How to Fix Thumbnail Previews not Showing on Windows 10?

Thumbnails Not Showing on Windows 10

Are you finding messed thumbnails for files and folders on Windows 10? There are situations when pictures don’t display the thumbnail preview but they show the default icons.

This guide will help you to fix the issue of thumbnails not showing on Windows 10. While you launch any directory containing pictures or videos, you normally view the thumbnails.

Why are Thumbnails Not Showing on Windows 10?

Windows 10 maintains its own cache database for handling thumbnails images for any file, folder, document, video, and picture on your computer. With this database, quickly displays the file preview and gives you a glimpse of the content of a folder/file before you open it.

This "thumbnails cache" database gets corrupted as it grows over time with the creation of new folders and files. Subsequently, the File Explorer displays thumbnails incorrectly, while few files may not show a thumbnail preview, or sometimes thumbnails may not be available at all.

Fortunately, Windows 10 gives some ways to reset and rebuild the thumbnail.DB hidden files containing the data to display file (or folder) previews.

Recreating Thumbnail Cache Using Disk Cleanup

When the thumbnail previews not showing on Windows 10 then you can rebuild the thumbnail cache using the Disk Cleanup
tool.

• Firstly, launch File Explorer.
• In the left side pane, click on This PC.
• Now, right-click on the C: drive where Windows 10 is installed, and then select Properties.
• Here, you have to click the Disk Cleanup button.

• Next, you have to check for the Thumbnails option while unchecking the other options.

• Click OK and click Delete Files to confirm completing the task.

Recreating Thumbnail Cache Using Command Prompt

Still if the thumbnail previews not showing on Windows 10 or the previous steps didn't work, then you can opt for command lines. Using Command Prompt you can delete and clear the thumbnail cache on your Windows 10.

• Click on the Start menu and search for Command Prompt tool.
• As the result appears, right-click the result and select Run as administrator.
• Now, enter the given command to stop File Explorer and press Enter: 

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

• Next, enter the following command to delete all the thumbnail database files without asking for confirmation and then press Enter: 

del /f /s /q /a %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db

• Now, type this command to start File Explorer and press Enter:

start explorer.exe

• Finally, you can exit from Command Prompt to complete the task.

• You should be able to search system files and folders with thumbnail previews showing up correctly.

Configure the Folder Settings

In the case, of thumbnail previews not showing on Windows 10, chances are that someone or something messed up with your folder settings.

• Launch File Explorer.
• Under the View tab, click on Options to open Folder Options.
• Do make sure to uncheck the mark for the Always show icons, never thumbnails option.

• Now, click on the Apply option.
• Next, click OK to complete the task.
• If the particular setting was causing the problem, then you must now be able to see thumbnails again for files and
• folders on Windows 10. 

Check if Thumbnail Preview is Enabled or Not

• One of the important things you must ensure is whether the right view mode is turned on for the folder where you have saved your photos and videos.
• Using the Windows 10 File Explorer, go to the target folder.
• Using the View option, select any one option from Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Titles or Content.

As all these views support thumbnail previews, you can easily choose one view to turn on thumbnail view. 

Restore File Explorer Options to Default

In order to fix the issue of photos thumbnails not showing in Windows 10, you can even restore the File Explorer options to default. For this, you have to follow the given guide:  

• Quickly launch the File Explorer Options by searching it in the search bar.
• Now, navigate to View and click the Restore Defaults button.
• Lastly, click on Apply, and then OK.

However, there occurs an unusual thing when thumbnail previews not showing on Windows 10 and you only see the default icon for that file type. Isn't that annoying? To get back the thumbnails back to File Explorer, you need to go through the below-discussed methods for fixing this issue.

You will find thumbnails for almost every image formats such as PNG, GIF, JPG, and JPEG, and video formats including MP4, MPG, WMV, AVI, FLV, MKV, and MOV. Using this way, you can easily identify the files in your system.

Hope this guide helps to fix the thumbnail previews not showing on Windows 10 system.