I Can't Download photos from Photos Legacy

Question

I have hundreds of photos on OneDrive that I used to be able to access via Photos Legacy. Now when I click 'Save As' and go through the options to select location, filename etc, all I get is a useless file with a ..tmp extension. What is happening?

Answer 1

Hi, Alan Burgess

That .tmp file usually means Photos Legacy started a temporary save but never finished turning it into the real photo file. A OneDrive engineer also noted that OneDrive itself does not create .tmp files and does not sync them, so this points more to the app/save process getting stuck than to your actual photo being lost.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Repair or reset Photos Legacy in Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Photos Legacy > Advanced options. Microsoft’s repair/reset stepsare meant for apps that are not working properly, and this often clears broken app data without you having to guess what changed.

Reset OneDrive as well. Microsoft says resetting OneDrive can fix sync problems and does not delete your files, it just rebuilds the sync connection.

If you need the pictures urgently, download them from OneDrive on the web or from your synced OneDrive folder in File Explorer instead of using Save As in Photos Legacy. That bypasses the part that seems to be failing and usually gets you the original image directly.

Also check Microsoft Store for updates to Photos/Photos Legacy. Microsoft recommends updating Store apps when one starts behaving strangely, and sometimes that alone fixes odd save/export bugs.

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

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