Fix 'Photos Cannot Preview or Open' Error in Windows 10/8/7

Why Are My JPG Photos Not Opening

"Does anyone know how to repair JPG photos that can't be opened by Photos App on Windows 10? 

I have some photos saved in Pictures folder in Windows 10 and these are all .JPG or .JPEG formats. This morning, I tried to use the Photos App to open these photos, I failed. It didn't open in another image viewer either. Does anyone know why are my JPG photos not opening and how to fix this error?"

Although photos can't preview or open is no longer a new problem, it's still bothering a vast number of people. Do you know why are the photos not opening or can't be previewed?

Here is a list of reasons why photos not opening:

• 1. Photos are corrupted or damaged
• 2. Photo format is not supported
• 3. Photo viewer is outdated
• 4. Mobile phone photos are encrypted

Check Photo States and Find Right Solutions

Some of you may wonder to know how to identify the states of un-openable photos and find the right solutions. Read on, we'll guide you to go through the process and make all your photos available for viewing and reuse again.

• If photos are corrupted or damaged, as shown below, you'll need a reliable EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with repair feature (in Method 1) for help. 

• If file formats are not supported or the Photo Viewer is outdated, as shown below, you can convert photo format (in Method 2) or update Windows Photo Viewer (in Method 3) to resolve this issue.

Method 1. Repair Corrupted, Damaged Photos with Photo Recovery Software

If you search photo repair software or picture repair tool online, you will get overwhelmed results. Some of them are said to be 100% free, yet some claim that they support repairing multiple image formats.

However, most image repair tools only support repairing corrupted pictures with JPG, JPEG, GIF, etc., formats saved on computer or external storage devices.

Good news! EaseUS R&D team recently added a fantastic feature into EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, making it more like a photo repair tool while helping you restore lost and corrupted pictures.

The process is the same as the file recovery procedure:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS data recovery software. Select a hard drive that contains broken photos files and click "Scan".

Step 2. Select "Pictures" to find your corrupted phots that can be in a variety of formats, JPEG, JPG, PNG, BMP, and more. Or, you can click "Search files or folders" in the upper right corner to search for files.

Step 3. Double-click on a damaged picture to repair and preview the file. Then, click "Recover" to save images to a different location.

When the recovery process finishes, you can save the repaired pictures that were corrupted to another secure location on your PC. Then you can open these pictures with your photo viewer application again.

Method 2. Change and Convert Photos' Formats

If the photo viewer application warns you that it doesn't support the picture format, you can change the photo extension to JPEG, TIFF or PNG, etc.

Step 1. Locate and right-click the specific photos or pictures that were not openable, select "Rename".

Step 2. Change the photo extension to .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .tiff, etc.

Then you should be able to open, check, and reuse the photos on your PC again.

Method 3. Update Photos Viewer

If your photos viewer application is outdated, you can check and install the latest update. By doing so, you could use your photo application to view photos again.

Here is a detailed guide for Windows Photo Viewer users to install the latest update:

Step 1. Go to Settings, click "Update & Security" and then go to Windows Update.

Step 2. Click "Check for updates", if the Photo Viewer icon appears after checking the Windows update, check the box next to Photo Viewer.

Step 3. Click "Install Updates" to install the latest update.

When the installing process, restart your PC. You'll be able to use the application to open photos again.

Method 4. Remove Encryption in Images

If the photos transferred from mobile phone to computer, and you can't open them, it is because of the encryption.

Usually, photos on the mobile phone will be encrypted, disallowing users to open and use them on the computer. To view the photos, you need to remove the encryption first:

Step 1. Right-click on photos, select "Properties".

Step 2. Go to the General tab, click "Advanced".

Step 3. Uncheck the box of "Encrypt Contents to Secure Data".and click "OK" to confirm.

By following the solutions on this page, you'll be able to effectively resolve the issue of photos can't view or open. 

To keep your warm memories safe, we also suggest that you should create a back up of all valuable photos and save to a secure storage device. If you accidentally lose photos, you can immediately restore them from the backup.

Plus, if you don’t have a backup, don’t worry. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will restore your lost photos within three simple steps as shown in Method 1.