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How to keep thumbnails

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 6, 2018
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I have some photos that I use on an external backup hard drive. When this drive is not connected I can not see any thumbnails. When I connect the drive I see all the thumbnails appear. Is there a way to always have the thumbnails show even when offline?

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Correct answer Just Shoot Me

That is because LR only keeps standard previews for a period of time. Then they are replaced with different ones.

This is something that is not adjustable. So as soon as you start to add or browse newer images the standard previews for older images are replaced by ones for the newer or newly browsed images even if the newly browsed images are older and LR has access to the original file.

That is why some images have them and other don't.

So you have 2 options when this happens.

1) Connect your external drive so LR can read the original file and create a preview for it.

2) Build Smart Previews for all the images that are in the external drive. But doing that will take a lot of disk space on your internal drive.

If you have the external connected and you are browsing images in the Library module Grid view or in the film strip and you see 3 white dots in the upper right hand corner of the thumbnail that is a sign that LR is creating a standard preview for that/those images.

With the external disconnected and LR doesn't have access to the original file then you get a blank gray box where the image would normally be displayed.

D

davidKheaton

Known Participant

I just noticed that in the catalog settings I have discard 1to 1 previews after 30 days. I have this set this way because I didnt' need the larger images all the time. Would that be the cause of my thumbs going away? I thought that the smaller preview would be there all the time even when on a disconnected external HD

Jim Wilde

Inspiring

davidKheaton wrote
I just noticed that in the catalog settings I have discard 1to 1 previews after 30 days. I have this set this way because I didnt' need the larger images all the time. Would that be the cause of my thumbs going away? I thought that the smaller preview would be there all the time even when on a disconnected external HD

Not relevant. If the preview system is working as designed, discarding the 1:1 still leaves the rest of the preview pyramid intact.

D

davidKheaton

Known Participant

Thank you for your answers and help.

I should have stated that some of the images on external hard drive have thumb images when it is not connected but not all of them. I was wondering if there is a feature somewhere that says to delete thumbs after a certain amount of time.. I will try the above answers and see how that goes. Thanks so much.

Just Shoot MeCorrect answer

Brainiac

That is because LR only keeps standard previews for a period of time. Then they are replaced with different ones.

This is something that is not adjustable. So as soon as you start to add or browse newer images the standard previews for older images are replaced by ones for the newer or newly browsed images even if the newly browsed images are older and LR has access to the original file.

That is why some images have them and other don't.

So you have 2 options when this happens.

1) Connect your external drive so LR can read the original file and create a preview for it.

2) Build Smart Previews for all the images that are in the external drive. But doing that will take a lot of disk space on your internal drive.

If you have the external connected and you are browsing images in the Library module Grid view or in the film strip and you see 3 white dots in the upper right hand corner of the thumbnail that is a sign that LR is creating a standard preview for that/those images.

With the external disconnected and LR doesn't have access to the original file then you get a blank gray box where the image would normally be displayed.

Jim Wilde

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me wrote
That is because LR only keeps standard previews for a period of time. Then they are replaced with different ones.
This is something that is not adjustable. So as soon as you start to add or browse newer images the standard previews for older images are replaced by ones for the newer or newly browsed images even if the newly browsed images are older and LR has access to the original file.

I think you might be confusing the Library Previews cache with the ACR Cache. The latter, which is only used in Develop, does operate on the basis of throwing out older cache entries if the user-set size of the Cache isn't big enough for new entries. The ACR cache is used to pre-load the image in the Loupe window in Develop while the new full preview is rendered in the background.

The Library Preview cache does not have a user-set size limit, it keeps on growing as required. It will normally contain a preview per image (there's no ageing involved, so they are never completely thrown away on that basis). Each preview consists of a "pyramid" of different size jpegs of the image, the 1:1 preview being the largest, followed by Standard, followed by a range of thumbnail-sized previews for things like the Navigator window, Filmstrip thumbs, Grid thumbs, etc.. The only preview that the user can control would be the option to discard 1:1 previews on an age basis, but there is no user option to discard the rest of the preview pyramid for any particular file. Standard-size previews (if not already rendered) should always be created when the image appears in the Filmstrip or the Grid or the Library Loupe, and the only circumstances that I can think of to explain the issue of them not automatically being created is if the original file is missing or offline, or if there's a corruption of the Preview Cache itself. Hence my question to the OP.

Smart Previews won't really help, other than as a diagnostic.....they are only used in the Develop module, not in the Library. If one can be created, that would rule out missing or offline files, and thus would point to Preview Cache corruption.

Jim Wilde

Inspiring

dheaton wrote
I have some photos that I use on an external backup hard drive. When this drive is not connected I can not see any thumbnails. When I connect the drive I see all the thumbnails appear. Is there a way to always have the thumbnails show even when offline?

Yes, you should be able to see thumbnails and images in the Library module when the original files are offline (Library only shows previews of the originals). So unless you haven't yet built any library previews, you should be seeing the images in the Library module.

Suggest you start Lightroom with the external drive connected, then select a bunch of images and do Library>Previews>Build Standard-sized previews. When that's finished, close Lightroom, disconnect the external drive, restart Lightroom and you should be able to see the thumbnails and full image in the loupe in the Library module.

If that's not happening there may be something else going on that we need to try to figure out.

And if you want to be able to EDIT the images while the drive is offline, you'll need to as as @Just Shoot Me stated and build Smart Previews.

Just Shoot Me

Brainiac

You can built Smart previews for all those images on the external drive.

Neox99

Brainiac

No!

That would be like asking to read a book without opening the covers or watching TV with the power off.

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