Hi all friends
after installing WLM 2011- all animations worked fine. after the first time i exit it and turn it on again -i do not see animated(moving) photos
i tried 3 times install/uninstall(with revo even) ,ran as admin- all the same:
Right after the installation i see all animated photo but upon exit WLM and turn it on again for the second time and further -i do not see animated photos like in the screen shot below.
-animated emoticons/winks works fine both way with my contact and i can see them moving
-my contact (with xp) can see my display photo animation(the swimming fish) but i cannot see mine nor his display photo animation.
- i do not know if it is .gif issue -but i tried to associate it with IE and photo editor-nothing helped.
1-is it a known bug with vista and WLM 2011 ?
2-any idea how to restore the photos animation?
Thanks

Originally Posted by richc46

Welcome
I think the 4th point made, make give us a lead
Windows Live Essentials 2011 release notes

Hi Richard ,
the point stats:
"If your computer uses software rendering instead of hardware rendering, you won't see any animations in Windows Live.
This includes animated GIFs used in display pictures and animated emoticons in Messenger "

-well, animated emoticons work fine.
Render = direct X?
if yes, i checked dxdiag -all direct x features(3) enabled on the display tab

Dear Richard i use and installed only the messenger part (WLM ). I did not install Windows Live Mail.
But again it is strange because Right after the installation i see all animated photo..

Can someone with vista+WLM 2011 confirm this issue/or not?

Hi prukeyhi,

I'm researching the issue with the WLM support group and hope to have some information soon - I'll let you know if/when I do. They may want some additional information or details, and since I don't have the problem I'll need to get that from you to pass on to them. If you can see animated emoticons but not animated photos, I do not believe rendering is the problem (or you would not be able to see the animated emoticons either).

I found the following suggestion for someone who suddenly couldn't see animated photos (not the problem you describe, but at least similar) and this is what a forum support person replied (which I find hard to believe if you installed/uninstalled several times, especially using Revo, but I suppose it is possible and may be worth a shot - but I'm not sure about all this deleting as it seems to be more than just cache files so I'd backup and/or export the contacts to somewhere else just to be on the safe side):

I suggest that you do the following steps to delete corrupted cache files:
For Windows Vista and Windows 7:
1. Close Windows Live Messenger. Beside the time and date of your computer, right-click the Windows Live Messenger icon, and then click Exit.
2. Click Start, copy and paste this message in the Start Search box %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ and then press Enter. Delete the Windows Live Contacts folder.
3. Click Start, copy and paste this message in the Start Search box %userprofile%\ and the press Enter. Delete the Contacts folder.
4. Try to sign in and verify if the issue is resolved.

Another reply to a similar problem in another thread (again, no mention of it working the first time only - the post wasn't that detailed) suggested the issue had to do with Adobe Flash Player and/or the Active-X controls and settings for using it properly. The following link was recommended as a potential solution: Adobe - Common Flash Player download and installation issues (Windows). Of course, the fact that it works the first time makes it hard to believe this is the issue, but I suppose it may be worth a shot as it was suggested by a Live Support person to someone else with a problem seeing animated photos (and I guess it can't hurt even if it may not help).

I'll keep looking and await any helpful replies, but that's all I have at this point.

I hope it helps.

Good luck!

Hi Lorien and thanks for your very detailed answer !
i tried your recommended fix's- it did not help
1-Just to be sure: Do you have WLM 2011 installed and you have no animation problem?
2-i opened a post in WML support as well- i hope i put it in the right forum ?
Vista 32bit->WLM 2011-no animated photos
3-again i'd like to emphasize : all animation worked in the first time only.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by prukeyhi

Hi Lorien and thanks for your very detailed answer !
i tried your recommended fix's- it did not help
1-Just to be sure: Do you have WLM 2011 installed and you have no animation problem?
2-i opened a post in WML support as well- i hope i put it in the right forum ?
Vista 32bit->WLM 2011-no animated photos
3-again i'd like to emphasize : all animation worked in the first time only.
Thanks!

1. Yes, I do have it and I use it mostly just to get notified of new e-mail messages but haven't really used Messenger for chatting or anything like that in quite a while (though I do have a few friends I've not messaged in ages - and maybe I need to do something about that). I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even test to see if I had the problem before seeking a solution to yours. It turns out I can see animated gifs in WLM 2011 (I opened pictures from a friend and there was an animated gif included and I double clicked on it and it showed up and was animated inside Messenger). Then again, the animated pictures I posted online I could not get to see animated in Messenger (and so I copied and added this one that had worked and it didn't work in Messenger from my shared photos) - so I'm not quite sure what that means. I should note that her photos were NOT saved on SkyDrive but at some other web site and were in Photos and not Me (as I haven't yet figured out how to add anything to the Photos link but only as shared photos in the Me link). I'd give you access to see if you can see it animated but they're shared only with friends. During the process, I did get an error message at one point that said it couldn't view the animated gif because the file format wasn't supported by Windows Photo Gallery - and I'm not sure what that means either but suspect it may have something to do with the issue.

2. I used a different forum - I looked for one with similar issues posted (and essentially copied what you posted here with some minor edits) - but that's good because now the issue is in two different forums and being different names they won't be seen as duplicates (unless the same person responds to both). Mine is :Unable to see animated photos - animated gif's (but can see animated emoticons). I will track your thread as well so we can see which gets a response first and what it recommends. Those suggestions I provided came from the forum in which I posted.

3. Yes, I understand that. That's what makes it the most confusing to me. It suggests the feature works and there's no hardware or software problem - but SOMETHING changes after it is initially closed that causes it to never appear again. I have not uninstalled/reinstalled to test whether or not this is also the case for me - even if we found it to be true, I'm not sure how it would help resolve the problem (except to be able to say it has been replicated on another computer).

Hopefully, we'll get lucky and get a response that figures this out. It's probably something so simple eveyone is missing it.

Good luck to us both!