Cannot rotate images - help pls!

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

I have copied some photos from my camera to my laptop. I have done this millions of times before - same camera, same laptop.

All of a sudden I cannot rotate any of the images. Every I try I get a message saying that I cannot rotate the image as it may be in use by another program or the file may be read only.

This has never happened before.

I have tried clicking on "properties" at both the folder level and the folder above and the box saying "read only" is shaded, so I have unselected it, clicked "apply" and "ok" but it keeps coming back as showing "read only".

I haven't changed anything and didn't ask any of the folders to be read only.

Pls can anyone help?!?! Maddening, as I no longer have the photos on my camera...

I am trying to rotate both in Windows Explorer and in Windows Photo Viewer - I get the same error message.

Many thx in advance if anyone can help me solve this.

waterwatereverywhere

PS

I have googled this and found things to try but none of these have worked for me.

One suggestion was to go into My Computer and edit permissions for the "users" folder to "allow full control". I did this but it hasn't made any difference - I still can't rotate my photos. It allows me to rename them, but not to rotate.

waterwatereverywhere

PPS

Sorry, forgot to say I'm using Windows Home Premium 7 and the digital camera is a fuji finepix I've used hundreds of times before without issue.

victor2

Have you tried the good old reboot, to see if that sorts it?
The rotate options on the right-click menu for an image are disabled if the image is read only, so it sounds like the system believes some other application has the files open. I've had similar problems with Windows 7, but not often enough to investigate thoroughly, as a reboot fixes it for me.

waterwatereverywhere

Hi Victor2

Yes, thanks, I have tried rebooting but it is still doing the same thing unfortunately. If anyone has any other suggestions for how to fix this I'd be very grateful.

Pinkypants

Is the camera still attached to computer when you are doing this?

If so unattach it first, see if that makes a difference.

waterwatereverywhere

Hi Pinkypants,

Thanks, but no, the camera is not attached to computer.

agrinnall

Have you tried making a copy of one of the photos to see if the copy can be rotated?

esuhl

Do you have an image viewer open? Or any "helper" software for your camera? Or is your PC set to open a program automatically when you attach the camera?

It might be worth having a look in the Task Manager to see if there's anything running that might have locked the photo files.

Failing that, you could try this file unlocking software. I used it in the past and it worked fine.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_unlocker/

waterwatereverywhere

Hello,

Many thanks for the extra suggestions.

I downloaded the unlocker software and tried it against both individual photos and the whole folder in which they are saved - each time it came up with "no locking handle found" - seemingly suggesting they are not locked.

I have also tried making a copy of the images and saving them into different folders or even in the same folder - but still the result is the same error message telling me that I can't rotate as the image is in use by another program.

I have nothing else switched on or plugged in. This is really bizarre!

victor2

If you boot in safe mode, can you then open and rotate them?
Also, if you add a new image from the camera, does that rotate OK?