Monterey OS won't open jpegs

[MargoMac]

Hello all, I recently upgraded my desktop iMac from El Capitan to Monterey, and now I can't open any of my jpegs. All of their icons are blank. The jpegs were taken with a digital camera, and downloaded to my mac, put in folders. Also, I transferred these files to a brand new mac (the old one was a 2015 model) via an external drive, and in that case, there aren't even any icons, just empty folders.

Also, I've established an external drive with the new mac, am using it for Time Machine. If I plug in the drive on the new Mac that was being used for Time Machine on the old computer, will that open as a regular drive, or will it mess up Time Machine on the new computer (e.g., will the new computer try to back up files to it?)

Thanks in advance for any help in restoring these files!

 

[Nurgle2024]

Hi, sorry if you have already tried this, but did you 'double-click' them, or try drag & Drop, or "Force open" (open an image app and then look for an open from within that app).. also what brand camera as some have their own propriety icons, and may not be in your systems icon look up list. and as a side thought, have you tried 'Disk Utility' to "First aid" you hard disk. I have found sometimes that fixes things on usb sticks and external hard drives, and also to run that program on any external device before you transfer files to it....

(sorry to be 'bleeding obvious' if you have already tried)

also, if you have tried, can you drag & Drop, or "Force open" them on a graphic converter program, or tried force opening in Photoshop (the master at file formats). or try to may them to Tiff's or PNG files. in Preview.?

if you don't have photoshop, or elements the Photos is the next best thing, and you can drag & drop Photoshop file son it and it will open them as Single layer Jpegs..

were they edited in any program previously, before your new Monterey.? and if you can fine any of these same files on you time machine disk, also try and open on elf these by the various methods.

you have any other computer to try one of these files on.?

another thing to try is changing the file postfix from .jpeg to .jpg (or vice-versa) by selecting info on the icon and then editing the name and postfix.

As always, only try such on backups or spare files.

regards, Sandy