Places (geotag) panel and map fix

As of March 2016, the integrated geotag Places panel in Picasa no longer worked on Windows computers. Picasa uses an embedded Internet Explorer browser. The script forces Internet Explorer to run in "compatibility mode." In the final version of Picasa3, the embedded browser in standard mode was no longer compatible with Google Maps (or visa versa). The steps that follow will fix it.


  1. Close Picasa

  2. Click the following Google Drive Link

      1. Google Drive opens and you'll see what looks like an audio play button, but it is not an audio file so there is no need to try to "play" it.

        1. Click the Download icon (see screenshot below)

      2. Save the FixPicasaMap_win11.reg file to your computer

        1. (Note that the FixPicasaMap_win11.reg script was modified on July 12, 2022 to add a 0 value so that it will work with Windows 10/11)

      3. If the file saved as FixPicasaMap.reg.mp3 - remove the ending extension (.mp3)

      4. Double-click the FixPicasaMap_win11.reg file and click Run

      5. Approve of any warnings you see about changing the registry

      6. Restart your computer

      7. Open Picasa and the Places map should now load properly

      8. Delete the FixPicasaMap_win11.reg file (or save it in case you need it on another computer)


Troubleshooting tips for when the above directions do not work:

  1. Run all Windows updates then retry the steps above.

  2. Follow the steps above again, but this time run the .reg file as "Administrator" because the script makes changes in a restricted location of the registry.

------

If you want to know more about how the reg file works and how to fix Picasa manually, see this webpage: https://www.picxl.de/picasa3-maps-fehlerbehebung/ (Use Google Translate to translate to English). The basic directions are as follows:

  1. Go to Start > Run > type " regedit" > Enter

  2. Browse to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION

  3. Right click "picasa3.exe"

  4. Change the Value data to 0 [zero]

  5. Click OK

------

If all the above tips and tricks didn't work for you, there is a free program called GeoSetter (www.geosetter.de) which you can use in conjunction with Picasa. Use GeoSetter to geocode pictures on your computer. The metadata written by GeoSetter is completely compatible with Picasa. This program is provided free of charge, and has no ads or additional payware associated with it. Note: Geosetter uses Internet Explorer and hasn't been updated since 29 October 2019.


The beta version mentioned below could no longer be found on the GeoSetter website in May 2021: https://geosetter.de/en/changes-en/

Make sure you download the beta version of GeoSetter, which is located here: geosetter_beta.exe rather than the non-beta version. Reason: a change in the API for Google maps broke the map display capability in the official last release of Geosetter (dating from Feb 2011). It is still under active development. The latest beta release is 3.4.51 beta (Released 2014-06-20).