As you know, “JPEG” is one of the commonly used formats for image files which is a compression of digital images. It is one of the topmost used file formats by mobile phones and digital cameras and usually achieves a 10:1 compression with little visible loss in the quality of the image.
There are tons of cases as of late, most particularly after the latest Windows 10 update where users were not able to open JPEG files on their PCs. Every time they try to open any JPEG file, they either get an error or nothing happens at all. This issue could be due to the default handler application for JPEG applications not being set or there could be some third-party image viewer not working properly. To fix this issue with JPEG files, refer to the troubleshooting options below.
Option 1 – Try to change the file type association
You need to check if the file type association of the JPEG files are correctly set or not since there are tons of third party programs that change the file type association automatically to themselves without your permission the instant they are installed and so if any of these third-party programs are broken, then naturally, your JPEG files won’t really open. That’s why you can try changing the setting to the default photo viewer instead of the third-party one. To do so, follow the steps below.
- Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- Then type in “control panel” in the field and hit Enter to open the Control Panel.
- After opening Control Panel, click on the Programs category and select the “Default Programs” option from the menu.
- Next, select the second option “Associate a file type or protocol with a program” and then select the “Choose default apps by file type” option.
- After that, click on the .jpg file extension and choose the option from the pop-up.
- Now restart your PC to refresh all your programs and then see if it has fixed the problem or not.
Option 2 – Try to update your computer
Microsoft frequently releases updates to target bugs and improve users’ experience. And this particular error where JPEG files won’t open is already acknowledged by Microsoft so you need to make sure that your Windows 10 PC is updated to the latest released update and that there are no pending updates.
- Tap the Win + S keys to open Search and then type in “update” in the field and open the system setting from the search results.
- After that, check for updates and then download and install them if needed.
- Now restart your PC once the update is done and check if you can now open JPEG files.
Option 3 – Try to reset the Photos app via Settings
Resetting the Photos app could also help you in fixing the problem. Note that this option will reset all the configurations and your data associated with your Photos and makes the application go into a state when you first started using it and that this option will fix any discrepancies that your application might be experiencing right now.
- Tap the Win + S keys to open the search bar.
- Then type in “settings” in the field to open the Settings application.
- After opening Settings, click the “Apps” category.
- From there, a list of applications installed on your computer will appear.
- Navigate through these applications until you find the Photos app and then click on the Advanced options.
- Afterward, click the Reset button that appears on the next screen. Then a new pop-up comes up and will warn you that all the preferences, as well as sign-in information, will be lost. Click on “Reset” anyway to proceed in resetting the Photos app.
- Restart your PC once the reset is done.
Option 4 – Try to reinstall the Photos app
Before you start using other third-party image viewers just yet, you can try to reinstall the Photos app first. Thus, if there is something wrong with it, it will instantly get fixed right after it reinstalls. Just take note that this option requires administrative privileges so you need to be logged in as an administrator.
- The first thing you have to do is tap the Windows + S keys and type in “PowerShell”.
- Next, right-click on the file and click on the “Run as administrator” option from the context menu.
- Once PowerShell is opened, execute this command: get-appxpackage *Microsoft.Windows.Photos* | remove-appxpackage
- The command you just entered will remove the Photos app. After the process is done, go to the Microsoft Store and look for Microsoft Photos then download and install it again.