The Photos app in Windows 10 is the default photo viewer. However, there are times when it might encounter some problems while you use it. One of these problems in the Photos app reported recently is where users try to export or share the images and videos from the app but weren’t successful in doing so. This can be really quite a hassle in opening images on your computer, especially since the Photos app is the default photo viewer in Windows 10 and if you don’t have any other photo viewer app installed.
This kind of problem in the Photos app can be noticed when you try to use the “Remix” function for both photos and videos. In other words, this problem can occur with just pictures, videos, as well as a combination of both. So if you are trying to watch a video using this app, then you wouldn’t be able to play it. In such a case, the only thing you can hear is the audio but you wouldn’t see anything except for a hazy purple screen that has not export or share option.
There are several possible causes for this problem and it could be fixed by updating the display driver/graphics driver or disabling the hardware-accelerated video encoding. You could also try updating or resetting or reinstalling the Photos app. For more details, follow each one of the suggestions provided below.
Option 1 – Try to update the Graphics driver
You can try to update your Graphics card driver using the Device Manager in your computer to resolve the blank dialog boxes problem or you can also go directly to the website of your graphics card manufacturers like NVIDIA, Intel, or AMD and go to the section called Drivers then check if there’s a new available update – if there is, download and install it.
To update your Graphics driver via Device Manager, refer to these steps:
- First, boot your computer into Safe Mode.
- After that, tap the Win + R keys to launch Run.
- Type in msc into the box and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
- After that, a list of device drivers will be displayed. From there, look for the Display Adapters and click on them.
- After that, right-click on each entry under the Display Adapters and select the “Uninstall Device” option from the menu.
- Now restart your computer.
- After restarting your computer, go to the Settings app and Check for Updates in the Windows Update section.
Option 2 – Try disabling the hardware-accelerated video encoding
The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to disable the hardware-accelerated video encoding in your computer. To do that, follow these steps:
- Open the Photos app and click on the visible three dots located in the upper right corner of the app and then select Settings.
- From there, you should see the version number of the app in the “About this app” section. So if your app is version 2018.18071.****0.0 or greater, you should see the Video section which has a toggle button.
- Turn that toggle button off to disable hardware-accelerated video encoding in the Photos app. This should fix the problem, if not, simply follow the next given options below.
Option 3 – Try to update the Microsoft Photos app
- Open the Microsoft Store and click on the three horizontal dots for the menu located on the top right portion of the window to see the options.
- Next, select Downloads and updates and then click the Get updates button in the top right. This will install any pending updates for all the apps including the Microsoft Photos app using the Microsoft Store.
Option 4 – Try resetting the Photos app
- To get started in resetting the Photos app, open the Windows 10 Settings.
- Then go to Apps > Apps & features.
- After that, scroll down until you see the Photos app option – click on it and open its Advanced options.
- From there, you will see the Reset button, click on it and click and then click on it once more to confirm.
Note: The process may take a couple of minutes to complete. Once it’s done, open the pictures again using the Photos app.
Option 5 – Try reinstalling the Photos app
If none of the options given above worked, then you might want to consider reinstalling the Photos app. Unlike what most users think, it isn’t really that hard reinstalling preinstalled apps as you have the Windows PowerShell for that. To use this program in reinstalling the Photos app, follow these steps:
- Open the Windows PowerShell program with admin privileges and key in the following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
- After that, execute this second command to re-register and reinstall the Microsoft Photos app.
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}
Note: In the command given, do not forget to replace the “PackageFullName” with the actual package name for the Photos app. After executing the command, it will uninstall the Photos app from your computer so you need to install it again from the Windows Store by simply looking for it. Once you found it, just click on install to start the installation process.