PopOS (Ubuntu) Image Viewer Cannot Open WEBP Images

Issue

The default image viewer on PopOS (Ubuntu-based Linux) fails to open WEBP image files, showing an error that the file format is not recognized. However, the images open fine in Firefox.

Probable Cause

The system's image viewer lacks the necessary plugin or library to support the WEBP image format. WEBP is a relatively newer image format, and some Linux distributions do not include native support for it in their default image viewers.

Solution

To enable WEBP support in the image viewer, install the webp-pixbuf-loader package, which provides the required loader for the Gnome image viewer and other GTK-based applications.

Run this command in the terminal:

After installation, restart the image viewer or your system if needed. The image viewer should now open WEBP files without errors.