Some jpg files not opening on Windows 11 but do on Windows 10 using Photo Viewer

garlin · Sunday at 1:06 AM

TLDR;
The .NET library released in 24H2 has a bug when reading a photo file which has an EXIF header. This is the hidden metadata that your smartphone or camera embeds that has info like the UTC timestamp and GPS location. Normal JPEG's created in apps don't have an EXIF, though Adobe's products can add it as part of their normal workflow.

Prior to 24H2, apps using the .NET library would read the EXIF and get a normal result. Now that call is broken, which confuses the app and throws some error that your image is corrupted (invalid header). MS knows exactly what the bug is, but apparently hasn't pushed out a fix.

Until then... you will need to find a 3rd-party image viewer which doesn't use the same .NET library.

idgat · Sunday at 1:08 AM

garlin said:
Until then... you will need to find a 3rd-party image viewer which doesn't use the same .NET library.

Bingo! Did someone say ... Irfanview

Irfanview's batch process can even remove the EXIF data so the file can be read as required by the OP

(... Dismounts hobby-horse, leaves the room ....)

dacrone · Sunday at 1:20 AM

Just use copytrans photo viewer

MCHome · Sunday at 3:11 AM

Thanks for taking the trouble for replying to this thread everyone.
Looks like garlin has confirmed that there is indeed a bug in the Windows 24H2 release with Exif headers.

btw,
I was signed into my Microsoft Account - not that that would matter in this case.

I am not sure everyone replying has fully read the posts I have made on this thread. If they had, they would know I have solved the immediate problem of the unreadable files by loading in Photoshop and resaving. All are now readable in Photo Viewer and Paint and the Properties in File Viewer are all OK. I don't need to find another photo viewer.

The issue was about identifying that there is a bug in MS 24H2, which it looks like we have and MS knows about. Until it is fixed, the problem could easily happen again.

MCHome · Sunday at 3:42 AM

idgat said:
Wouldn't it be funny if you just tried it as part of the troubleshooting process ... and it worked?

I'm done here

As someone else said - what are you talking about?
Tried what and it works? I already have Irfanview on my system and yes it can open the files and read the header. So what? Photoshop and lots of other photo editing software can open these files.
The point is, Photos in 24H2 can't, neither can Paint, not can they be loaded into Word documents and Access Image Boxes.

Its a bug in 24H2 that needs fixing.

spapakons · Sunday at 4:16 AM

I tood you so, something wrong with the header. A little Google search revealed the EXIF that not all images have. I didn't know that is a bug in .NET thanks for telling us.

MCHome · Sunday at 5:23 AM

spapakons said:
I tood you so, something wrong with the header. A little Google search revealed the EXIF that not all images have. I didn't know that is a bug in .NET thanks for telling us.

Yes, possibly. But the headers may actually be perfectly valid, its just that something in 24H2 is not reading them correctly in these few cases. Maybe some specific value in the Exif for these files it does not like - divide by zero or something, when it should be testing for zero values?

spapakons · Sunday at 6:58 AM

Probably some previously reserved variable that had always a specific value and pictures using this variable and changing the value cause the header to be invalid.

krism · Sunday at 1:39 PM

MCHome said:
btw,
I was signed into my Microsoft Account - not that that would matter in this case.

Huge thanks for letting me know on this!!!

Very glad to be wrong on this one!!!

Morph000 · 2025-02-03T22:31:24-0500

With my new pc, I've decided to keep it a lot leaner.
I don't use built-in software like Paint or Photo viewer.
I used to use ACDSEE but switched to Xnview portable now.
Ditto for Photoshop - gone, replaced by Affinity Photo.
Try Xnview portable and see if it solves your problems. It most likely will...

krism · 2025-02-03T22:34:41-0500

I have had excellent luck with Wondershare Filmora Basic. To me it's much smaller and better (color, compression) than DR.

For simple resizing/cropping I have used Irfanview for many years.

MCHome · 2025-02-04T04:20:20-0500

Morph000 said:
With my new pc, I've decided to keep it a lot leaner.
I don't use built-in software like Paint or Photo viewer.
I used to use ACDSEE but switched to Xnview portable now.
Ditto for Photoshop - gone, replaced by Affinity Photo.
Try Xnview portable and see if it solves your problems. It most likely will...

Like I have said before ad nauseum (read all my posts), I have fixed the immediate problem by resaving all files that could not be read with Photo Viewer.
But note that using any photo program will not solve the inherent problem that exists in Windows 11 24H2 where these particular jpgs can't be imported into Word Documents or linked to Image Boxes in Access. Nor can the EXIF properties be examined by File Viewer.

If this happens again and another dodgy jpg is created, I will have to open and resave.

The only thing that will fully fix this problem is for Microsoft to issue the bug fix that seems to have been identified already.

Actually I am quite surprised that there have not been more reports on this issue. There must be millions of people that use Photoshop or other Photo Editing software that can potentially create unreadable jpg files. But then again, perhaps not many people have downloaded 24H2 yet, or have not noticed the issues and reported them. If they don't use Photo Viewer or Paint or try to load the files into Word or something, they probably would not have noticed the problem yet.

spapakons · 2025-02-04T06:28:41-0500

Probably most JPEG files we use are generated in the PC that do not have the EXIF data and hence are not affected by this bug. Those downloaded from our smartphone or imported from a digital camera might be dodgy. Until Microsoft decides to fix the bug, we can open and resave hopefully without noticeable drop in quality.

MCHome · 2025-02-04T07:28:07-0500

spapakons said:
Probably most JPEG files we use are generated in the PC that do not have the EXIF data and hence are not affected by this bug. Those downloaded from our smartphone or imported from a digital camera might be dodgy. Until Microsoft decides to fix the bug, we can open and resave hopefully without noticeable drop in quality.

Agreed. However I would have thought that all the Professional photographers in the world and Wildlife photographers like me do make use of the Exif data quite heavily. We want to know the ISO, F-Stop, etc etc. I am beginning to suspect though that this may only affect legacy jpg photos that were produced by old versions of software when such things as GPS data was not used. Might not affect any jpgs produced using up to date software. Be interesting to know if it does.

Fabler2 · 2025-02-04T08:12:18-0500

MCHome said:
Like I have said before ad nauseum (read all my posts), I have fixed the immediate problem by resaving all files that could not be read with Photo Viewer.
But note that using any photo program will not solve the inherent problem that exists in Windows 11 24H2 where these particular jpgs can't be imported into Word Documents or linked to Image Boxes in Access. Nor can the EXIF properties be examined by File Viewer.

If this happens again and another dodgy jpg is created, I will have to open and resave.

The only thing that will fully fix this problem is for Microsoft to issue the bug fix that seems to have been identified already.

Actually I am quite surprised that there have not been more reports on this issue. There must be millions of people that use Photoshop or other Photo Editing software that can potentially create unreadable jpg files. But then again, perhaps not many people have downloaded 24H2 yet, or have not noticed the issues and reported them. If they don't use Photo Viewer or Paint or try to load the files into Word or something, they probably would not have noticed the problem yet.

I had to open in IrfanView and resave to get them to open in Photos et all. This on 24H2. Thanks for the info.

andrew129260 · 2025-02-04T08:15:03-0500

garlin said:
TLDR;
The .NET library released in 24H2 has a bug when reading a photo file which has an EXIF header. This is the hidden metadata that your smartphone or camera embeds that has info like the UTC timestamp and GPS location. Normal JPEG's created in apps don't have an EXIF, though Adobe's products can add it as part of their normal workflow.

Prior to 24H2, apps using the .NET library would read the EXIF and get a normal result. Now that call is broken, which confuses the app and throws some error that your image is corrupted (invalid header). MS knows exactly what the bug is, but apparently hasn't pushed out a fix.

Until then... you will need to find a 3rd-party image viewer which doesn't use the same .NET library.

Sometimes I wish I could just copy peoples tech info into my brain, just like the windows copy dialog.

thanks for the heads up.

spapakons · 2025-02-04T08:35:46-0500

MCHome said:
Agreed. However I would have thought that all the Professional photographers in the world and Wildlife photographers like me do make use of the Exif data quite heavily. We want to know the ISO, F-Stop, etc etc. I am beginning to suspect though that this may only affect legacy jpg photos that were produced by old versions of software when such things as GPS data was not used. Might not affect any jpgs produced using up to date software. Be interesting to know if it does.

Professionals should use 2-3 tools and see what suits them best. Not rely on Microsoft bundled software. We all know Microsoft software doesn't have the features of better third-party tools. It is just the basics for the beginner that cannot find something better.

Fabler2 · 2025-02-04T09:01:10-0500

One on the left is re-saved with IrfanView that works and the right is the original that doesn't.

spapakons · 2025-02-04T09:05:29-0500

The values at the original should be populated with camera data etc. The .NET bug that mentioned in a previous post affects certain applications and also File Explorer when trying to retrieve the EXIF data.

Some jpg files not opening on Windows 11 but do on Windows 10 using Photo Viewer

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