I have both “Generate video preview thumbnails” and, after today’s update, “Generate intro video markers” set as a scheduled task.
In the past, when I’d download a new TV show (or movie), I’d often analyze them to manually generate the video preview thumbnails, rather than waiting overnight for the scheduled task to run.
Today, when I analyze a TV show, it does a “Detecting intros” scan but it will not generate thumbnails any longer. However, I analyzed a newly downloaded movie, and it did successfully generate thumbnails. I’ve restarted PMS multiple times.
Edit 1: I’ll note, in response to Max above, that I am analyzing individual episodes for this - not seasons or full shows.
Edit 2: As an additional debug note, I will note I’ve turned “Generate intro video markers” to “never” and it still didn’t work. I’ve also turned “Generate video preview thumbnails” to “never” and then back to “as a scheduled task”, but that hasn’t fixed it, either.
PMS: Version 1.19.3.2843 Host OS: Windows 10 Plex Desktop: Version 1.11.0.1215-1d8c460c
Additionally, I’m unable to analyze a whole library. I can analyze each show individually. However it’s not generating a video preview.
When it first started I wasn’t sure what was going on. After I did an update to the Plex Desktop client it showed generating intros. So I let that run assuming it can’t do both. As of now it’s not doing anything and I still can’t do a library analysis.
I’ve also tried to change the scheduled hours to now and still the same issue where it sits doing nothing.
Thumbnail pictures are only generated when you analyze single episodes/videos.
Intro skip detection is only performed when you analyze a season, but not single episodes.
But wasn’t this thread about the failure to do both when adding new episodes?
(i.e. not triggered manually with the “Analyze” menu item, but rather automatically after ‘Scan Library Files’ found a new episode.)
“Analysis” is detecting which file format is used, which codecs are used in there and if there are embedded subtitles.
You can do this on a whole library, on a whole show, on a season or on a single video – and it works.
The generation of video preview thumbnails was only added to the “Analysis” process when you trigger it manually on single videos.
Likewise, the detection of intros was only added to the Analysis when performed manually on a season, and a season only.
In general, it is not necessary to trigger the analysis manually.
It is done automatically after a new file has been ingested into a plex library.
This is what is meant in the drop down selectors under Settings - Server - Library
when set to “…and when media is added”.
You only need to trigger it manually, if you have replaced a media file with a different version, but the same file name.
Thanks Ottokerner, I appreciate that feedback, but I don’t want to always use the CPU resources automatically after a new file has been ingested in the library. Due to financial constraints, my PMS is also my daily use and gaming PC. This is why I do not have the “…and when media is added” selector chosen.
Prior to this patch, I’d always been able to manually analyze individual single TV episodes, to trigger a manual video preview thumbnail generation. So, I could do it on my terms, when I wanted.
I am trying to understand why I can no longer do that.
And that is what it should be doing, yes. If it doesn’t do that anymore, we have a bug.
That’s where server debug logs come into play.
You already have provided your logs, so let’s wait for @StSimm1 to analyze them.
Unable to analyze library when “Enable video preview thumbnails” is selected.
I’ve deleted my thumbnails and unchecked the “Enable video preview thumbnails”. After which, I cleared bundles and emptied the trash. Then re-enabled it. I’m only able then then analyze a show, season or episode. However, on any of them it doesn’t trigger it to create a preview thumbnail.
Adding new media does create the thumbnail. Changing scheduled maintenance also still doesn’t force create preview thumbnails.
I think I’m having a similar issue in that video thumbnails refuse to generate for any of my TV shows. This is for a new library… in Docker. I’ve tried re-creating the library a few times now, and left it overnight.
I’ve also found that movies will only generate thumbnails if I select them individually, they refuse to generate if I tell the whole library to analyze.
Might be worth while to add a refresh thumbnails button. While viewing some of my older thumbnails I noticed they were just black nothing else. Would also fix this issue
Well, this was resolved in whatever patch immediately followed 1.19.3.2831. But, as of yesterday, manually analyzing media to generate video preview thumbnails is again no longer working (I am now on 1.19.4.2902). This is true not only for TV Shows, but for all other media as well.
I completely uninstalled Plex then installed 1.19.4.2935 then it spent the last 7 days generating thumbnails for both TV shows and movies. Once Plex finished generating all the thumbnails I added a new movie which Plex recognized but did not generate the thumbnails for it. I then selected the “Analyze” option for the movie and it did not generate the thumbnails.
Why is this functionality so inconsistent and how do I force thumbnails to be created? The other comment in this thread mentioned adding a button which allows users to re-generate thumbnails if they so choose. This is a great idea.
I just rebooted the windows machine Plex was running on then selected the “Analyze” option again for that particular video and now Plex is generating the thumbnails.
I love Plex to death i just wish the functionality was consistent.
I also am experiencing the same issue, where it seems that the video thumbnail generation will stop seemingly randomly. My system configuration:
Ubuntu Server 20.04
Plex Media Server: 1.19.5.3021 (Beta, latest at the time of writing)
Library -> Generate Video Preview Thumbnails: “as a scheduled task and when media is added”
It occurs with both television and movie libraries, and similar to others and OP, intro video markers are still created on media addition.
Analyzing the movie or episode does not trigger it to start the generation. One workaround I found is to set Library -> Generate video preview thumbnails to “never”, save, then set it to the previous “as a scheduled task and when media is added”. Once I have done this, manually triggering an analysis will start the video thumbnail generation.
It will seemingly fail at random again, hard to pinpoint. Once it generated one movie correctly and failed on the next one (added at the same time), once it failed after many hours (in that timeframe, I added multiple episodes and movies).
I have attached my logs. I had just added a movie (if it makes it easier to search for the logs, Hamilton (2020)). Initially adding the movie did not do the video generation, I did the settings flipping as mentioned above, and reanalyzed it. All of it occurs after “Jul 03, 2020 13:30:01.536”, the initial timestamp in “Plex Media Server.log”, so you shouldn’t need to go through .1, .2, etc. to possibly see why it works after toggling the setting.
Let me know if there is anything else than can help with the debugging!
Having the same issue in that PMS on Synology NAS has stopped generating thumbnail previews for all new media unless I force a manual “Analyse”.
This only started when I updated from version 1.18.5.2309 to 1.19.4.2935. I have tried stopping and restarting the server which made no effect, I have disabled the new “Skip Intro” thinking it maybe interfering somehow, again no effect. Turned Generate Video Preview thumbnails on and off on both the general setting and in the library setting, again no effect.
Very frustrating if I have to go into the Server every time new media is added before I can watch to generate the preview thumbnails.
From the comments in this thread it seems it is related to the new 1.19 version - if there is no solution or workaround is it easy to rollback to an earlier version that I know was working?
