Some jpeg images won't open -- no preview available

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syzygy

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There are literally hundreds of posts on net about this problem -- but no solution so far as I have been able to determine. Some of my jpeg images open with windows picture and fax viewer and some show no preview available. All open in Photoshop without any difficulty. All are associated with Windows picture and fax viewer, all are roughly the same size and the fact that all open in Photoshop with no artifacts or flags says all are uncorrupted.

I am running Windows XP with SP3 installed.

I have opened an image in Photoshop that had no preview using Windows picture and fax viewer, saved it as a jpeg image which then opens in Windows picture and fax viewer as it should. Go figure!

This is a very common problem, so there must be a simple solution. Anyone know what that is?
 
Okay, first you should understand that Windows Picture and Fax viewer is just that> a viewer, nothing more. So there are no folder in it holding pictures.

Try doing a right click on an image> Open with> choose WP&FV. If you set up folder first for the images, once you display the first image, you should be able to use the arrows at the bottom to scroll through them.

You can also set up the pictures to view as a File Strip. To do this, open the picture screen> click on arrow point to right of the word 'view' and choose Film Strip. (Note: this isn't 'View' next to Edit- it's the 'little' word view right above the pictures.

If this doesn't help, you need to do a regedit. Back up the Registry first:

To resolve this problem, register the Shimgvw.dll file. To do this, follow these steps:

  • [1]. Log on to the computer as an administrator.
    [2]. Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\shimgvw.dll, and then click OK.
    [3]. When you receive a message that resembles the following, click OK:
    [o]DllRegisterServer in C:\Windows\System32\shimgvw.dll succeeded.
    [4]. Close Windows Explorer, and then try to view the picture again.
 
Bobbye,
Thanks for the reply. The first part doesn't seem to apply to my problem. I have jpg images in various places -- on my desktop now in trying to troubleshoot this problem, in folders labeled Photos1 etc. If i click on jpg images, some will open and some will not -- returning the No preview available etc. I have of course right clicked on many of them in the course of troubleshooting and checked that in the "Open with" Windows picture and fax is highlighted -- as it is in all cases. I have also selected windows picture and fax viewer manually, but some still open and some show no preview available. jpeg images are associated with the Windows picture and fax viewer on my machine, but there is something different about some of the images. There is no consistency to when an image will open and when it will not, by which I mean the source of the images. Some have come from my Nikon camera, some have come from my wife's Canon camera, some have been received in e-mails, some have been screen captures by SnagIt. All of them, without exception, open in Photoshop, but some will not open using Windows picture and fax viewer.

I will try the registry edit you give -- but can't imagine how a registry entry would be discriminating between apparently identical jpeg images.

Again thanks for the suggestion. I will export the registry and try your suggestion.

Note added:
I followed your instructions but the problem remains exactly as it was before the edit.
 
Bobbye

I just ran another test whose results are equally mystifying. I created a new folder on the desktop and copied one jpeg image that opens with no problem and one that shows the No preview etc. to it. If I right click on either image in the folder and then click on properties, they both show "Type of File" JPEG and "Opens with" Windows picture and fax viewer. The one that opened before still opens and the one that wouldn't still does not.
 
Still another odd bit of information

I uploaded to imagehost one of the images that will open and one that will not. Both appeared to upload OK and after a time returned addresses for the stored images -- but when I go to those addresses, the image that opened before still does and the one that did not simply takes me to the upload page. No image.
 
It makes it difficult when there is no consistency! If I understand you correctly, you are saying that an image will Preview in WRPV on some occasions, but on other occasions it will not.

Here are some thing I 'gathered' for you:
If you have any other image viewer that is the default viewer (you set it that way in options) then it won't work.
Every image viewer/editor that I have seen, has an option to NOT be the default viewer for multiple file types. Look in the options/preferences menu's.

So, since they all work in Photoshop, I would suspect that it has been set as the default. And remember, the WPFV is only a 'viewer'- it doesn't 'open.

Go to Control Panel> Folder options> File Types tab> find jpg and jpeg and see what they are set to open with.
 
Bobbye

No, it isn't that an image will sometimes open and sometimes return a Preview not available message. Some images will open and some will not -- but if an image opens, it always will, and if it does not then it never will. In other words any single image is consistent. The inconsistency is that images that properties show to have the same attributes will differ.

Before posting here, I did extensive searching on net and found literally hundreds of posts by people having the same identical problem -- including at least one here

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic34181.html

(with no solution I might add).
 
Well, I have found a difference between image files that will open and ones that will not -- using Windows picture and fax viewer. If I right clcick on the image file and then open properties when I click on the summary tab, images that will open have a long list of entries while those that won't report "Summary properties unavailable for the selected source(s)" I would assume Windows picture and fax viewer uses the entries in this list to preview the image and that Photoshop does not. Strange, but so far this is the only difference I have been able to find between image files that will open and those that will not.
 
Now for a real puzzler. As I said earlier all images open without difficulty in Photoshop and if I save an image from Photoshop that would not open in Windows picture and fax viewer, the saved image will then open in Windows picture and fax viewer. In other words passing an image through Photoshop converts it from being unable to open to being able to open in Windows picture and fax viewer. Given the difference I described in my previous comment, I just conducted a simple experiment. I took one of the images that would not open in Windows picture and fax viewer, opened it in Photoshop and then saved it from Photoshop. The size etc. are of course identical, but now the summary file is present. In particular one image that I had been unable to open in Windows picture and fax viewer now shows that it was made with a Casio camera so the summary information was clearly present all of the time, but just not visible when I clicked on the original summary tab. I then tried another jpg file from my wife's Canon camera that would not open in Windows picture and fax viewer-- opening it in Photoshop, saving it to the desktop etc. -- and it too now shows the summary information that could not be seen before by right clicking on it, then on properties and on the summary tab.

This experiment proves beyond a doubt that the information is actually there, but for some reason can't be "seen" when the summary tab is clicked or by Windows picture and fax viewer to preview the image. Photoshop can "see" the summary information so when the image is saved from Photoshop the summary information is stored with the image as it should be.
 
A natural question is whether the problem is unique to my machine -- for example a problem with the Windows XP installed on it. I first checked by sharing image files of both types on the LAN and downloading them on my wife's machine. The problem goes with the file; an image that Windows picture and fax viewer can't preview on my machine can't be previewed with Windows picture and fax viewer on her's either. Just for completeness, I also copied image files of both types to a CD and tried them on another machine in the lab. No surprise, the problem transferred with the image.
 
Is the common factor that those images that have no 'summary info' all come from a digital camera?
 
gbhall

Thanks for the response. A quick check seems to say they all come from digital cameras, but not the same camera. We don't even own a Casio camera and one image that Windows picture and fax viewer couldn't preview showed as having come from a Casio camera after Photoshop restored the "missing" summary information. That image came as an attachment to an e-mail. Several of the images that can't be previewed are from a professional studio that took some PR photos for the University. The other cameras involved are my Nikon and my wife's Canon -- but most of the time the images are fine. I am pretty sure I have some images that come from screen capture using SnagIt that can't be previewed, but for the moment do not see one of those. I will check more carefully this evening to see if my memory is right that there are SnagIt captures (saved as JPEG images) which Windows picture and fax viewer can't preview.
 
this is so far the better post describing the problem. I have the exact same problem, no summary on the pics that would not open. Do not have Photohop, though, but they would not open with gimp (photoshop like free program). does anyone knows how to recover the pictures?
 
hi guys, I have a similar problem.
A graphic designer sends jpg pictures for my approval (most probably he is using Mac). I can't open/view them in my PC at work. My colleague can't open/view them in her PC. But we can see those jpg pictures in the PC of another colleague. This time I sent the pictures to myself and checked at home. I can open/view the pictures in my PC at home.
Summary: two PCs can open a jpg while another two can not.
All PC's are windows XP, SP3.
Image opener/viewer softwares installed are (addition to Windows' defaults): Inkscape, Paint.net, Picasa.
Are there special codec for jpg files? if there are, maybe they are not installed on two of the PCs.
 
thumbnail views are an artifact of the viewing tool, not an attribute of the raw file itself.

Picasa 3 is a great tool for browsing folders, as is Photoshop, but the Viewer will just open
whatever it can.
 
jpg has a host of options when saving

This image attachment shows the options available for just one graphics package I use. I have no doubt many graphics packages have lots of options. It just so happens that many other sources (cameras, scanners etc) just take their own defaults. Conversion is your only option in that case.

attachment.php
 
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