That was weird

I enjoy solving problems. So it’s a good thing I work with computers. 

Sometimes, thought, I don’t need to solve problems at all: My very talented customers and readers do it for me. Here are two solutions to weird problems, one from a customer and the other from a faithful column reader.

 

SOLVED: Some photos won’t sync from iPad to computer

A customer was having trouble getting some, but not all, photos from her computer to her iPad. We looked at all the settings. We looked at all the photos. I never did figure out why some of them wouldn’t sync. My best guess was that the reluctant ones were somehow corrupted. 

Weeks later the customer let me know she’d solved the problem.

The photos that synced normally were, of course, .jpg files. I never looked at the file extension on the ‘bad’ photos, but my customer eventually did and found that every one of them was a .jpe file. She simply changed the extension to .jpg which solved the problem.

If you need to know how to do this, the instructions are here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/file-names-extensions-faq#1TC=windows-7

First, you need to reveal the file extensions. The Windows 7 instructions are here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions#show-hide-file-name-extensions=windows-7 

In Windows 10 it’s even easier:

Open File Explorer (Start | This PC or WinKey + E or click on the folder icon in the Taskbar)

Click on View

Check the box called File name extensions

Those instructions will work in Windows 8.1 as well.

Thanks, Tannis, for the solution.

 

SOLVED: Google images won’t display in new tab on Google.ca

Long-time reader Viv had an interesting problem. When searching Google Images from the google.ca website, right-clicking on an image in Internet explorer and clicking on ‘Open new tab’ or ‘Open new window’ would only display a black box, not the image.

But doing the same thing from Google.com, or Yahoo! or MSN produced the expected behaviour: The image opened in a new window or tab. She sent me screenshots.

I suggested the usual things in the usual order:

Clear the caches, cookies, and especially history. How to: http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache Then close and restart your browser.

It could be a problem with an add-on. Start Internet Explorer in safe mode. This is not the same thing as starting the computer in safe mode. How to: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/350941-internet-explorer-no-add-ons-open.html  If it works fine with the add-ons disabled, go back to starting it the regular way, then manually disable all the add-ons. Enable them one by one until you find the culprit and uninstall it. Keep looking; there might be more than one bad add-on. If you have an add-on that's an ad blocker, start with that. It's the most likely to be the issue.

It could be the result of malicious software and/or unwanted programs. Run an anti-malware tool such as Malwarebytes. The safe link is https://www.malwarebytes.org/  - get the free version from that link. See if it discovers any PUP (potentially unwanted programs) or PUM (potentially unwanted modifications) and be guided by the results - get rid of them.

If none of that helps, try another browser such as Google Chrome https://www.google.com/chrome/ or Mozilla Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ 

Well, those were all good suggestions, but none of them fixed the problem.

Viv fixed the problem on her own, by discovering that google.ca was set to display in Compatibility View. Turing that off solved the problem. What the heck is Compatibility View? Learn more here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

Have you solved any weird problems with Windows? Let me know so I can share. Send email to [email protected] 

 

Links

File names and file extensions: frequently asked questions http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/file-names-extensions-faq#1TC=windows-7

Show or hide file extensions http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions#show-hide-file-name-extensions=windows-7

How to clear IE cache http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache

Open IE in safe mode http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/350941-internet-explorer-no-add-ons-open.html

Malware bytes https://www.malwarebytes.org/

Get Google Chrome https://www.google.com/chrome/

Get Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Turn Internet Explorer Compatibility View on/off for a website

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

Computer Care Kelowna http://computercarekelowna.com/

Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm

Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618

RSS Feed: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml

 

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.