On 2013–08–01 Jannik Voges wrote:

> I found a bug in the current ConTeXt Beta with externalfigure. The following minimal example will show you what happens
> 
> 
> \starttext
> 
> \externalfigure[cow]
> 
> \externalfigure[cow][width=10cm]
> 
> \page
> 
> \externalfigure[test]

This reads in the file

  texmf-modules/doc/fonts/urw/garamond/test.tex

which is not desired. But I assume you have a “test” graphic in your
current directory which is used instead, so this is unrelated to
your problem.

> 
> \page
> 
> This text will appear.
> 
> This text will not appear.
> 
> \externalfigure[test][width=10cm]
> 
> This text will not appear.

When I change \externalfigure[test] to \externalfigure[cow] it works
here. The text appears.

Marco