A reader wants to know if there’s a way to recover from a Photo Gallery disaster.:
“Disaster struck my pc. Because of OneDrive I’ve lost the sync between Pictures Library and Photo Gallery. Photo Gallery is still installed. As long as it is I can repair/replace it. If I uninstall it I can’t – it is no longer supported. Pictures Library and Photo Gallery used to work together, what I did in one, happened in the other. Like Paint when I used to use it, would always keep all photos in it.
So, how do I get Photo Gallery restored or repaired? It is in my husband’s pc. So (1) can I download it from his onto a thumb drive and then back to mine? I even think that’s how I gave it to him when he got a new PC. In his PC OneDrive does not open photos, there isn’t any indication how they open. (I forgot to look to see if he even has OneDrive & I don’t know how I got it either – it must have come with an update). Maybe he doesn’t do the updates like I do. (2) Or can I go to my program’s exe and repair it from there.”
I’m not surprised you’re having issues with Photo Gallery. The program is not longer supported at all by Microsoft and it is highly susceptible to bugs. I don’t think OneDrive has anything to do with the issue either. OneDrive is just another drive where information is saved, like an external hard drive in the cloud. Photo Gallery was not a place where images were saved, but a place to view them. Windows 10 syncs your images to the new Photos program and not the old Photo Gallery. OneDrive can’t open photos either, it’s just a drive. The default opener for images in Windows 10 is the Photos app.
There are places where you can download an archived version of the Photo Gallery software but I don’t suggest it. The program has no security support from Microsoft so it could be vulnerable to attack. Also, since it has no updates or bug fixes from Microsoft, you’ll probably find more and more difficulty getting it to work.
If you’d prefer not to have your photos backed up on OneDrive, it’s pretty easy to turn off. Right-click on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar and choose Settings.
Make sure you don’t have the box next to Automatically save phones and videos to OneDrive checked.
Then click on Manage backup.
Make sure to de-select Photos.
