Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

MountainDewManiac · 2013-03-29 18:36:08

Hello again,

I have noticed an oddness with Thunar regarding thumbnails and I wonder if it is unique to my setup or a more universal issue. Thunar seems to handle thumbnails for files okay - but I cannot seem to get mine to create them.

For example, I download public domain videos from the Moving Image Archive at archive . org. When I use Thunar to view the directory I download them to, their thumbnails are only the generic "this is a video" one. It is not until I run PCManFM and view the directory with it that actual thumbnails are created for the files. At that point, I can exit PCManFM and run Thunar - and the files are then displayed in it with their proper thumbnail images.

Is this behavior normal? Or, rather, is it the way that Thunar behaves for everyone else? Or do I have it incorrectly configured, somehow? Now that Thunar has tabs and I no longer have to run two instances of it at once to move files from one directory to another, I have been using it as my file manager - but I still need to run PCManFM every time I add a new file to one of my directories in order to create a thumbnail for it, and I wish I didn't have to.

Can someone tell me how to fix this? Or at least let me know that you have noticed this same issue so that I can stop trying to figure out what I have set wrong in mine?

Thanks,
MDM

donaldbroatch · 2013-03-29 20:05:20

MountainDewManiac wrote:

Hello again,
I have noticed an oddness with Thunar regarding thumbnails and I wonder if it is unique to my setup or a more universal issue. Thunar seems to handle thumbnails for files okay - but I cannot seem to get mine to create them.
For example, I download public domain videos from the Moving Image Archive at archive . org. When I use Thunar to view the directory I download them to, their thumbnails are only the generic "this is a video" one. It is not until I run PCManFM and view the directory with it that actual thumbnails are created for the files. At that point, I can exit PCManFM and run Thunar - and the files are then displayed in it with their proper thumbnail images.
Is this behavior normal? Or, rather, is it the way that Thunar behaves for everyone else? Or do I have it incorrectly configured, somehow? Now that Thunar has tabs and I no longer have to run two instances of it at once to move files from one directory to another, I have been using it as my file manager - but I still need to run PCManFM every time I add a new file to one of my directories in order to create a thumbnail for it, and I wish I didn't have to.
Can someone tell me how to fix this? Or at least let me know that you have noticed this same issue so that I can stop trying to figure out what I have set wrong in mine?
Thanks,
MDM

Probably distro specific: seems to require tumbler in Debian Wheezy but I had to install ffmpegthumbnailer in Debain Squeeze.

MountainDewManiac · 2013-03-29 21:03:21

Thank you for the response. I will check to see if I have either of those in my distro's (Mint 14) repositories and if either is installed.

daniel227 · 2013-09-17 06:25:27

i stumbled upon this old topic searching for another tumblerd problem...

you probably figured it out already but here's my penny's worth:

it isn't enough to simply install tumbler(d) - you have to make sure that thunar is set up to generate thumbnails. under prefs -> display -> show thumbnails.

if you meant video thumbnails ONLY (image thumbnails work ok), then it might be a different issue.

edit: reading your other posts on this - my advice might sound insulting in its noobness.
anyhow, i was thinking to uninstall tumblerd completely and replace with sth else -
does pcmanfm itself create thumbnails, or does it depend on some app/daemon?
(background: whoever creates the thumbnails, they are stored in a distinct folder -
~/.thumbnails - and are then available to all who need them)

Last edited by daniel227 (2013-09-17 06:34:35)

MountainDewManiac · 2013-09-19 00:26:01

daniel227 wrote:

you probably figured it out already

Nope. Still have no thumbnails for video files. Never did figure it out. Finally gave up. I installed PCManFM, and when I have accumulated a lot of video files - with no thumbnails, of course - I'll run PCManFM, point it to my video directory, and it creates thumbnails for all of the files which lack them (and very quickly, too!). Then I exit PCManFM, run Thunar... and have thumbnails. Kind of a PitA; if I liked PCManFM even a little bit, I'd just stop using Thunar.

daniel227 wrote:

under prefs -> display -> show thumbnails.

That was the very first thing I checked.

Thunar creates thumbnails for some other file types, but it has never created a single thumbnail for any video file type on my laptop or desktop. It's really rather annoying, but I played with Tumbler, ffmpeg(?), and every setting I could find that looked even vaguely connected... and finally gave up.

Regards,
MDM

fEsTiDiOuS · 2017-11-25 17:59:18

I have a similar problem, but with images. When I open a folder with pictures there are no image thumbnails, if I open an image with Mirage and then close the image immediately the image gets a thumbnail. However if I open and image then press the arrow keys to switch to a different image and then close mirage the image thumbnails are unchanged. Very strange..

I found some information on this that might help us: apparently the program 'tumbler' creates thumbnails for thunar, and movie thumbnails are excluded by default. I'm guessing that you need only to change your tumbler configuration, and I need to install tumbler.

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/tumbler
https://wiki.gnome.org/DraftSpecs/ThumbnailerSpec

Cool Beans! Good luck! :-)

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2013-03-29 18:36:08

Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

#2 2013-03-29 20:05:20

Re: Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

#3 2013-03-29 21:03:21

Re: Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

#4 2013-09-17 06:25:27

Re: Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

#5 2013-09-19 00:26:01

Re: Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

#6 2017-11-25 17:59:18

Re: Thunar: Thumbnails (How to?)

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