Thumbnail irregularities

[smorseg]

Using PE4.0 I've noticed that, in the organizer, some *.psd file thumbnails are shown as a grey box with an Exclamation mark in place of the image. I'm not sure what this icon indicates, but I can't find any real differences between these and the *.psd files that show correct thumbnails. They open and edit with no problem. From within windows (XP), the questionable thumbnails are displayed as just black images, but the other *.psd file thumbnails show correctly. Selecting 'Update Thumbnail' doesn't change anything. Has anyone else experienced this?

[MikeH]

Hi,

Welcome to the forums... :)

Problems displaying thumbnails can sometimes occur with large files depending how much RAM you have. What size are the files that don't display properly compared to those that do..? How much RAM is on your PC?.

Mike

[smorseg]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for responding. File size as the cause for this would make sense, but that's not consistent with my findings. I have files that are as small as 1.5mb that are rendering black thumbnails (windows XP explorer) and grey !'s (Ele4.0 organizer) and others that are 65-75mb rendering good thumbnails.

Memory may be part of it - I've got 1/2 gig. I think I'm going to have to set aside an afternoon and do some sleuthing.

Thanks,
George

[Juergen D]

George,
Now that you are mentioning XP Explorer, you may want to take a look at this: http://www.myfourthirds.com/document.php?id=18154

Juergen

[GaryK]

Could it be the photos need to be reconnected?

I have an hourglass when my photos are too large for my memory.

I have to start using the organizer more. :rolleyes:

[smorseg]

Juergen,
That's interesting. It certainly couldn't hurt to grab that dll and install it but it sounds like the article refers to a problem that is consistent with all PSD files. I can view 75+% of my PSD thumbnails.

Thanks,
George

[MikeH]

Could it be the photos need to be reconnected?It's not this as George said "selecting 'Update Thumbnail' doesn't change anything".

It certainly couldn't hurt to grab that dll and install it but it sounds like the article refers to a problem that is consistent with all PSD files. I can view 75+% of my PSD thumbnails.George,
If you can see some of the psd thumbnails in Windows Explorer, then you don't need to install psicon.dll... but if you do give it a go make sure you also create and apply the reg edit program. I have this as a file that I can send you.

But... if that was to sort the Windows Explorer problem it would not explain why you have an exclamation mark in Organizer. I was going to suggest recovering the Catalog in Organizer, but similarly that would not in any way relate to the problem viewing thumbnails in Windows Explorer...

It sounds like there is something about the files themselves that is causing these two separate problems. Can you right click on one of the black thumbnails in Windows Explorer, choose Proporties and post the information there (or a screen shot of the Properties box).

Mike

[Juergen D]

George,
Is there any pattern to the behavior of the psd thumbnails? Is it the newest ones that do not display? The older ones? Did you create some of them with an earlier version of PSE?
It is interesting that some do and some do not display. In my case none would after I installed PSE3 and, according to what I read, that was just a fact of life because of the missing psicon DLL. I used PSE2 before, which has psicon installed, never uninstalled it, still no thumbnails. I am surprised to learn that you see any at all in Explorer.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is, that there may be a connection, especially if it is the same thumbnails giving you problems both in Windows and in PSE.

Juergen

[smorseg]

:D It turns out this problem was two-fold.

Part one: I found that Windows XP explorer apparently cannot properly display thumbnails of PSD files with a portrait aspect ratio (height greater than width). For each of the black thumbnails (they all had that aspect ratio), I could open the image in Elements, rotate 90 degrees, save and ... voila! a good windows thumbnail. Rotate it back, save it and it's black again. If you have XP, try this and see what happens.

Part two: The files I was using to troubleshoot this in organizer all happened to be very dense at over 600 PPI. I discovered that, by reducing the PPI resolution to 300, I could get rid of the '!' thumbnails in organizer.

[Wendy]

Hi George ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Thanks for letting us know the solution to your problem ... it should help others who also get this problems :)

Wendy

[smorseg]

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for the welcome. It's good to be a member.

-George