click Check for updates now. If important updates are available, tap or click Install Updates. If optional updates are available, tap or click Get more info to install them.

Hope this information helps. Please let us know if you need any other assistance with Windows in future. We will be happy to assist you.

You can try running SFC on the USB drive.

1. Right click the Start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Use a mouse to copy and then right click and paste the following command and hit Enter.

SFC /scannow /OFFWINDIR=F:\Windows /OFFBOOTDIR=F:\

This assumes that the drive letter of your USB drive is F:  If it's something else like E:, then amend the command to that.

Thank you for the immediate response to my query.

For viewing photos, the default program was already set to WPV. So, what I did, I tried choosing other programs as default photo viewer (Photo Gallery), and then set back to WPV. Unfortunately, it did not fix the problem. I proceeded to Method 2, as suggested, but still the results were the same.

I just observed that when I tried to open the JPG files using Photo Gallery it displayed an error message "Photo Gallery cannot open this photo. The file may be unsupported, damaged or corrupted." If this is really an issue of file corruption, what fix can I apply to get my photos back? Any suggestions?

It is possible that the files you are trying to open are corrupted.

Have you tried opening these files using another device or computer? Can you send us a copy of these files so they can be checked?

Keep us posted.

Hi,

I've tested this on my own machine i.e. moving JPG images from an SD card to a USB pen drive and they still open in WPV which I use myself. Also, I haven't updated WPV since installing 8.1 in 2014.

So I think your problem is due to something else.

I suggest doing the following.

1. Hit Windows key + E to open File Explorer and then click the View button just below the title bar.
2. Click the Options button on the far right of the ribbon interface and then click the View tab. (If you don't see the ribbon interface when you click the View button in Step 1, hit CTRL+F1)
3. In the View tab menu which opens remove the checkmark from "Always show icons, never thumbnails".
4. Further down the same menu, click the radio button where is says "Show hidden files, folders and drives" to select it.
5. Underneath that one, remove the checkmark from the box where it says "Hide file extensions for known file types".
6. Click Apply/OK to exit.

Go back to the location shown in your screenshot to ascertain whether images are now being displayed instead of icons.

Also, open a photo on your USB drive to see if that's changed as well.

If the latter isn't working still proceed to the next step which is to check Windows for file corruption.

1. Hit Windows key + X and click "Command Prompt (Admin)".
2. Type (or copy/paste) sfc /scannow and hit Enter.

System File Checker will check Windows system files for corruption and try to fix any found.

On occasions though it fails in which case you'll see the message: "Windows resource protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them".

If you see that message or something similar, copy and then right click and paste the following command into the same command prompt and hit Enter:

DISM.exe/Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

When DISM runs, it downloads original system files from Microsoft's servers so it's important to maintain your Internet connection while it's running.

While DISM runs all you'll see most of the time is a plain black window. But eventually the figure 20% will appear followed by 100% about 15 minutes later. You'll also get a report of what was fixed.

If you see any error messages, please make a note of them and then post those here please.

If the issue persists then let me know and we'll have look at other steps to take to rectify the problem.