PDF Thumbnails not showing - SOLVED

[Benoit23545001cbjl]

Had a hard time with thumbnails of my hundred of PDF files not showing properly on Windows 11, followed all the proper indications to make sure Acrobat had all the proper tick marks enabled, purged thumbnails cache on Windows, rebooted PC, was about to give up, then had epiphany :

I asked that PDF files should be opened by default by ANOTHER application than Acrobat. Voilà! Thumbnails are back.

[creative explorer]

@Benoit23545001cbjl that's probably fastest ever correct answer EVER! 

[Julio9807]

Didn't work for me.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi 

Thanks for reaching out. 
Please check this dedicated help document for this issue: https://adobe.ly/40Fzktq

Steps:

1. Open Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. Select the hamburger menu   > Preferences.

2. In the Preferences dialog box, choose General in the Categories list, and then select the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer check box.

Note: 

If you don't see the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer checkbox, update your Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to the latest version. To automatically update from the product, choose Help > Check for updates and then follow the steps in the Updater window to download and install the latest updates.

3. Click OK.

4. Wait for a few seconds while Acrobat is configured to show thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer.

Note: In Acrobat Reader, you see a prompt asking for the feature to be added to the current installation. Click Yes to confirm.

Let us know how it works.

Best regards,
Tariq | Adobe Community Team

[Julio9807]

Acrobat XI Pro (32 bit) doesn't have that option.

I tried installing Reader (64 bit) which provided for the thumbnails, but took over some of the Pro's functionality and stopped being "friendly" for me, so I had to uninstall it.

[mrs._r._7920 · Accepted solution]

Thank you!  I followed the adobe instructions to the letter, and it did not work. Struggled with it for weeks. Switching the automatic default for opening documents to pdf-xchange fixed the problem.  Thank you for posting your epiphany! 

[Julio9807]

Hmm...pdf-xchange is fairly small.

I'll try that or some other smaller app.