Article Discussion How to Fix Thumbnails Not Showing

[Ian]

Ian submitted a new resource:

How to Fix Thumbnails Not Showing - Tutorial on how to fix thumbnail generation for photos and other file types.

Are you having problems where photos, videos or other filetypes are just showing a generic icon rather than a preview thumbnail? There are several possible reasons for this, but we'll list the steps to resolve this in the most likely order to fix things:

Set folder options to show thumbnails:

File Explorer has an option to disable thumbnail previews, which could have been accidentally selected. To ensure that you have opted to view preview thumbnails, please search for "File...

Read more about this resource...

 

[jellyroll]

My Acrobat files show a black squares instead of Thumbnails on Acrobat files ONLY.
This issue arose while I was trying to rectify a very large cursor being shown in one of the Acrobat file
which resulted in freezing the file and the Thumbnails of all Acrobat files turned black.

Running BAT file downloaded from 10forums website to reset the explorer.exe rectifies the
problem but only temporarily before thumbnails turning black again.

I have tried the following steps without any luck.

- Thumbnails files cleanup from Disc Cleanup
- Explorer exe restart
- IconCache.db file deletion
- Reinstalling Acrobat and performing Repair installation.
- SFC Scannow and DISM show no issue.
- F5 refresh
- 'Always show icons, never thumbnails' is OFF in explorer. Sometimes Thumbnails have shown up
despite it being ON.
- Acrobat is set to default for pdf's.
- Acrobat settings are all ok to display thumbnails.
- Windows 11 Pro and Acrobat Pro are both up to date.
- Acrobat icon displays works ok on the black thumbnail - if option selected from explorer settings.

Please advise what else can be tried without having to Reset/Reinstall Windows.

 

[Xploit Machine]

Delete the entire folder in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows
Delete the IconCache.db

Build a BATCH file using the code below and run as Administrator to ease the method above .. reboot the computer;

---

:: Joe Isabella
:: 01.12.2022
:: (e-mail address removed)

@echo off
set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
set iconcache_x=%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*

echo.
echo The explorer process must be temporarily killed before deleting the IconCache.db file.
echo.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing.
echo.
pause
echo.
If exist "%iconcache%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\IconCache.db file has already been deleted.
echo.
If exist "%iconcache_x%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache_*.db files have already been deleted.
echo.
exit /B

:delete
echo.
echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files ..
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -show
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache%"
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache_x%"
start explorer.exe
echo.
echo IconCache database files have been successfully deleted.
goto restart

:restart
echo.
echo.
echo You will need to restart the PC to finish rebuilding your icon cache.
echo.
CHOICE /C:YN /M "Do you want to restart the PC now?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes

:yes
shutdown /r /f /t 00

:no
exit /B

 

[jellyroll]

''C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows'' contains about 30 folders and many files within.
Should I delete the whole 'Windows' folder? Will this folder be rebuilt upon Restart?

I needed to double check as I am not highly competent in these matters and afraid of damaging OS

 

[Xploit Machine]

You cannot delete the whole WINDOWS folder, it will damage the OS .. for safe purpose please use the batch code above, save it as .BAT and run as Administrator .. it will clean necessary unwanted files accordingly. TQ

 

[jellyroll]

The thumbnails on .pdf files worked after executing the above .bat file. However, upon restarting or refreshing the desktop, the pdf files icons were black again. What other steps can be tried?

 

[Xploit Machine]

Have you activated this?

 

[jellyroll]

Yes. That's ticked already.

 

[Xploit Machine]

Does it only happens in PDF? .. then you should refer below;

 

[Xploit Machine]

This is my Windows Explorer default view, as I only enable image viewing (JPG, GIF, PNG) but disabled PDF content preview because that option will overload my computer, for me images preview seems sufficient ..

 

[RogerOver]

I am also wondering whether this is less an Adobe Acrobat issue than a File Explorer issue.
There is a very old hint from XP times (or even earlier) for icon problems in Explorer.
Go to Folder options, click the View tab and remove all (really all) ticks from that window (under Advanced Settings) and restart.
Then you could set back the ticks you want (make a screeshot before, if you do not recall).
You could also try "FileandFolderdiag.cab"

 

[Xploit Machine]

Finally, you may want to this trick ..

This fix should be applied if others doesn’t work;​

1. Tap the Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the run box.​
2. In the run box, enter regedit and tap Enter.​
3. Navigate to the following key.​

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}​

1. Double-click the AppID value.​
2. Enter the following in the data box.​

{534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}​

1. Click OK.​
2. Restart the computer.​
3. The PDF files should now show a thumbnail.​

 

[jellyroll]

I am also wondering whether this is less an Adobe Acrobat issue than a File Explorer issue.
There is a very old hint from XP times (or even earlier) for icon problems in Explorer.
Go to Folder options, click the View tab and remove all (really all) ticks from that window (under Advanced Settings) and restart.
Then you could set back the ticks you want (make a screeshot before, if you do not recall).
You could also try "FileandFolderdiag.cab"

RogerOver - Your advice as below has finally RESOLVED the issue:

''Go to Folder options, click the View tab and remove all (really all) ticks from that window (under Advanced Settings) and restart''

Notes for readers:
1. My issue was impacting .pdf files that were placed on desktop only. Thumbnails were working in Explorer for pdf files.

 

[jellyroll]

Finally, you may want to this trick ..

This fix should be applied if others doesn’t work;​

1. Tap the Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the run box.​
2. In the run box, enter regedit and tap Enter.​
3. Navigate to the following key.​

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}​

1. Double-click the AppID value.​
2. Enter the following in the data box.​

{534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}​

1. Click OK.​
2. Restart the computer.​
3. The PDF files should now show a thumbnail.​

The issue got resolved following RogerOver advice. Upon checking my Registry - the above entry was already there. Thank you.