How To Fix Up Thumbnails That Are Messed Up in Windows 10

Fix Up Thumbnails In Window 10

Windows 10 maintains a cache database with images of the thumbnails. It follows to maintain the database for each and every file, folder, document, video, and picture on the PC or laptop. This database is used to quickly display a preview of a file or the content of a file or folder before opening it.

There is a problem with the thumbnail cache. That is it grows over time as new files and folders are created. Sometimes the database will become corrupted. You can make sure that they are corrupted because File Explorer will display incorrect thumbnails. Some files may not show a thumbnail preview, or sometimes thumbnails may not be available at all.

Thanks to Windows 10! It provides a few ways to reset and rebuild thethumbnail database hidden files containing the data to display file previews.

In this article, you can know the process to recreate the thumbnail database using the Disk Cleanup tool and Command Prompt. This will help us to solve this problem.

Recreate Thumbnail Cache Using Disk Cleanup Tool:

Follow the below steps recreate the thumbnail database using the Disk Cleanup Tool.

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Click This PC on the left pane.

Step 3: Right-click the C drive where Windows 10 is installed, and select Properties.

Step 4: Click the Disk Cleanup button.

Step 5: Check the Thumbnails option, and uncheck all the other options.

Step 6: Click OK.

Step 7: Click Delete Files to confirm and to complete the task.

Recreate Thumbnail Cache Using Command Prompt:

In the case, the previous steps didn’t work, or you prefer to use command lines, you can use Command Prompt to delete and clear the thumbnail cache on Windows 10.

Step 1: Click on Start button.

Step 2: Search for Command Prompt.

Step 3: Right-click the result and select Run as administrator.

Step 4: Type the following command to stop File Explorer and press Enter.

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

Step 5: Type the following command to delete all the thumbnail database files without asking for confirmation and press Enter.

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

Step 6: Type the following command to start File Explorer and press Enter.

start explorer.exe

Step 7: Close Command Prompt to complete the task.