Powerpoint "The picture can't be displayed" and questions around this

AE 20 Reputation points
2026-05-11T10:07:00.3833333+00:00

Hello,

Yet another person in the sea of many that has this issue; however, even after reading through all the different answers, I am still left with a few questions. I am crossing my fingers here that @John Korchok could perhaps spare me a few minutes of his time to answer some questions.

I understand that this error often occurs when the file is on a cloud service that doesn't support editing Office files or on a USB/flash drive, but none of it seems to apply to my case.

INFO:

Images are taken with "snipping tool" which automatically saves them under C:\Users\xuser\Pictures\Screenshots.

PP presentation is saved on Desktop.

The images are copy-pasted from snipping tool and into pp.

After the PowerPoint gets corrupted, the images disappear entirely, even from the zip file, and the HTML file has no path to any of the images.

The images are still present under the Screenshots folder.

I have also received the error of the file being locked and thus unable to be saved previously.

This has happened to several pp presentations now. All saved on Desktop, and with Snipping Tool images.

I switch networks and sometimes have to work with a VPN.

I have the latest version of Office 365.

No add-ins.

Connected services: OneDrive, Sites

QUESTIONS:

  1. Do you need SharePoint enabled for your office license to insert images into the PowerPoint presentation and keep them there? Can not having it enabled cause this issue? --I am unsure how PowerPoint saves its images and where. SharePoint is now enabled, but wasn't earlier.
  2. If I have Nexcloud, which syncs both my Pictures and Desktop folders for backup, would this cause issues? The files are still locally saved on the computer.
  3. Would working with the PowerPoint web version avoid having these issues?

Thanks in advance!

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For business | Windows
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Answer accepted by question author
John Korchok 236.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2026-05-11T16:18:43.8033333+00:00

If copy and paste isn't working, I would try saving the files to a bitmap format (PNG for line art, JPG for photos) from the snipping tool, then placing those saved files in PowerPoint.

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  1. Nam-D 3,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-05-11T15:06:00.1233333+00:00

    Hello @AE,

    With regard to your issue, I’d like to share a few insights.

    When you copy and paste images from Snipping Tool into PowerPoint, the images are embedded directly inside the PPT file and are not linked to SharePoint or to any local folder. Because of this, if the PowerPoint file becomes corrupted, the embedded images inside the PPT can disappear, while the original screenshots in the local Screenshots folder remain completely unaffected and intact. 

    Your also mentioned that “after the PowerPoint gets corrupted, the images disappear entirely, even from the ZIP file, and the HTML file has no path to any of the images.” Could you please confirm if this was the result after following the steps outlined below: 

    1/ Navigate to the .pptx file 

    2/ Right‑click the file and select Rename 

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    3/ Change the extension from .pptx (or .pptm) to .zip and confirm

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    4/ Right‑click the ZIP file and select Extract All 

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    5/ Open the extracted folder and go to ppt > media, images will locate here.

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    The embedded (inserted) images will locate here.

    In addition, I noticed that you received the error of the file being locked and thus unable to be saved previously. Could you please share the screenshots of this issue (Kindly remove any personal information from the screenshot)?

    Regarding to your question,

    1/ Do you need SharePoint enabled to insert or keep images? 

    No. SharePoint is not required and disabling it does not cause this behavior if you are saving the image under local machine. 

    2/ If I have Nextcloud, which syncs both my Pictures and Desktop folders for backup, would this cause issues? 

    Once the image has been copied and pasted into PowerPoint, it is embedded inside the presentation and no longer depends on the original image file or its location. 

    3/ Would using PowerPoint on the web avoid this? 

    PowerPoint file corruption might link to local processes on the PC. There are Microsoft troubleshooting article that also mention checking the hard drive when PowerPoint files become corrupted: Troubleshoot a damaged presentation in PowerPoint - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn, which indicates the issue can be device related. For this reason, my recommendation is to use PowerPoint on the web, as it saves directly to the cloud and can help avoid problems caused by local storage or disk‑related issues. 

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    I hope you find this information helpful. If anything is unclear, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. 

    Note: If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment."    

    If you want to receive the related email notification for this thread, please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications. 

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