Thumbnail Problems in Digital Scrapbooking

I have often run into two problems in digital scrapbooking with thumbnail problems.

1.  When I unzip a downloaded kit and copy and paste the files into my own new folder, especially if I am combining several unzipped folders (one for papers and one for elements), I get a message asking if I want to overwrite the thumbnail file.  It does get annoying after a while.

2.  When I view my folders in the thumbnail view, the icons do not match the file.  I may see a button, but when I open the file, it is a paper. This problem is caused by the above problem.

These problems can easily be resolved in three ways in Windows XP.

(In windows Vista, it is my understanding that the thumbs.db files have been replaced with a centralized thumbnail database "thumbcache_xxxx.db" located in the /Users/[user name]/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Explorer folder, which should hopefully resolve the above problems.  However, Vista users may still be storing the XP thumbs when unzipping.)

 

1.  REFRESHING THUMBNAILS OF INDIVIDUAL FILES

 

In Windows XP, right click on the image and choose "Refresh Thumbnail."

 

2. REFRESHING THUMBNAILS OF ENTIRE FOLDER

 

In Windows XP, right click on the folder and choose "Refresh Thumbnail."

 

3. DELETING THE THUMBS.DB FILE

The thumbs.db file is a hidden file, as well as a system file.  To be able to see these file in the folders, two settings need to be applied.

In Windows XP, under the Tools drop down menu, choose "Folder Option."  Click on the View tab.

Scroll down and activate the "Show hidden files and folders" option and uncheck the "Hide protected operating system files" option.

 

You should now be able to see a file in the folder that looks like this.

It is safe to delete these files.  They will recreate themselves.  Deleting this file will cause a new thumbs file to be created, correcting the second problem listed above.

In addition, it would be helpful if Designers who are zipping up kits or freebies would take special care not to include this file in the zip files as it often does mess up our files when we are downloading, cutting, copying, and pasting files as described in the two problems above.

However, being able to view this file does allow us to avoid selecting it to begin with before cutting, copying, and pasting.

There is an option to turn off thumbnail preservation all together and some people prefer this setting as it does take up hard drive space to store all the thumbnails.  To keep your computer from storing these files, under the Folder Options menu, activate the 'Do not cache thumbnails" option.

Thereafter, search your entire computer folders for "thumbs.db" and delete them all.

It is suggested that sometimes even after a file is deleted, the thumbs files remain in a folder.  There are some people who like to leave their thumbs caching, but occasionally search and remove all thumbs on the computer to weed out the unnecessary ones or simply to cause them all to refresh as they recreate.