OLE object shows up on some computers, not others

Printed From: Crystal Reports Book — Forum Name: Technical Questions

Some computers having CR2016 will display the actual image that comes from a linked picture or OLE object, and others will not.

This has to be a clue: when I try to insert a .tiff image by clicking Insert → Picture, the computer on which the OLE object shows the picture when the report is run shows a list of all .tif images in the selected folder. This computer is Win10 with CR2016 SP5. And if I insert the picture this way, it immediately appears in the report. I just noticed that this computer has TIFF files on the dropdown list of image Files of Type.

But on the Win7 computer with CR2016SP8 that shows a blank pane where the picture should be when running the report, Insert → Picture shows nothing in the folder. And this computer does not have TIFF files on the dropdown list of image Files of Type.

But I also have a Win10 computer with CR2016SP8 that does not show TIFFs.

So it is not just about Windows 7 vs 10.

What, exactly, is it in Crystal that determines which file types are valid?
I have now compared four different Windows/Crystal versions and see this: when I try to insert a .tiff image by clicking Insert → Picture, I get success (see the picture) or not depending on the version of Crystal:

Win7, CR2016 SP5: It has TIFF files on the dropdown list of image Files of Type. I insert the picture, and it immediately appears in the report.
Win10, CR2016 SP5: It has TIFF files on the dropdown list of image Files of Type. I insert the picture, and it immediately appears in the report.
Win10, CR2016SP7. It shows TIFF as a valid type on the list during Insert Picture but gives me the "Could not insert this file as a picture: [.TIFF path & filename]. It is not a supported image file.
Win7, CR2016 SP8: I attempt to insert the picture and get this: "Could not insert this file as a picture: [.TIFF path & filename]. It is not a supported image file." It does not have TIFF files on the dropdown list of image Files of Type.
The pattern I see here is that, in my admittedly small pool of systems, CR2016 newer than SP5 has problems inserting TIFFs. There appears to be something regressive happening here. I am trying SP8 patches now to see if that solves the problem or if .tiff is something that SAP has relegated to the dust heap.
Well, now I have a real Ouch! moment. I updated a Win10 station from CR2016 SP​5--where TIFFs were working perfectly--to SP8Patch2. And now TIFFs are no longer on the list of images that can be inserted and generate the "...not a supported image file" if I switch to All Files and try anyway.

Did SAP remove this functionality intentionally, or is this a bug? If so, it is kind of a big deal because we have an image-indexing system that is core to our operations, and we have reports that include TIFFs that currently need to be updated in the next few days due to a recent major upgrade in that software.

If a bug, is there any process for reporting it? Otherwise, it seems my only option is to remove SP8 and revert to SP5.