Why I can't see the thumbnails in Nautilus?

Question

Problem Loading Thumb Previews:

enter image description here

This started to happen after upgraded Ubuntu from 12.04 to 12.10.

score 29 · Answer 1 · answered May 26 '13 at 03:50

29

try changing nautilus preferences

Edit-> Preferences-> Preview-> Other Previewable Files-> only files under (set a higher MB value and then try reloading)

answered May 26 '13 at 03:50

Aswn

456

Salem · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-24T20:26:51.583

This may happen if you get a different UID from the one you had before (this will remove you the ownership of those files). Try executing this on a terminal:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/.thumbnails

From 12.10 onward, thumbnais are also stored in ~/.cache/thumbnails, so you may repeat the same process for this location.

If none of those solves your issue, you can always remove them (they are automatically generated, and I think failed thumbs generations are cached):

sudo rm -rf ~/.thumbnails/* ~/.cache/thumbnails/*

Note: it's not the case of OP, but if you don't get previews to video files (ex: mkv, mp4) probably you are missing the video codec. This can be easily fixed by open the video with "Movie Player": it will propose a suitable codec.

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '12 at 14:09

I had the same issue.

I solved it by moving the .thumbnails folder and setting a symbolic link to .cache/thumbnails instead.

mv ~/.thumbnails ~/thumbnails
ln -s ~/.cache/thumbnails ~/.thumbnails

Is it possible that there were some changes?

It looks to me like the thumbnailers create their thumbnails in .cache/thumbnails, while nautilus keeps looking in .thumbnails.

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 22 '13 at 23:17

6

Looks like the path has changed in recent versions. For me the issue in 13.04 was that ~/.cache/thumbnails was owned by root.

So for 13.04 at least, the command is:

sudo chown -R yourusername:yourusername ~/.cache/thumbnails

So Salem did have it-

edited Apr 22 '13 at 23:17

BuZZ-dEE

14,533

answered Apr 22 '13 at 22:55

jejbarr

61
1
2

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 13 '14 at 05:56

2

If you are trying to access a network device like a NAS, then go to nautilus preferences, and choose Edit-> Preferences-> Preview-> Other Previewable Files->Show thumbnails->Always

Hope this helps!

answered May 13 '14 at 05:56

Paul Preibisch

2,003

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 09 '22 at 15:17

1

I had the same symptom and fixed it by installing the following package

sudo apt install libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin

answered Jul 09 '22 at 15:17

vidstige

93

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 05 '14 at 13:18

1

there may be another factor causing this - perhaps you didn't install the right codec as suggested here: http://iwillfolo.blogspot.co.il/2013/10/thumbnail-doesnt-load.html

try installing ubuntu restricted extras. Open a terminmal and type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras -y

edited Mar 05 '14 at 13:18

Rho

1,244
1
12
21

answered Oct 02 '13 at 21:45

yuri

11

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 18 '14 at 12:44

Depends on version of glib, the change was in the Gio module starting in the 2.35 series.

The thumbnail cache directory is prefixed with $XDG_CACHE_DIR/ and the leading dot removed (since $XDG_CACHE_DIR is normally $HOME/.cache). The glib ChangeLog indicates the path for large sizes was "fixed" (Added $XDG_CACHE_DIR)

starting with 2.35.3 so as to match the path for normal sizes, implying some versions using the added prefix, pior to 2.35.3 (I did not find any) are broke. The solution to add the symbolic link would provide a work-around for these broken versions.

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 01 '16 at 13:45

In my case it was pretty simple: All I had to do is to change the preference in nautilus, by switching from "show thumbnails: only local files" to "show thumbnails: always" (my JPGs located in my smartphone weren't being shown). I found the issue thanks to Aswn, practically, so thumbs up for him/her.

score 1 · Answer 10 · edited Mar 14 '17 at 12:46

1

Change nautilus preferences in

Edit -> Preferences -> Preview -> Files -> Show Thumbnails

from "Local files Only" to "Always". This could be helpful for usb memories or any external source like phones.

(ubuntu 14.04 LTS)

edited Mar 14 '17 at 12:46

anonymous2

4,325

answered Mar 14 '17 at 09:20

ddrbcn

11

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 10 '22 at 19:37

In my case I disabled a kernel sysctl setting because of CVE-2022-32250 and this broke "bwrap" from package bubblewrap which is used internally when creating thumbnails!

So the following as "root" made it work again for me:

echo "1" > /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_userns_clone

Unfortunately the actual error messages in nautilus is hidden deeply inside so that only running with strace allowed to find out the "bwrap" commandline which then showed the proper error-message.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 15 '24 at 09:45

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / Jammy

As previously pointed out, there is a setting in Nautilus preferences to show thumbnails on your local computer or always. The wording is however different now.

Nautilus
Preferences / hamburger menu, top right, preferences
Scroll down to the "Performance" heading
Change "Show Thumbnails" to "All files" (from "On this computer only")

As always, be ready for slight changes in naming in upcoming releases.

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Jul 25 '24 at 13:10

For anyone using a more recent version of ubuntu (22.04+);

If you have followed sastorsl's answer and still the thumbnails won't get generated then do the following:

Check if totem is installed (by using nala or dpkg):

sudo nala list --installed | grep totem
dpkg -s totem

If not, either install it or, install ffmpegthumbnailer (this is a package from the universe repo)

sudo nala install -y --install-recommends totem

or

enable the universe repo:
```
sudo apt-add-repository universe
```
update cache:
```
sudo nala update
```
install:
```
sudo nala install -y ffmpegthumbnailer
```

Restart nautilus close nautilus from the system manager or terminal and reopen

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 01 '24 at 20:01

0

2024 ANSWER

To re-create thumbnails in Nautilus delete files inside:

~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/

answered Oct 01 '24 at 20:01

Ventolinmono

133

Why I can't see the thumbnails in Nautilus?

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