Photos app is slow to open or won’t open on Windows 11/10

If your Photos app on Windows 11 and Windows 10 is slow to open and takes a long time to load, or if it opens or does not open at all, fix the problem by following these suggestions. In Windows 11/10, Microsoft replaced Windows Photo Viewer with Photos app. Although it is a great application, sometimes it can give you problems.

Windows Photos app is slow to open or won’t open

If you encounter this problem, here are some actions you can take:

1. Repair or reset the Photos app
2. Reinstall the Photos app.
3. Unlink OneDrive connection

Before proceeding, make sure you have updated the Photos app to the latest version. Check the Microsoft Store for an update.

1]Repair or reset the Photos app

The very first thing you need to do is to reset the Photos app on your Windows 11/10 computer. To do this, open Settings panel > Apps > Apps & features tab. Now scroll down and find out Photos and select the Advanced options.

From the next screen, first try to Repair that and see. If that doesn’t help, click the Reset button to start the process.

In Windows 11you’ll see the options to repair or reset the Photos app here:

Open Windows 11 Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Locate Photos app > Advanced options.

It may take a few moments to complete the process and your Windows Store app will be reset to its default settings.

2]Reinstall the Photos app

PowerShell is a handy tool when you need to uninstall a pre-installed app.

To do this, open Windows PowerShell with administrator privileges and enter this command-

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers

Next, write down the full package name of Microsoft.Windows.PhotosMicrosoft.Windows.Photos. In my case, you will see:

Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2017.35071.13510.0_neutral_split.scale-125_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Now enter this following command and press Enter-

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2017.35071.13510.0_neutral_split.scale-125_8wekyb3d8bbwe | Remove-AppxPackage

Once the app is installed, open the Windows Store and search for Pictures from Microsoft and install this application directly from the Windows Store.

Alternatively, you can use our 10AppsManager to easily uninstall, reinstall Windows 11/10 pre-installed Store apps with one click.

Related: Windows Photos app crashes or closes with a file system error.

3]Unlink OneDrive connection

The Photos app is connected to OneDrive and displays photos from your cloud collection. While this works, the biggest issue is that retrieving all photo previews slows down the experience.

Open the Photos app and let it load. Then click on the Settings icon at the top left. Once it opens, turn off Show my cloud content only from OneDrive. Launch the app once more and it should load much faster than before.

These solutions should help you fix Photos app slow issue in Windows 11/10.

Useful readings:

Why can’t I open my pictures in Windows?

If you are unable to open one of the images, there may be two reasons. First, there is no internet connection, and second, there is a cache issue with the app. Make sure the internet is there as it is needed when the app is connected to OneDrive. See this post if you receive This app can’t open error when opening Photos

Related: Microsoft Store apps taking too long to load

How to open the app with Photo Viewer on Windows?

Open Windows Settings and go to Apps > Default apps. Locate Choose defaults by file type at the bottom of the section. Click to open it. Here you can enter the extension of the image you want to display with Photo Viewer.

Once it appears in the list, click on it and you will be given the option to change the default viewer. Select Photo Viewer and apply changes.

However, if the problem persists, you can enable Windows Photo Viewer and set it as the default photo opener.