thumbnail previews not showing in recent files list

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 15, 2025
14 replies
586 views

Thumbnail previews are enabled in acrobat pro preferences. Somehow in the recents list, the thumbnail previews are not showing up. I'm using the latest version on Windows 11 - 64 bit.

What to do to fix this issue?

They used to show up earlier for a long time. I didn't install any adobe software or updated anything. The thumbnails just stopped showing suddenly.

J

Jovial_knowledge185e

Participant

what is the solution for this issue. I once faced but latter it was auto solved.

M

Mike_RedAuthor

Inspiring

This issue of non-display of thumbnails got solved in few versions earlier.

However, this issue has cropped up once again.

Sharing snapshots of my windows version and my acrobat version.

I tried to repair installation via help>repair installation and also tried clearing the recent files list but the issue is still there.

Any suggestive fixes please?

Amal Jaiswal

Community Manager

Hi @Mike_Red,

Thanks for sharing the version details and confirming this has come back after being fixed before. That's useful for the team to know, since it points to a regression rather than a new issue.

A couple of quick questions before more troubleshooting:
Did you reboot the machine after running the repair installation, or just re-launch Acrobat?
Are the PDFs you're viewing stored locally, or in a cloud location like OneDrive or a network drive?
Is this happening for every file in the recent list, or only some? Since repair, installation, and clearing the recent files list didn't help, a couple more things are worth checking:

1. Reopen Preferences > General and confirm "Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer" is still checked. Sometimes an update resets this setting even if it was on before. https://adobe.ly/4zEZVqA

2. Clear the Windows thumbnail cache separately (this is different from Acrobat's own recent files cache), then restart the computer.

Let us know how it goes
~Amal

M

Mike_RedAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Amal

I didn't reboot my machine after repair installation, I just relaunched Acrobat. I just restarted now after cleaning up thumbnails from Disk Cleanup tool of Windows. Still no solution.

All the pdfs are locally stored.

This is happening with every file in the recent list. The situation is exactly the same as highlighted and shown through screenshot in the original post of 1 year ago.

PDF thumbnail previews in Acrobat Preferences>General, has been checked since a long time. The thumbnails show all good in the windows explorer too. I never faced problem with that at all.

T

Tariq Dar

Legend

Hi @Mike_Red,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry for the troubled experience.
When did you start to observe? Has anything changed recently for you?

In the meantime, I am checking internally with the product team. Also, please share the following details: