file explorer not showing thumbnails for onedrive folder

Anonymous
2018-05-21T19:58:48+00:00

Many of my images have no thumbnail in my users one drive folder, even for files that are downloaded to my pc.

Full path C:\Users\myuser\OneDrive\Pictures\Camera Roll

How can I fix this? There was a time when thumbnails always worked for this folder, but I can't remember when this stopped working, it's been a couple/few weeks perhaps.

Also, why are some of the images near the end only available online. In my one drive settings this entire folder is set to sync.

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

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Anonymous
2018-07-13T10:17:06+00:00

I had the same issue and to fix it I went into the settings of the One Drive app and disabled (untick) the Files On Demand service then hit OK. Then after a restart of the PC all thumbnails within my One Drive folders had returned.

No I idea why this works but it did for me and hopefully will do for you also.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-08-15T11:54:18+00:00

    Only works for a bit...then the thumbnails disappear again after a few sessions...and its always the same ones!

    --Ed G

    It worked perfectly for me, and it's almost a year now !

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-15T11:33:18+00:00

    Do you have OneDrive location on another drive than "C:" (The default) ?

    yes, all my one drive files are on another drive besides C:\ (which could not hold all the files anyway).

    This is the main problem, and I think they have fixed it but only for the new files not the current ones!

    To fix the current ones just simply:

    1- Close OneDrive completely and browse to its folder.

    2- Move everything that has this issue to another drive than the current one you are using for OneDrive.

    "For example if OneDrive is in drive (D:) then move the files to (E:) or (C:) or any other drive"

    3- When everything is moved successfully their thumbnails will work fine!

    4- Now move them back to their original location again.

    5- Run OneDrive and that's it !

    But please make sure you completely close OneDrive first before all this process.

    Again, this is a working solution for anyone who still has this problem.

    Only works for a bit...then the thumbnails disappear again after a few sessions...and its always the same ones!

    --Ed G

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-08-15T07:41:17+00:00

    Do you have OneDrive location on another drive than "C:" (The default) ?

    yes, all my one drive files are on another drive besides C:\ (which could not hold all the files anyway).

    This is the main problem, and I think they have fixed it but only for the new files not the current ones!

    To fix the current ones just simply:

    1- Close OneDrive completely and browse to its folder.

    2- Move everything that has this issue to another drive than the current one you are using for OneDrive.

    "For example if OneDrive is in drive (D:) then move the files to (E:) or (C:) or any other drive"

    3- When everything is moved successfully their thumbnails will work fine!

    4- Now move them back to their original location again.

    5- Run OneDrive and that's it !

    But please make sure you completely close OneDrive first before all this process.

    Again, this is a working solution for anyone who still has this problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-08-15T04:44:56+00:00

    This solution works indeed, but unfortunately One Drive then downloads all files on my hard drive (which has not enough capacity, that's also the main reason of using One Drive in fact ...).

    Um, the main reason I use OneDrive is as an automated backup in the cloud; I would never, ever trust it to be my main content repository. I also use two external hard drives for additional backup, though I only make fresh EHD backups occasionally, just for peace of mind.

    I get the same problem as everyone else with thumbnails not appearing for images and video, but only for files stored on my main hard drive and backed up in OneDrive. Thumbnails for content held on my C-drive but not in my OneDrive folder are all fine. I only use simple file extensions like .jpg, .mpg and .avi, with the odd .bmp or .mkv or .mov, and none are showing thumbnails if they are held in OneDrive.

    Somehow holding files in the OneDrive folder is stuffing up Windows Explorer's ability to analyse an image or video and display it as a thumbnail: when I navigate to a folder holding images, I can see the computer attempting to load thumbnails - they appear for what must be milliseconds, then revert to the default image. I can also sometimes see thumbnails if I choose View > Medium-sized icons or Tiles or Content, but not Small, Large or Extra Large, which are of course the most useful ones.

    I have tried deleting my thumbnails index and the two methods described in previous postings on this thread to instruct Windows Explorer to show thumbnails rather than icons. My copies of Windows10 and OneDrive are both bang up to date. I've also tried adding tags to images, which I've seen suggested somewhere else: this does usually somehow force Explorer to display the thumbnails, but if you navigate away from the folder and come back, the thumbnails fail to reload.

    The *only* approach that works for me is to to switch off the Files On Demand service. This forces OneDrive into a rapid session of "downloading" (I use inverted commas because the content is all held on my local drive already). I could see all my files having the tiny blue "refresh" icon added to them, before being replaced by the green tick that says "task done". This only took a couple of minutes, and miraculously, there were all the thumbnails!

    However, as soon as I switched Files on Demand back on, the thumbnails disappeared again.

    Like so many other people, I have to ask "**** is going on?" Does Microsoft have *any* idea why the interaction between Explorer and OneDrive should be creating this problem for so many people?

    I haven't tried moving my entire Onedrive-protected content set to a different drive as suggested elsewhere on this thread: it seems like an awful lot of work to set up a partition, disconnect OneDrive, then move it and ask OneDrive to re-upload everything again, and without step-by-step instructions, I'm worried something will go wrong.

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