# Diagnosing imread failure

**URL:** <https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Tags:** windows, build, debug-release-mix\
**Created:** [February 1, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255 "2021-02-01T14:43:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![richardst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@richardst](https://forum.opencv.org/u/richardst)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/1 "2021-02-01T14:43:34Z")

</div>

imread() is failing silently on my system. The returned image is always `empty()`.

I am an absolute beginner with OpenCV.

My system is:  
Windows 10  
Visual Studio 2017  
OpenCV 4.5.1

I am building against: `...OpenCV_4_5_1\opencv\build\x64\vc15\lib\opencv_world451.lib ` and  
`...OpenCV_4_5_1\opencv\build\x64\vc15\bin\opencv_world451.dll ` .

I have tried the obvious:

- The images are ordinary 1054 x 1004 pixel .bmp, .png or .jpg files. They open normally in other Windows programs.

- My program can open the files with `<fstream>`, so it is not a path or access issue.

```auto
#include <opencv2/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/imgcodecs.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
	cv::String sFilename = cv::String(argv[1]);

	std::cout << "Image to display is: " << sFilename.c_str() << std::endl;

	// check that the file can be opened.
	std::fstream fsIn(sFilename.c_str(), std::fstream::in);
	if( fsIn.is_open() )
	{
		std::cout << " Opened: '" << argv[1] << "'" << std::endl;
		fsIn.close();
	}
	else {
		std::cout << " Couldn't open: '" << argv[1] << "'" << std::endl;
	}
		
	
	// read the image in OpenCV
	cv::Mat image;
	image = cv::imread( sFilename ); // Read the file
	if (image.empty()) // Check for invalid input
	{
		std::cout << "imread() failed to open the image." << std::endl;
		return -1;
	}
	cv::namedWindow("Display window", cv::WINDOW_AUTOSIZE); // Create a window for display.
	cv::imshow("Display window", image); // Show our image inside it.
	cv::waitKey(0); // Wait for a keystroke in the window
	return 0;
} 

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![visualbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b38774/32.png) [@visualbill](https://forum.opencv.org/u/visualbill)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/2 "2021-02-01T15:56:28Z")

</div>

I think you need to load and link imgcodecs library. Look at class definition for opencv imread…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![richardst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@richardst](https://forum.opencv.org/u/richardst)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/3 "2021-02-01T15:58:14Z")

</div>

Thanks, visualbill. I will look into that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laurent.berger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ec9cab/32.png) [@laurent.berger](https://forum.opencv.org/u/laurent.berger)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/4 "2021-02-01T16:06:49Z")

</div>

can you add in your program

`cout << cv::getBuildInformation()<< endl;`

and show us result  
and what does it mean “imread() is failing silently on my system”?

Do you run your program in windows command or you double click on icon?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crackwitz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.opencv.org/crackwitz/32/14_2.png) [@crackwitz](https://forum.opencv.org/u/crackwitz)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/5 "2021-02-01T16:18:51Z")

</div>

> [@visualbill](#):
>
> I think you need to load and link imgcodecs library. Look at class definition for opencv imread…

no you don’t have to do that. if you link against `world`, that contains everything. if you didn’t, you _would_ have to make sure to link `imgcodecs`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![richardst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@richardst](https://forum.opencv.org/u/richardst)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/6 "2021-02-01T17:13:35Z")

</div>

> [@laurent.berger](#):
>
> cout \<\< cv::getBuildInformation()\<\< endl;

Hello Laurent and other commentators,

Thank you very much your help

I am running the program in Visual Studio’s debugger.

To my utter astonishment, simply adding `cout \<\< cv::getBuildInformation()\<\< endl;’ made the program work.

Ah! The other thing I did (and thought I’d tested) was to ensure the Debug build had  
just `opencv\_world451 **d**.lib’ in the Additional Dependencies and the Release build had just the non-debug include library. Let’s see if I can break it again… Yup, Can do.

Got it!  
I must have had both `opencv_world451.lib` and `opencv_world451 **d**.lib` in the Additional Dependencies. Silly me. How curious that the effect was that ‘imread()’ failed although the program built and linked OK.

For reference, the console output is now:

```auto
Image to display is: C:\Users\[my_username]\Pictures\DSC_6455_d4.bmp
 Opened: 'C:\Users\[my_username]\Pictures\DSC_6455_d4.bmp'

General configuration for OpenCV 4.5.1 =====================================
  Version control: 4.5.1

  Platform:
    Timestamp: 2020-12-22T00:43:18Z
    Host: Windows 10.0.19041 AMD64
    CMake: 3.16.4
    CMake generator: Visual Studio 15 2017
    CMake build tool: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Professional/MSBuild/15.0/Bin/MSBuild.exe
    MSVC: 1916

  CPU/HW features:
    Baseline: SSE SSE2 SSE3
      requested: SSE3
    Dispatched code generation: SSE4_1 SSE4_2 FP16 AVX AVX2 AVX512_SKX
      requested: SSE4_1 SSE4_2 AVX FP16 AVX2 AVX512_SKX
      SSE4_1 (15 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1
      SSE4_2 (1 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2
      FP16 (0 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 AVX
      AVX (4 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 AVX
      AVX2 (29 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 FMA3 AVX AVX2
      AVX512_SKX (4 files): + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 FMA3 AVX AVX2 AVX_512F AVX512_COMMON AVX512_SKX

  C/C++:
    Built as dynamic libs?: YES
    C++ standard: 11
    C++ Compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Professional/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.16.27023/bin/Hostx86/x64/cl.exe (ver 19.16.27042.0)
    C++ flags (Release): /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W4 /GR /D _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /D _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE /D _SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS /Gy /bigobj /Oi /fp:precise /EHa /wd4127 /wd4251 /wd4324 /wd4275 /wd4512 /wd4589 /MP2 /MD /O2 /Ob2 /DNDEBUG
    C++ flags (Debug): /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W4 /GR /D _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /D _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE /D _SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS /Gy /bigobj /Oi /fp:precise /EHa /wd4127 /wd4251 /wd4324 /wd4275 /wd4512 /wd4589 /MP2 /MDd /Zi /Ob0 /Od /RTC1
    C Compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Professional/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.16.27023/bin/Hostx86/x64/cl.exe
    C flags (Release): /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /D _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /D _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE /D _SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS /Gy /bigobj /Oi /fp:precise /MP2 /MD /O2 /Ob2 /DNDEBUG
    C flags (Debug): /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /D _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /D _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE /D _SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS /Gy /bigobj /Oi /fp:precise /MP2 /MDd /Zi /Ob0 /Od /RTC1
    Linker flags (Release): /machine:x64 /INCREMENTAL:NO
    Linker flags (Debug): /machine:x64 /debug /INCREMENTAL
    ccache: NO
    Precompiled headers: NO
    Extra dependencies:
    3rdparty dependencies:

  OpenCV modules:
    To be built: calib3d core dnn features2d flann gapi highgui imgcodecs imgproc ml objdetect photo stitching video videoio world
    Disabled: python2 python3
    Disabled by dependency: -
    Unavailable: java ts
    Applications: apps
    Documentation: NO
    Non-free algorithms: NO

  Windows RT support: NO

  GUI:
    Win32 UI: YES
    VTK support: NO

  Media I/O:
    ZLib: build (ver 1.2.11)
    JPEG: build-libjpeg-turbo (ver 2.0.6-62)
    WEBP: build (ver encoder: 0x020f)
    PNG: build (ver 1.6.37)
    TIFF: build (ver 42 - 4.0.10)
    JPEG 2000: build (ver 2.3.1)
    OpenEXR: build (ver 2.3.0)
    HDR: YES
    SUNRASTER: YES
    PXM: YES
    PFM: YES

  Video I/O:
    DC1394: NO
    FFMPEG: YES (prebuilt binaries)
      avcodec: YES (58.91.100)
      avformat: YES (58.45.100)
      avutil: YES (56.51.100)
      swscale: YES (5.7.100)
      avresample: YES (4.0.0)
    GStreamer: NO
    DirectShow: YES
    Media Foundation: YES
      DXVA: YES

  Parallel framework: Concurrency

  Trace: YES (with Intel ITT)

  Other third-party libraries:
    Intel IPP: 2020.0.0 Gold [2020.0.0]
           at: C:/build/master_winpack-build-win64-vc15/build/3rdparty/ippicv/ippicv_win/icv
    Intel IPP IW: sources (2020.0.0)
              at: C:/build/master_winpack-build-win64-vc15/build/3rdparty/ippicv/ippicv_win/iw
    Eigen: NO
    Custom HAL: NO
    Protobuf: build (3.5.1)

  OpenCL: YES (NVD3D11)
    Include path: C:/build/master_winpack-build-win64-vc15/opencv/3rdparty/include/opencl/1.2
    Link libraries: Dynamic load

  Python (for build): C:/utils/soft/python27-x64/python.exe

  Java:
    ant: C:/utils/soft/apache-ant-1.9.7/bin/ant.bat (ver 1.9.7)
    JNI: C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_112/include C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_112/include/win32 C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_112/include
    Java wrappers: NO
    Java tests: NO

  Install to: C:/build/master_winpack-build-win64-vc15/install
-----------------------------------------------------------------

```

Again, many thanks to all. Let’s hope this helps someone else.  
Peace and blessing.

Richard

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laurent.berger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ec9cab/32.png) [@laurent.berger](https://forum.opencv.org/u/laurent.berger)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.opencv.org/t/diagnosing-imread-failure/1255/7 "2021-02-01T17:33:44Z")

</div>

Don’t mix debug and release lib that’s it!