10 Ways To Fix Photos App Not Working In Windows 11 2023

Although the Photos app has been around since the launch of Windows 8 and has undergone major redesigns several times, Microsoft has failed to deliver a smooth and seamless experience. As such, users have globally reported several issues with the app. If you, too, are faced with a scenario where the Photos app isn’t working on your Windows 11 PC, here’s a quick guide to troubleshoot such issues and make the app functional again.

Restart the Photos App

Microsoft has improved quite a bit in recent years, both in terms of overall quality updates and improvements, but still has failed to deliver a smooth and seamless user experience. App crashes and performance-related issues are less common but can occur anytime and hinder productivity or usage scenarios. To mitigate these issues, the most trivial fix is to restart the Photos app. Closing and restarting the app has proved to work in most cases because restarting terminates the app along with all the services and components, which are started back up and might fix the issue.

Reboot Your PC

As cliché as it may sound, a simple reboot has proved to work in many scenarios and fix the problem. The way this works is when the system restarts, the OS gets time to install the crucial system or app updates, eliminate unnecessary services running in the background, and help restart the essential components of the operating system.

Run the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter

Microsoft knows that app-related issues are quite common in Windows 11 and can occur anytime. Keeping this in mind, it bundles Windows 11 with a built-in app troubleshooter to help you fix problems related to bundled apps and also the ones downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Follow these steps to use this troubleshooter:

Install Media Extensions

By default, the Photos app only supports limited and commonly available file formats. You head over to the Microsoft Store app and download the extensions to get support for new and modern file extensions. Here are some of the newer file extensions you can download:

HEIF Image extension RAW Image extension WebP Image extension

Check for App Updates From the Microsoft Store

Sometimes, an app may stop working if it has not been updated for a very long time—perhaps because it had a bug that interfered with some of its functions. The best way to fix this is to update the Photos app from the Microsoft Store. Here’s how to update the Photos app on Windows 11:

Terminate the Photos App

If restarting does not work, try the manual way of closing the app and starting it back again by following these steps. This works in most cases and should fix the issue.

Repair the Photos App

Similar to restarting, it terminating the Photos app does not work either; it could be that the app is corrupted or damaged. Windows has you covered here as well. It gives the option of repairing the Photos app and fixing it with the click of a button. Follow these steps to repair the Photos app:

Reset the Photos App

Resetting is one way of fixing by getting the app into the last known good state. After resetting, all the data associated with the app gets deleted along with the log and cache data.

If restarting or repairing the app does not work, there might be chances of the app being corrupted or damaged. Windows got you covered here as well and gives the option of repairing the app with a click of a button. The repair process can be done by following these steps:

Reinstall the Photos App

If none of the methods listed so far work, you should try reinstalling the Photos app from your Windows 11 PC. However, the Photos app comes bundled with Windows, so there is no option to uninstall and reinstall the app. Fortunately, Microsoft allows you to use PowerShell to reinstall Photos in Windows 11.

Here are the steps to do this: Note: You must launch Terminal or PowerShell as an administrator before executing the command.

Check for System Updates

The Photos app may often stop working due to a faulty Windows update, which might not even be related to the Photos app. Fortunately, fixing it is quite easy. Follow these steps to check your Windows 11 PC for pending updates:

Microsoft Photos is the default program to view and edit images and videos on your Windows PC. While the app works fine and serves its purpose quite well, there are times when you may encounter issues with it. As such, when you’re faced with issues wherein the Photos app doesn’t work, the solutions mentioned in this guide should help you fix them and restore the app’s functionality.