How to Reinstall Photos App in Windows 10 or 11

If the Photos app does not start or causes an error and the reset and repair method hasn’t helped, you can uninstall and reinstall the app using PowerShell. Here are the steps for Windows 10 and 11.

Reinstall the Photos app

To re-register or reinstall the Photos app, use one of the following methods:

Click Start, type powershell, right-click Windows Powershell, and choose Run as Administrator.

Execute the following commands to uninstall and then reinstall Photos:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

reinstall photos app powershell

The above commands remove and then reinstall the Photos App.

Alternate Way

Alternately, you can find the PackageFullName (or InstallLocation) and install it using a different command:

Run the following command to get the Package name of the Photos App.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos -allusers | select PackageFullName

reinstall photos app powershell
Copy the Package name displayed in the output. And then use the package name/path in the 2nd command below:

For example, if the Package name is listed as Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2022.30060.30007.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, execute the next command as follows:

Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2022.30060.30007.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

This reinstalls the Photos App.



You can also install it from Microsoft Store

After uninstalling the Photos app, you can also reinstall it from Microsoft Store.

  1. Open Microsoft Store from Start/Search.
  2. In the Store App, search for “Microsoft Photos” and install it.
    Photos app in Microsoft Store

Error 0x80073D02

If you get the following error 0x80073D02 when reinstalling the Photos app, it’s possible that the Photos app is currently running (or in a suspended state).

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D02, The package could not be installed because resources it modifies are currently in use.

Open Task Manager and terminate the Photos app.

photos app suspended in taskmgr

Attempt to reinstall Photos now.

Uninstalling Photos app

Type the following command and press {ENTER}

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Remove-AppxPackage

This uninstalls the Photos App for the current user account.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

36 thoughts on “How to Reinstall Photos App in Windows 10 or 11”

  1. Typical Windows crap. Never changes. When you get to be Win100, will be the same junk. I was bragging the other day about how well my PC was running. Now this. Who needs to worry about spam and other malware when MS Windows is around?

    Reply
  2. finally thank you for this, after i destroyed my profile by editing the username and got the temp profile and fixed it using the regedit, the photos apps is gone then others where gone too, then this it restored YOU SAVED MY LIFE!

    Reply
  3. Is it possible to revert to the pre Win 10 Anniversary update version which was pushed back in November 16. The current version is much different and has lost a lot of useful adjustments.

    Reply
    • You can rollback to v1511 within 10 days after installing v1607. IMO, v1607 has so many bug fixes and improves the stability. v1511 is very buggy. Other option is a clean install using v1511 DVD or ISO.

  4. @Bernard: Yes. Run Get-AppxPackage | out-gridview or Get-AppxPackage -allusers | out-gridview in PowerShell to see the entire list of packages. You can use the same procedure (as reinstalling Photos) to install other apps. You need to run PowerShell as administrator if you’re going to use the -allusers switch.

    Reply
  5. The Get command doesn’t work at all. I always get error –
    ” The term ‘Get’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the
    spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.”

    Reply
  6. Since the last update, my Windows 10 Photos App now will not save my photos after I enhance, adjust or crop them etc. it just give me message: oops we can’t save that one. no matter what I do I get that message and all my edits are NOT SAVED. What can I do to get the PHOTOS app working again. it seems that something changed after the last update. Can I remove the app ? and then reload it ? I am worried that once I remove it, I won’t be able to get a free new app from the Windows Store…. when I tried to get a new one, it came back with a reply ” you already have Photos on your computer” paraphrasing so it must have noted that I got it loaded when I loaded Windows 10.

    Reply
  7. Option 2 got the app reinstalled. But MS needs to do some serious research as to why this was dropped in the first place. Was this an oversight, decision by committee, or someone just thought the app was no longer necessary? This inconvenience may not be mission critical for most users, but it does make most users wary of MS Apps dependency. These MS upgrades are unlike a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get; and too often it’s something you don’t even want.

    Reply
  8. I accidentally deleted my Photos app. I didn’t have to go to the second solution; first one worked nicely.

    Tank yu berry mush 😍😘❤

    Reply
  9. Bookmarked this page, since Photos tends to delete itself for no reason every now and then thanks to a Windows update a few months ago. The first option fixes it.

    Reply
  10. I can’t find a timestamp anywhere in this article. How old is it? Will it still work?
    I’m not very knowledgeable about this kind of thing so I’m afraid to try it without knowing if it’s still relevant.

    Thank you.

    By the way, it’s now 8/19/2020.

    Reply
  11. I copied and pasted option 1. Worked as advertised. Fixed all the bugs I had in Photos, i.e. would not import from iphone and selecting new folders.

    Reply
  12. i was updated my os windows10 to win10pro..but i lost my photos app..how can i revert this application..this process isn’t working perfectly, micro soft photos app didn’t respond to download for my pc

    Reply
  13. Amazing! Much of the time these tips do not work – not here but elsewhere. THIS WORKED right away. Thank you Ramesh.

    I APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH I CLICKED ON EVERY AD ON YOUR SITE. FOLKS CLICK ON THE ADS HERE IF HIS ADVICE WORKED. I do this at windowsclub, howtogeek, makeuseof. Anywhere offering useful advice. Namaste.

    Reply

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