OneDrive Photos (Beta): Gallery empty, People tab also empty after signing out/in

Question

I recently discovered the new OneDrive Photos (Beta) desktop app and loved it. It worked perfectly until I returned from a few weeks' holiday.

After starting my laptop (and around the same time updating Windows), the app stopped displaying any photos.

Initially, I was still signed in and the only content visible was the People tab. The person placeholders and names were still there, but no thumbnail images were shown. Thinking it might be a sign-in issue, I signed out of OneDrive Photos and signed back in. Since then, even the People tab is completely empty.

Here's what I've confirmed so far:

• OneDrive is signed in and syncing normally.
• Sync has completed successfully.
• My entire photo library is available via OneDrive on the web.
• The same photos are available in the OneDrive iPhone app.
• Windows Photos (Legacy) can access my photo library without any issues.
• The issue only affects the OneDrive Photos (Beta) desktop app.
• The app opens normally, but the Gallery remains empty and never displays any photos from either my local OneDrive folder or the cloud.

I'm currently running OneDrive 26.129.0706.0003 (64-bit).

Has anyone experienced this or found a way to force the OneDrive Photos app to reconnect to its photo database or refresh its metadata?

Answer 1

Hi Jen,

I will work with you on this problem. I'm going to run through a few steps with you. Some of these are diagnostic — they help me narrow down what's wrong, not fix it outright. So if nothing changes after a step, that's normal and expected, not a dead end. I'll keep going until we've got this resolved.

Running the same version and it is fine here. Uninstalling and reinstalling Onedrive should help since Photos is coupled with OD app.

1. Close OneDrive completely. Right-click the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, select Settings > Account (if available), then choose Unlink this PC if you want to disconnect the account. After that, right-click the OneDrive icon again and select Quit OneDrive.
2. Uninstall OneDrive:
   • Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
   • Find Microsoft OneDrive.
   • Click the ⋮ (three dots) next to it and select Uninstall.
   • Follow the prompts to complete the removal.
3. Restart the computer after the uninstall completes.
4. Download the latest version of OneDrive from the official Microsoft website:
   • Download OneDrive
5. Run the downloaded installer and complete the installation.
6. Sign in with your Microsoft account and follow the setup wizard.

I look forward to hearing from you to get the results of the troubleshooting.

Answer 2

For sure! Please keep me updated!