Do you have issues with adding pictures and videos or using voice-to-text with the Desktop Report Writer? Here are some common problems and their solutions to help you get back on track:

Can't Find the Film Strip

• If you've lost your filmstrip, click View -> Default Pane Layout. This will restore your filmstrip or components bar to its default setting.

Photos not dragging and dropping into Forms

This is usually due to the display settings on your computer not being compatible with Desktop Report Writer.

1. Find the HomeGauge 5 Icon on your desktop
2. Right-click and choose Properties
   
3. Click Compatibility tab
4. Click Change high DPI settings
   
5. Click Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:  
   
6. From the drop down, choose System. Then click OK.
7. Back on HomeGauge5 Properties, click Apply

Photos Appear Black When Dragged from Film Strip

• Possible Cause: iOS "Live Photo" mode is enabled
  • Solution: If the photos were taken with an iPhone or other Apple device, you may need to open the folder containing the images and check to see whether there are also video clips present. This can happen if Apple's Live Photo feature is enabled, which saves a 1.5-second video clip alongside the image, which can cause this issue in our software. If the video files are present in that folder, try removing them, leaving only the images (files with the .jpg or .png format typically), re-open HomeGauge, and try pulling the pictures over again. Here is an article on how to disable Live Photo mode on your iOS device: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-disable-live-photos-on-iphone-6s-6s-plus/
• Possible Cause: iOS Device Using HEIC Image Format
  • Solution for the current problem:
    
    • Images with this problem must be manually converted to the JPG format. This can be done using MS Paint or IrfanView. In MS Paint, open each image and save it as a JPG file. With IrfanView, you can batch-convert the images to MS 
    • The HEIC setting can be disabled on applicable phones by going to Settings > Camera > Formats and choosing the Most Compatible option. This forces the images to be in JPG format instead of HEIC format.
  • Solution for future images:
    • Other notes: This issue seems to affect iOS 7+ devices. Our initial discovery of this problem involved an iPhone 7+ running iOS 7.11.0.3. DropBox was used to transfer the photos; DropBox automatically converted them to JPG format, but they retained some formatting from HEIC, which caused the issue. The involvement of DropBox may or may not be a contributing factor.
• Possible Cause: Photos are on an SD card that HG has trouble accessing.
  • Solution: Copy the photos from your SD card to a location on your computer, then restart Desktop Report Writer. Now point Desktop Report Writer to the location on your computer that you moved the photos to.

Pictures do not Appear When Specific Folder is Chosen

1. Click the notepad icon to open the Picture Folder Options.

   

2. In the Show Only Pictures In Folder From drop-down box, choose Show All and click OK. You can then browse to your picture folder.

If your pictures are still not appearing, please contact HomeGauge Support at 828-254-2030 or create a new ticket.

Pictures from my old report are showing up in my new report 

This is caused by the pictures from your camera card having duplicate file names. There are two ways to fix this:

1. Instead of pulling pictures directly off of your camera or camera card, save them to a file on your computer. This will rename them for you. Then, point the film strip on the right of the software to that saved file instead of your camera.
2. After you build a report, adding all the pictures you need, go up to Report -> Show Photo Locker. Make sure the pictures that appear in that photo locker are the correct pictures, then select them all (Ctrl+A) and right-click them with your mouse. Select rename and give them a unique name. Close out of that file, then do a print preview. If neither of these steps seems to work, please call us at 828-254-2030.

Strip Existing Audio is Not Working

When editing a video and checking the Strip Existing Audio box, you may find that sometimes the audio does get stripped from the video as expected. This can happen if no selection is made on the video timeline bar. You can solve this using the steps below.

1. After clicking Edit Photo to bring up the video editor, you'll see that the video timeline bar does not indicate a selection:
   
   
2. If you are trimming the video first, select the start and end points, check Strip Existing Audio, and click OK. It should work as intended.
3. If you do not intend to trim the video and only want to trim audio, just click Set Start, check Strip Existing Audio, and click OK.
    

Videos Don't Work or Have Red X's

• Recommended Solution: This issue is solved by updating to the newest version of HomeGauge 5. You can do that by following the instructions in this article, Desktop Report Writer: Software Updates.
• Alternate Solution: For users on HomeGauge 5.1 they may install QuickTime to view and use video.