Solved Thumbnail images VERY slow to load in File Explorer

Peano · Dec 7, 2023

When I open a folder of images and choose the Large Icons view, the thumbs load very slowly. Example: A folder with 77 jpeg images (most smaller than 300K) takes three minutes to load all the thumbnails. After they load, they're stored (I assume) in the thumbs.db file within that folder; so, the next time, they pop right up.

Before Win 11, I was using Win 7 Pro. A folder this size would load all the thumbnail images in two or three seconds at most. So I'm assuming the slow loading is an issue with Windows 11.

I tried WinThumbsPreloader, but that evidently doesn't work for files that are stored on an external hard drive (as mine are). Even if did work, that wouldn't be a good solution, because I do commercial Photoshop work and have scores of client folders holding nearly 10,000 images. So it would be a great help if I could get thumbnails to load in W11 as quickly as they used to load in W7.

Any ideas?

Berton · Dec 7, 2023

Same post at

Thumbnail images VERY slow loading in File Explorer

Windows 11 Home, ver. 23H2 When I open a folder of images and choose the Large Icons view, the thumbs load very slowly. Example: A folder with 77 jpeg images (most smaller than 300K) takes three minutes to load all the thumbnails. After they load, they're stored (I assume) in a thumbs.db file...

www.windows11forums.com

glasskuter · Dec 7, 2023

If photos are in .heic format, this is normal as it's not a native Windows file format. You should convert them to .jpg.
If photos are in .jpg format, Ideas here.

Top 4 Ways on How to Speed up Windows Thumbnail Loading

Windows thumbnails are slow to load or even not loading? Read this post to learn how to speed up Windows thumbnail loading.

www.minitool.com

Peano · Dec 7, 2023

glasskuter said:
If photos are in .heic format, this is normal as it's not a native Windows file format. You should convert them to .jpg.
If photos are in .jpg format, Ideas here.

Top 4 Ways on How to Speed up Windows Thumbnail Loading

Windows thumbnails are slow to load or even not loading? Read this post to learn how to speed up Windows thumbnail loading.

www.minitool.com

Thank you! The images are jpg. I tried all of the suggestions at the minitool link, but the thumbnails still load slowly.

glasskuter · Dec 7, 2023

Try clearing and resetting thumbnail cache. Restart. Note:the first time you go to photos the thumbnails will be slow to load. This is normal while the cache is rebuilding itself. Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 11 Tutorial

Peano · Dec 7, 2023

glasskuter said:
Try clearing and resetting thumbnail cache. Restart. Note:the first time you go to photos the thumbnails will be slow to load. This is normal while the cache is rebuilding itself. Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 11 Tutorial

Thanks again. I had tried that before, but I cleared the thumbnail cache again just to make sure. No change. The thumbs take forever to load. In Windows 7 after I cleared that cache, a large folder of jpegs would load new thumbnails in a few seconds. In Windows 11, it's taking five or six minutes. Something isn't right, but I'm stumped.

glasskuter · Dec 7, 2023

I can think of only 2 other things to try.

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

Do a repair install. Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Peano · Dec 7, 2023

glasskuter said:
I can think of only 2 other things to try.

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

Do a repair install. Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Thank you again! I ran the scan, with this result: "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them." No change in the slow thumbnail loading.

This is a new computer, about a month old. Given than I'm a techno-novice, I'm not comfortable with doing a repair install. But I do appreciate your attempts to get me straightened out.

dacrone · Dec 7, 2023

Modify the registry to keep thumbnail cache so that it doesn’t have to reindex/populate previews. If you’re not sure how, winaero tweaker can do it for you

Peano · Dec 7, 2023

dacrone said:
Modify the registry to keep thumbnail cache so that it doesn’t have to reindex/populate previews. If you’re not sure how, winaero tweaker can do it for you

Thank you! I evidently already did this. Here's what I find in the tweaker:

dacrone · Dec 7, 2023

if you did it and its still really slow, uncheck that, reboot, delete thumbnail cache, then enable it and see if that resolves the issue

glasskuter · Dec 7, 2023

Peano said:
This is a new computer, about a month old.

Ah, that puts a brighter light on it. If you are using a Microsoft account (and you probably are if you went through oobe normally), then your Photos, Desktop, and Documents folders have a default location of Onedrive. These files are not on your installed drives. That be the case, your internet speed comes into play as to how fast the thumbnails will populate. You can verify this by RIGHT clicking on your photos folder, select properties, location tab.
Does the location show C:\users\yourusername\onedrive?
While there, under the general tab, please make note of the size of the 3 folders and report back.

That be the case, do you want to use Onedrive? You get only 5 gb of free storage space. If your 3 folders exceed this, you will have to purchase additional onedrive storage space. If you exceeded 5gb, this could well be the reason you are having this problem. I can't say this to be 100% true because I moved all my files to my storage drive, but it makes sense that it could.

If you have exceeded 5 gb You won't be able to upload, edit, or sync new files (such as Camera Roll) to your OneDrive. Your existing files will remain but will be read-only. If you use your MS account to receive email, you will not be able to send or receive email, Emails sent to you will be returned to sender.

When you got this computer, did you per chance copy your photos and documents from your old computer to external media?

Peano · Dec 8, 2023

glasskuter said:
Ah, that puts a brighter light on it. If you are using a Microsoft account (and you probably are if you went through oobe normally), then your Photos, Desktop, and Documents folders have a default location of Onedrive. These files are not on your installed drives. That be the case, your internet speed comes into play as to how fast the thumbnails will populate. You can verify this by RIGHT clicking on your photos folder, select properties, location tab.
Does the location show C:\users\yourusername\onedrive?
While there, under the general tab, please make note of the size of the 3 folders and report back.

That be the case, do you want to use Onedrive? You get only 5 gb of free storage space. If your 3 folders exceed this, you will have to purchase additional onedrive storage space. If you exceeded 5gb, this could well be the reason you are having this problem. I can't say this to be 100% true because I moved all my files to my storage drive, but it makes sense that it could.

If you have exceeded 5 gb You won't be able to upload, edit, or sync new files (such as Camera Roll) to your OneDrive. Your existing files will remain but will be read-only. If you use your MS account to receive email, you will not be able to send or receive email, Emails sent to you will be returned to sender.

When you got this computer, did you per chance copy your photos and documents from your old computer to external media?

The photos are on an external hard drive, definitely not in the cloud. That's the same place they were when I was using a Win 7 machine, which populated new thumbnails very fast.

Alex__ASSR · Dec 8, 2023

I use these 3 applications to view all types of images in explorer,

*Copy Trans HEIC for Windows v2.000 = Free for personal use

*Fast Picture Viewer Codec Pack
> paid =

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack adds fast thumbnail and preview support to Microsoft Windows
for many image formats, including RAW formats from more than 580 digital cameras,
Photoshop PSD, OpenEXR, TGA, DDS, HDR, Maya IFF, SGI RGB, JPEG 2000 and more!
The Codec Pack is compatible with Windows 10 Desktop, Windows 8.x Desktop, Windows 7,
Windows Vista and Windows XP SP3 and also creates thumbnails for Google SketchUp,
Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, EPS and Adobe PDF-XMP.

*svg_see_x64 = for svg images

Release Version v1.1.0 · tibold/svg-explorer-extension

Changes notes: Upgraded dependencies (VS2019 and Qt 5.15.0) Added /norestart to vcredist Fixed installing vcredist before trying to register the dll. Renamed the project to SvgSee File hashes: s...

github.com

Fabler2 · Dec 8, 2023

Have you tried file explorer settings -options and clear file explorer history?

glasskuter · Dec 8, 2023

11 is not anything like 7. Please humor me as I like to verify anything that can be a roadblock. We can't see what you see and there is not always a way for us to find a solution without details. For us to get a full picture , we have to ask specific questions and you have to give us specific answers.We do not know what changes you've made or how you set up your options or changes you've made. Starting at the beginning is the only way we can do that.

1. In file explorer, did you right click on each of the folders
Documents, Desktop, Pictures, select properties. From general tab what is size of each folder, from Location tab, what is location of each folder?

2. Do you have Windows Home or Pro?

If Home, Is device Encryption enabled? If Pro, is bitlocker enabled?

(HOME-settings>update&security>left panel device encryption>)

(PRO- from command prompt as administrator manage-bde -status

This command will tell you the status of each drive in your system)

3. You say your photos are on external drive. What kind of drive? External flash drive? or external SSD or HDD?

Once I know the answers to these questions I can give better advise rather than just guessing, but I will be asking more questions as should anyone else.
Your issue is not a widespread problem so the answers thus far have been general ones. We may have a LOT of questions until we can get to the bottom of it.
Congrats on having such a powerful and well equipped system. Once you get it working correctly it should serve you well.

Peano · Dec 8, 2023

Fabler2 said:
Have you tried file explorer settings -options and clear file explorer history?

Thanks, I just tried it, and no improvement. Still takes 3 to 5 seconds for each thumbnail to load.

glasskuter · Dec 8, 2023

For grins and giggles, temporarily COPY a folder of pictures with 15 or more pictures in it to Downloads folder. Make sure it's the downloads folder you use for testing as I know where that folder is located.
When you open the pictures from there, do the thumbnails load correctly. If they do, it will prove it's not a function of windows causing the problem.

Fabler2 · Dec 8, 2023

Just tested out a 3.85 GB photos folder on external SSD, expanding sort -more - and Date taken is the selection. The large thumbnails open nearly instantaneous. Scrolling down fast they still load fast to keep up.

Peano · Dec 8, 2023

glasskuter said:
For grins and giggles, temporarily COPY a folder of pictures with 15 or more pictures in it to Downloads folder. Make sure it's the downloads folder you use for testing as I know where that folder is located.
When you open the pictures from there, do the thumbnails load correctly. If they do, it will prove it's not a function of windows causing the problem.

No change. The thumbs still take 3 to 5 seconds each to load.