Nothing compares to the simple joy of a photo-browsing session of the 5000+ photos stored on your smartphone or computer. Unfortunately, while browsing through these images, important images can often be difficult to find if the thumbnails fail to load or are not showing. Often, you might even think that the entire photo will not show.
If you cannot view the thumbnail or the entire photo, it means the thumbnail and the photo are corrupted or damaged. Users often report that they cannot view the thumbnail or cannot open the image in any image viewer application.
In this blog, we’ll examine the corrupted thumbnail vs. photo corruption debate, exploring what causes these issues and how to fix them.
Understanding Corrupted Thumbnails
An image thumbnail is the compressed version of a larger image, designed to make it easier and faster to view or manage a group of larger images without opening the full-size version.
Thumbnail corruption occurs when it fails to load or is not showing. Moreover, if the thumbnail of the image is corrupted, it might:
- Display strange colors (gray/rainbow bars running across them)
- Do not display correctly or appear blank.
- Fail to load.
- Cannot see thumbnail pics in Windows 10/11 or Mac
Why does your image thumbnail get corrupted?
A file system error or the accumulation of cache files can corrupt thumbnails. Moreover, image thumbnails can get corrupted due to incorrect preview settings or inconsistent file transfer.
Some common reasons for corruption in thumbnails are:
- Piling up of thumbnail cache.
- The thumbnail preview settings are incorrect.
- File system errors.
- Low system resources.
- Interrupted or incomplete file transfer.
- Glitches or bugs in the system or image viewer software.
- Bad sectors on a hard drive or SD card.
How to fix Corrupted Thumbnails?
You can fix the corrupted thumbnail by using various methods that include:
- Get professional Stellar Repair for Photo (Recommended)
- Use Disk Cleanup to delete the thumbnail cache
- Use Command Prompt to remove thumbnail cache
We recommend using a professional photo repair software like Stellar Repair for Photo, a secure and safe way to fix corrupt images and their thumbnails.
Method 1: Use Stellar Repair for Photo
If image thumbnails are not showing up or are corrupt, chances are, the image files might also be turned corrupt.
You can use Stellar Repair for Photos to repair corrupt or damaged images. Once your images are repaired, their thumbnails will also appear.
Steps to repair images using Stellar Repair for Photo:
- Download and install the Stellar Repair for Photo software on your Windows and Mac. Once installed, launch the software. Click on the ‘Add File’ icon to insert corrupted images.
- Once you finish adding corrupted image files, click the ‘Repair’ button to start the repair process.
- Once the repair process is completed, you can preview the repaired photos and their thumbnails.
- Once satisfied with the repair result, click Save Repaired Files and browse the location to save the repaired files at a desired destination.
Method 2: Use Disk Cleanup to delete the thumbnail cache
A cache file is created for every photo on your system. Over time, the thumbnail cache piles up and sometimes gets corrupted for any reason.
You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to remove the thumbnail cache and rebuild the thumbnail cache database. Here’s how to delete the thumbnail cache:
- Open File Explorer > This PC.
- Right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Now click on Disk Cleanup.
- In the Disk Cleanup box, check the Thumbnails option and uncheck the rest. Click OK
- Then, click Delete Files.
Method 3: Use Command Prompt to delete the thumbnail cache
You can even use the command prompt to delete the thumbnail cache on the Windows system. Here’s how:
- Press the Windows + R keys together to open the Run window.
- Type cmd.exe and click Enter to open Command Prompt.
- In the Command Prompt, type the following three commands and hit Enter after each:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
del /f /s /q /a %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db
start explorer.exe
- Now exit the Command Prompt window.
The thumbnail previews of image files should be visible now.
Understanding Corrupted Photos
A corrupt photo means that the image file has been damaged or altered so that it cannot be opened or viewed in any image viewer software.
Signs of Photo Corruption
Check for these signs of photo corruption
- Photos do not open on any photo viewer apps like Photoshop or Lightroom.
- They contain blank spots or are greyed out.
- They appear pixelated or blurry.
- You will receive an error message when opening the image.
- The image appears blank or distorted.
Why do your photos get corrupted?
There can be many reasons why your photos become corrupt. Some of the common reasons are:
- Clicking photographs when the digital camera battery is low
- Virus or malware infection.
- Sudden system shutdown during image transfer or editing.
- Bad sectors on the storage media.
- Faulty USB cable, card reader, or damaged SD card.
- Trying to transfer multiple high-quality photos in one go.
- Incompatible photo file format.
Workarounds to Repair Corrupted Photos
Following are some manual and software methods you can try to repair corrupt image files:
1. Transfer/Download RAW Files again
If the process of downloading or transferring image files from one device to another is interrupted, it can lead to corruption. So, transfer or download the image again and make sure no interruption occurs.
2. Open the image on Another Photo Viewer
If your regular image viewer app cannot open your photo, use different photo viewer applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW, etc., to open it.
3. Change the Format of the RAW File
You can change the file format of your corrupted photo to see if the problem is fixed. You can use Photo editor tools like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom or online image converter tools like Zamzar, iLoveIMG, CloudConvert, etc., to change the image format.
4. Use CHKDSK Command
Bad sectors on the storage drive can often corrupt your photos or make them inaccessible. Try running the CHKDSK command to fix the bad sectors. Here’s how to run the chkdsk command
- Press the Windows + R keys together to open the Run window.
- Type cmd.exe and click Enter to open the Command Prompt.
- Type chkdsk (drive letter): /r in the command window. Here,/r locates a bad sector on the corrupted hard disk and tries to recover any readable information from the drive.
- Wait for the scan to complete.
After completing the scan, restart your system and check if the images are opening.
5. Repair corrupt images with Stellar Repair for Photo
Stellar Repair for Photos is the best tool for repairing corrupt or damaged image files. This professional tool is designed to fix invalid image file structures, corruption in image file headers, unknown markers, and more.
Conclusion
The easiest and quickest way to repair corrupt photos and their thumbnails is to use professional image repair software like Stellar Repair for Photo. This tool can easily repair all kinds of image corruption and extract thumbnails of corrupted images. Plus, this tool is available for macOS and Windows systems.