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GeorgeEvemy-6320 asked Reza-Ameri answered

Windows Photos App not working

I work as an IT Technician in a large College, however, we have, for the last couple of years, had an influx of users reporting that they're not able to open or use the Windows Photos App.

As an organization with over 1500 deployed PC's, this is quite an issue...

Me and my team have tried every possible solution that we can find by scouring through Microsoft Forums and any other post that we can find, although, none seem to work.

The more research we do into this issue, the more we find that other users have the same issue and when Microsoft are contacted themselves, they usually give users a new 'Fix' to try and then are never heard from again.

I guess I'm hoping that someone, somewhere in the world has found a solution to this problem and will be able to help our organization.

If anyone has any thoughts, or a member of the Microsoft team finally has an adequate fix for this solution, it would be helpful to hear from you.

windows-10-general
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Are they able to open other Microsoft UWP apps?
Are they seeing any error message?
Have you checked the event viewer?
Is there any pending update in the Microsoft Store?

1 Vote 1 ·

Hi George

Could you explained the methods you have tried in brief ?

1 Vote 1 ·

Hi Karlie,

Previously, I have tried removing a PC from our domain so that it is not receiving any Group Policies, enabling windows updates and for the Windows store to update fully. Once this is done and the PC is fully up to date, the issue still persists.

I have followed various 'Fixes' such as uninstalling the Application and re-installing it from the Windows Store, deleted outdated registry keys, 'Optimized the Photos App settings' and installing the Windows Media Pack.

However, this isn't really viable as on a day to day basis, we need these PC's to be joined to our domain and locked down using Group Policies.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

George

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GeorgeEvemy-6320 avatar image
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GeorgeEvemy-6320 answered

Hiya,

Our users are able to open other Microsoft UWP apps, just not the Photo's app. However, access to the Photo's app is erratic; only affecting certain users at certain times. The majority of our Windows PC's are running on Windows Feature release 1909, however, through Group Policy, Windows updates are capped at Version 2004.

Most of the time, the users do not see an error message. The photo's app just fails to run, or their image file fails to load in the Photo's app. As the cases are so sporadic, it is hard to finally pin down a user to send over a Screenshot.

As Windows Updates are turned off on all of our devices and users are unable to access the Windows Store due to restrictions set by Group Policy, I imagine there are pending Windows Store updates, although, after reading multiple fixes for this issue in other Forum's, I have since run through many troubleshooting steps on an affected PC. Including, allowing the Windows Update Service, bringing the PC onto the latest build and ensuring the App Store is up to date which have not resolved the issue.

I have not checked the Event Viewer on an affected PC. I will definitely do so next time I happen across an affected PC!

Kind Regards,

George

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Reza-Ameri avatar image
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Reza-Ameri answered

In this case, open start and search for feedback and open the Feedback Hub app and report this issue.
Try send feedback using the affected device.
Also try perform a Clean Boot and see if the problem persist?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd
In case it is working in the Clean Boot, some third-party programs might cause this issue, try enable services one by one to check which one causing this problem.
Make sure update the graphic card driver too.

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