[SOLVED] Windows 10 Photos Not Displaying In Correct Order

[dmmontal]

A few months back I was having some hardware trouble with my W10 desktop - I ended up doing a clean install of Windows and recovered all my files from my external hard drive. Since then, I've been experiencing a frustrating issue with the Microsoft Photos app, wherein it displays photos out of order when scrolling from one photo to the next. For instance:

• In Explorer, photos display in correct order (usually I sort by date)
• Double-click on a photo and it opens in Microsoft Photos app
• Scroll to next photo in Microsoft Photos and an incorrect photo appears, often dozens forward or back in the correct sort order

I've tried the following:

1. Uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft Photos
2. Tweaking the registry, for instance following the directions in this thread: https://www.tenforums.com/software-...viewer-sorting-order-not-same-view-order.html

I thought the registry changes would be the sure fix as others seem to have had great success, but it's still not working for me. Any suggestions? I'm running Windows 10 Home, version 1903, OS Build 18362.418

 

[kaehligj]

Microsoft photo and microsoft explorer (file manager) is not the same thing.
They use separate file management, hence the mysterious display order of your images.

You must sort the image files using the microsoft photo app to suit your needs.

 

[dmmontal]

Microsoft photo and microsoft explorer (file manager) is not the same thing.
They use separate file management, hence the mysterious display order of your images.

You must sort the image files using the microsoft photo app to suit your needs.

I'm well aware of that. However, I've used Windows 10 since launch and Microsoft Photos has always scrolled through images in the order that they were sorted in Windows Explorer. If they were sorted as A, B, C, etc. in Explorer, opening image A in Photos and then scrolling to the next photo would show B, then C, etc. Now if I open A in Photos and scroll to the next image, it will show R, M, T, V, B, etc. The scroll order is completely busted.

It's worth noting that if I open the same image directly in Photos (i.e. using the Photos interface rather than double-clicking the image in Explorer to open), the images scroll in the correct order. What I'm trying to figure out is why they suddenly started displaying in the wrong order when opening from Explorer.

 

[Alabalcho]

With File Explorer, open that folder with mis-ordered photos, select "Details" view, and show both "Modified Date" and "Date taken". I am pretty sure Photos app uses "Date Taken" when sorting.

 

[kaehligj]

Great little hint, thanks Alabalcho 😉

 

[dmmontal]

With File Explorer, open that folder with mis-ordered photos, select "Details" view, and show both "Modified Date" and "Date taken". I am pretty sure Photos app uses "Date Taken" when sorting.

Let me try that and get back to you. Up until my OS refresh, Microsoft Photos has always correctly scrolled in the order that I had the photos sorted in in Explorer, regardless of what that sorting was, i.e. "Date", "Date Modified", "Name", etc. I'll double-check again though.

 

[dmmontal]

I tried this out:

Sorting my pictures in Explorer by Date Taken and subsequently double-clicking any individual photo to open in Photos DOES then scroll through in the same order as shown in Explorer. The only problem with this method is that Date Taken is a completely incorrect ordering for my photos. Only Date or Date Modified produces the correct ordering in Explorer, but these then produce an incorrect scrolling order when opening files in Photos.

My confusion is that in all the years I've used Windows 10, this was never an issue. I sorted my photos by Date or Date Modified, and they scrolled through that same order correctly every time when opened with Photos. Again, this all started when I reinstalled Windows and recovered my files.

 

[dmmontal]

Update:

Just wanted to record that I resolved the issue. Nothing was working - I had even tried loading the same photos onto a different computer, and they still scrolled out of order.

On a whim, I deleted an entire set of photos in one folder and then dragged them back from the recycle bin. After giving the folder a moment to refresh, they now scroll through in the correct order once again. No clue why this happened or why this fixed the issue, but I've been able to apply the fix for all the affected photos across all my collection.

Hoping this helps if anyone else ever encounters the same odd issue. Thanks for those who responded and offered their support here!

 

[USAFRet]

"On a whim, I deleted an entire set of photos in one folder and then dragged them back from the recycle bin. "

Good that it worked, but that was a dangerous move. "Delete" means that the space is available for the system to use as it needs.
Any subsequent action by you or the system may have overwritten some of that data.