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Author Topic: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects  (Read 5426 times)

phillie08

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Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« on: October 22, 2018, 08:16 AM »
This is a question that for unknown reasons was not published earlier.
It used to be that the thumbnails showed objects included such as text, arrows, cliparts etc. This is not the case anymore which I find highly disturbing.
Now here comes the funny part: After having started a new project, the thumbnails of the former one had the objects! The new ones however did not.
Any idea anybody?

Ath

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2018, 08:52 AM »
Normally, after adding objects and saving the result I can see the combined image in my thumbnail view.

(Just tested on Win 7, though I'm normally on Win 10, where it also works as expected.)

What OS/version/release are you on?
And, have you installed the latest Screenshot Captor? (though this hasn't been reported before, AFAIK, neither recent nor in the last couple of years)
Maybe non-standard Video adapter installed?

mouser

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2018, 05:48 PM »
The thumbnails are automatically created by the operating system, and therefore should have the objects in them, as the objects graphics are saved to the image files.
If they aren't showing right after you save the files, it may be that the operating system is not properly refreshing the cache of thumbnails.  I'm not sure why this would happen, but try restarting SC or rebooting even.
Another thing you might try is if you have hundreds of images in your screenshot folder, you might try moving most somewhere else or into a subfolder to make it easier to see what's going on.

phillie08

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2018, 07:07 AM »
Thanks for your answers.
Restarting and rebooting is of course is what I tried in the first place, although to no avail.avail. My operating system is Win7 home premium with latest updates.
SC version is 4.29.0 which should be the newest.
There are currently about 50 screenshots in the folder, five of them with objects.
As mentioned before that very same problem occurred in my previous project. After switching to that project the thumbnails showed the objects as usual. But the new project does not. I even tried to switch back and forth but with the same results.
I guess Mouser's idea to blame the OS could be the key.
Just tried another computer, Win10 this time with the same version of SC. Here everything works just fine.
I will probably re-install SC to see what happens then.
Anyway, here is an example:
Sample.jpgThumbnails don't show embedded objects

Ath

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2018, 12:50 PM »
I will probably re-install SC to see what happens then.
That's not going to help if the OS is causing the issue...

You probably have to clean up the thumbnail cache of Windows 7, a known culprit but there are solutions, this link describes a few methods

phillie08

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2018, 05:38 PM »
That's not going to help if the OS is causing the issue...

You probably have to clean up the thumbnail cache of Windows 7, a known culprit
Many thanks to Ath. That one did actually work, at least for now. Will try to remember for future use.

IainB

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Re: Thumbnails don't show embedded objects
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2018, 06:05 PM »
@phillie08:
Yes, the simple explanation would seem to be that the cached thumbnails that are of concern to you - and which do not contain the latest artefacts in the original image and that were added to that image - could probably be of an earlier version of the image. One can only suppose as to why the cached thumbnail was not updated.

Those thumbnails will have been created by the Windows OS and stored in a database/cache - which is an accumulator and will contain thumbnails of since-deleted/changed image files.
It is thus generally a good housekeeping practice to periodically run cleanmgr.exe (in Admininstrator mode and set to to clean up system files). When doing this, ensure that there is a tick against the "Thumbnails" item. For example:

24_412x509_F576AFBA.png

The example screenshot above shows 26.0MB of Thumbnails - which is not much really and is usually larger (I had already not long ago run cleanmgr.exe before taking this screenshot).
It can be educational to search the system with Everything for files with "thumb  .db" (with the embedded space). That will identify all the Thumbnail-related files that comprise the 26.0MB  - in my case, they are mostly/all in:
C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\

Those files will have names with "thumbcache" in them - e.g. "thumbcache_768.db".

An Everything search will also be able to show you where all the "Thumb" and "Thumb  .db' named files are, so that you can delete them as necessary. Generally, system "Thumbs.db" files are to be found in all those directories where images are stored. They are Windows OS system files (caches), but it doesn't hurt to periodically sweep them up in a housekeeping run - e.g., using Everything to identify them prior to deletion - since they are accumulators and could contain thumbnails of since-deleted/changed image files (hence the problem discussed here), so that, over time, they could become bloated with useless garbage. The Windows OS will recreate anew the deleted thumbnail cache - with up-to-date thumbnails - as and when it is forced to open those image files again for any purpose.

If you use third party image file managers - e.g., (say) Picasa3 - then, from experience, you will generally find that they create and update their own peculiar thumbnail caches/databases. For example, in my case, Picasa3 builds several thumbnail and preview database files (caches) that are approx 2GB in size.    :o

So, in my case, I would therefore tend to leave well enough alone there, since Picasa3 will have done a lot of work to deliberately build those caches, rather than rely on the Windows OS thumbnail caching system. So far, Picasa3 never seems to have displayed for me the outdated cached thumbnail problem discussed here. I suspect that the Picasa3 cache build and maintenance processes will have been designed for optimum performance (efficiency and speed) - i.e., with garbage removed periodically by Picasa3 systematically updating the thumbnails cache after an image is deleted/changed.

EDIT: Also cross-posted this (for relevance) to the DC forum discussion thread: Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2018, 06:34 PM by IainB »