Windows 10 Image Thumbnails Flash then Disappear in Explorer

Anonymous
2017-12-05T17:15:02+00:00

I'm running Windows 10 Pro, Version 1703. Basically, whenever I open a folder, the image thumbnails will flash then disappear, and I've maid sure my "Always show Icons, Not Thumbnails" is unchecked. I have no idea what the problem is, as that was the only solution I could seem to find. Thank you!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2018-01-01T13:46:04+00:00

I just learned that if you deactivate the OneDrive "save space and download files as you use them" feature (i.e. leave all OneDrive files on your PC) then the thumbnail problem is fixed.  In addition, the Photos app now shows these files (which it did not do before, even though the files were locally "always" stored on the PC).

There is clearly a bug in the change to OneDrive -- don't get me wrong, the selective sync feature is nice, but it is affecting the thumbnail process somehow.

Moderator's note:

You can disable OneDrive Files On-Demand feature using these steps:

  1. Right click OneDrive icon on taskbar, select Settings.
  2. In Settings tab, under Files On-Demand, uncheck Save space and download files as you use them option.
  3. Click OK.

Note: Microsoft has updated the information in this reply, to benefit users facing this issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-02T17:04:05+00:00

    I have a local Admin account and have the this issue, but only on folders synced by OneDrive. 

    If a new folder is created, then also in such folder thumbnails are shown fine,

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-23T11:13:25+00:00

    I also experienced this problem for a long time now.

    My fix was: 

    ControlPanel-Apps-StandardApps

    The standard app for pictures was empty. Setting back to Windows standard fixed immediately.

    Brgds,

    Andi

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-18T23:33:22+00:00

    I have this problem as well and in a quest to solve it, I did the following:

    1. Uninstall all updates that were shown to me.
    2. Move affected folder outside of parent. In my case this was my OneDrive folder on G: so I moved the folder to the root of G:
    3. Open the moved folder and let the thumbnails rebuild.
    4. Reboot, letting Windows do it update thing on deleted updates. It may have reinstalled some.
    5. Move affected folder back to where it belongs.
    6. Check for updates and let Windows install them.
    7. Reboot again.
    8. Go to affected folder. Voila! Thumbnails still there even after more File Explorer navigation and a couple more reboots just to be safe.

    As an afterthought to delete thumbs.db files found in a local backup of the OneDrive files, I followed the steps at https://www.pcworld.com/article/2999243/windows/manage-thumbs-db-files-in-windows-and-on-the-network.html. This may be overkill but so far it hasn't affected the speed of displaying thumbnails in folders with lots of images.

    I was afraid that OneDrive would see all this movement of files and think it needed to take days to resync again. But it says now everything is up to date. Maybe I lucked out, but I'm happy, for now at least. :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-17T06:51:48+00:00

    Hello,

    Corrupted system components can cause this issue. For this, we recommend creating a new user to see if the issue will persist there. To do it, you can follow the steps in this article.

    Should you need further assistance, feel free to get back to us.

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