Guide: Fix ‘Photos App Crashing on Windows 10’ Issue
The Photos app on Windows 10 isn’t one of the most optimized apps out there. It takes a long time to start up, lags when loading photos, and doesn’t even display certain images correctly. The app also crashes to make things worse, randomly or repeatedly when performing routine tasks like editing and printing. Don’t worry if the Photos app keeps giving you grief. There are a handful of troubleshooting tips that you can go through and get it to function properly. So without further ado, let’s take a look. Important: The following troubleshooting methods include resetting and reinstalling the Photos app. Before you start, back up your custom albums and video projects to OneDrive so you don’t lose them – to do that, open an album or project and click Save to OneDrive.
Terminate, repair or reset the app
Most of the time, Photos app crashes due to various common reasons such as system process failure, old data cache, or corrupted program files. Fortunately, Windows 10 offers a range of options that you can use to fix all these problems with ease. Step 1: Open the action center and click All Settings.
Step 2: In the Settings app, click Apps.
Step 3: Scroll through the Apps & Features panel, then click Microsoft Photos. Then click on Advanced options.
Step 4: On the next screen, you should see options to end, reset, and fix the Photos app.
Start by terminating the app – that should stop all related processes. Check if the Photos app is now working without crashing. If it still crashes then you need to fix the app by fixing corrupted files that are causing it to stop working properly. You should have the Photos app up and running in a few minutes so check if the problem still persists after the repair. If the app fixes the trick, consider resetting it to delete all cached data. An app reset also returns the app to its default settings, resolving issues caused by an incorrect configuration. Again, I recommend backing upup to take up from your albums and video projects to OneDrive before continuing. After the reset, the Photos app should log into your Microsoft account again, but it should probably work fine now. However, you may have to dive into the Photos app’s settings panel to reconfigure certain preferences, such as the default color mode. Still having problems? Let’s see what you can do next if it does.
Reinstall the app
Since the Photos app repair or reset it trick, it’s time to uninstall the app and install it all over again. That should help resolve any underlying issues that you can’t fix normally. However, built-in Windows apps cannot be removed like other programs. Instead, you have to rely on Windows PowerShell to get the job done. To remember: Back up your custom albums and video projects to OneDrive before proceeding. Step 1: Type PowerShell in the Start menu and click Open.
Step 2: Type the following code in the PowerShell window and press Enter: Get-AppxPackage * Microsoft.Windows.Photos * | Remove-AppxPackage
It only takes a moment to uninstall the Photos app. Exit PowerShell and restart your PC. Step 3: Open the Windows Store, search for Microsoft Photos and click Install to get it back on your PC.
Step 4: After reinstalling the Photos app, click the Launch option in the action center to open it. You will be automatically signed in to the app, provided you have made the effort to return up your albums and other projects to OneDrive, everything should be just like before.
So, is the Photos app much more stable now? If not, let’s take a look at some other options.
Register the Photos app again
Another viable solution to get the Photos app to work properly is to re-register the app with your user account. Any issues caused by conflicts between the app and your Windows user account should be resolved soon after. The Command Prompt Console should help you do that easily. Step 1: Open the Start menu, type cmd and click Run as administrator.
Step 2: Type the following command line into the command prompt console and press Enter: PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command “& {$ manifest = (Get-AppxPackage * Photos *). InstallLocation + ‘AppxManifest.xml’; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $ manifest} ”
Exit the command prompt console once the re-registration process is complete. Did that fix the Photos app? If not, then proceed.
Update Windows 10
Since you’ve already gone through multiple troubleshooting techniques and nothing worked, it’s time to find out if your copy of Windows is up to date. Usually, new updates contain fixes for problems that standard troubleshooting cannot resolve. Although Windows 10 is set to update itself automatically, it is always best to double check. Type Windows Update into the Start menu and press Enter. In the Windows Update panel, click Check for updates – if new updates are available, Windows 10 should start installing them automatically. If your PC is having issues, check out our comprehensive Windows Update troubleshooting guide for more information on what to do next. Warning: Don’t bother installing Windows updates, such as using the Windows 10 Update Assistant, for example. Force-installing new updates (especially version updates) can actually do more harm than good, and you should wait for updates to be certified for your PC’s hardware configuration. If new updates are found and installed, give the Photos app a spin to see if it stops crashing.
Switch to Windows Photo Viewer
If the Photos app still crashes frequently, then there’s nothing you can do but wait for Microsoft to release an update to fix the problem. However, considering how long the Photos app has been causing problems for different PC configurations, you can’t really hold on up much hope now, can you? In the meantime, why not switch to another app to view your photos? We’ve put together a nice list of alternatives that you can easily switch to. If you don’t like third-party apps, you can always go back to using Windows Photo Viewer – yes, the default photo viewer that was present in Windows 7 and earlier versions. Step 1: Download the following registry file from the Ten Forums website. Download the Windows Photo Viewer registry file Step 2: Double-click the downloaded registry file and then click Yes when prompted.
The file restores the otherwise hidden Windows Photo Viewer through the Windows registry. While you can now just use the Open with option after right-clicking an image to load it into the Windows Photo Viewer instead of the Photos app, read on if you want to take it by default to take photos. to open. Step 3: Type Default Apps in the Start menu and press Enter. In the Default apps window that appears up, click Photos under Photo Viewer.
Step 4: Click Windows Photo Viewer in the context menu.
Your photos should be automatically loaded into the older Windows Photo Viewer from now on. Although it does not have the image editing features of the Photos app, it’s well optimized for viewing photos and is a great replacement until a future update fixes the Photos app.
Patch it, Microsoft!
So that’s what you can do to prevent Photos app from crashing often. Hopefully the troubleshooting tips above helped and you didn’t have to do anything as drastic as switching to the old Windows Photo Viewer. However, keep in mind that the app may still crash after extended use. So if you hit a snag, start looking for troubleshooting again. Hope the folks at Microsoft fix the app and fix the issues completely.
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