Windows 8.1 Photos app does not show any photos, only videos

For those users who see the Kind property marked as "document" instead of "picture", this is what is causing your pictures to not show up in the Photos app. To further investigate this, please answer the following:

1. When did this start happening for you?

2. Did this start happening after installing a certain app? What photo/document software have you installed on the computer? During installation, apps can change registry values.

3. Did this start happening after upgrading to 8.1? After a fresh install of Windows? Did it occur after installing updates from Windows Update? The most likely case is that an app got installed that changes the Kind for these types of files.

To fix this, you could try uninstalling the app that was installed just before this behavior started. You could also try changing the Kind property for each filetype you own. To do that, perform the following:

1. Launch the Registry Editor by launching search (Windows key + S) and typing in "regedit", and clicking the first result "regedit.exe".

2. In the left navigation pane, navigate to the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\KindMap

3. Find the filetype(s) your images are of in the right pane listing all known filetypes. 

4. Right-click on the filetype and click Modify.

5. In the Value data field, change the word "document" to "picture" (do not include quotation marks), then click OK. Repeat this process for any additional filetypes that aren't showing up.

6. Close Registry Editor.

7. Launch the Photos app and check to see if your photos are now appearing.

You may need to restore default libraries and rebuild the system index if you are still not seeing a change after performing the above steps. To restore default libraries:

1. Launch File Explorer (Winkey+E).

2. Click the View tab at the top of the window.

3. Click the Navigation pane button and make sure the "Show libraries" option is selected.

4. Below, in the Navigation pane, expand the Libraries tab.

5. Right-click on the Pictures library and click Properties.

6. Click the Restore Defaults button.

7. Click Apply, then OK.

To rebuild the index:

1. Launch search (Windows key + S) and type "Indexing Options", and choosing the first result.

2. In the Indexing Options window, click the Advanced button.

3. Click the Rebuild option.

4. Let the computer run for a while without touching it while the index is rebuilt (interacting with your computer during this greatly slows it down).

5. Launch the Photos app and check to see if your photos are now appearing.

Please let us know the answers to the earlier questions I asked so we can prevent other users
from hitting this problem, and let us know if the steps listed fix your problem!

-Adam