I have an update that may help with diagnosing the issue. I have scheduled tasks enabled to run between 1 AM and 7 AM.
Last night, at about 1:30 AM (so during scheduled tasks), I was able to manually analyze videos to generate preview thumbnails.
I tried against just now (12:35 PM, so outside of scheduled tasks window), and manual analysis doesn’t work again.
Perhaps the scheduled tasks window is limiting the ability to manually analyze videos, when the analysis is requested outside of scheduled tasks hours?
I gotta let things run before I’m willing to say so for sure, but I think you may be onto something - after altering my task time and manually analyzing I’m seeing it do video chapter thumbnails for the first time in quite a while, and am hopeful it’ll roll on to the others as well. Very nice find! If this pans out it should make it both much easier for us to work around and much easier for them to actually fix.
Yes, if I stop and hen restart the PMS I can do a manual analyse and then if programs are added it will generate preview thumbnails UNTIL the next scheduled task hours then it will not generate thumbnails manually or when programs are added.
Have given up waiting for a response from PLEX on this so I have now programmed my server to shut PMS down @ 6:00am and then restart it again @ 6:05am. Since doing this preview thumbnails are being generated when programs are added and I can do manual analyse. Not ideal but at least it is working…for now.
I came to the forums to ask for help on this issue and found this thread. I also have stopped getting thumbnail previews on my TV library for the past ~2 months.
Sort of same thing here; recording from my HDHomeRun Prime get thumbnails… or they don’t. The same recordings that don’t get VPTs do get commercials marked (now for skip, instead of delete). I haven’t been able to discern any pattern, since all of the recordings are coming from the same tuners connected to the same video source.
I’m running 1.20.1.3252 on Linux. Triggering ‘analyze’ on the show has no effect, still no VPTs.
I quit the server from the task bar and reopened and it didn’t seem to make a difference. I had to restart Windows and that worked. I’ll have to try just quiting the app again next time. How are you automating this? Task scheduler?
@petebocken I run PMS on a Synology NAS and use the Task Scheduler to stop and then re-start the service.
So far since doing this the Preview Thumbnail generation is working automatically when programs are added, I can’t tell if manual analyse is working as the auto generations have taken away my need to do manual analyse now.
It is not an ideal solution and would be better if Plex would acknowledge this bug and fix it but for now it is a workaround that is working for me.
I setup Windows Task Scheduler to kill and re-open PMS every night and so far my Preview Thumbnails are getting created just fine. Stupid, but I’ll take it.
I’m also having this issue on FreeBSD… permissions are all correct and plex can write into the directory but it just isn’t creating thumbnails unless I manually restart the server and select analyze for each library. I’ve checked my logs and there are no obvious errors or faults.
I think I’ve figured something out which hopefully helps to fix this:
the media is dependent on the setting “Generate video preview thumbnails” (in settings > library) on the moment when the media is added to the server.
This defines if you can analyze to trigger while outside scheduled maintenance hours or not.
Additionally, when I added my media, I had the setting on “Never” .
These files don’t generate the thumbnails during scheduled hours, unless I: remove them from the library → (automatic) scan → empty trash (no need to clean bundles) → re-add the files while the setting in Library options is on “During scheduled and/or when new items added.”
I really hope this helps
Edit: Didn’t realize this was in the server-windows subforum (i came across this page via Google). I’m running Plex server on a Nvidia Shield 2017. So if anyone is willing to recreate my “fix” on a different platform I’m sure it’ll help.
@sa2000, @StSimm1, could you give us a heads up as to if this is even on the radar? This issue has been open for at least 5 months now. Thanks in advance.
Facing this issue as well. I’ve enabled thumbnail generation both on the server and on the libraries themselves. If I “Analyze” a specific media item, nothing happens. If I wait for the maintenance period, it’ll do the usual stuff like backing up the DB, detecting intros etc., but no thumbnail generation is ever happening.
I have been plagued by this issue. I have set my scheduled tasks to run from Midnight to 11 PM. I will reply here and let you know if I can duplicate your findings.
Is this a widely encountered issue or is it just a handful of us? Seems like it has been an issue for half a year now. Is it unique to Windows Server (that’s what I’m running)?
Hi David, I’m running Plex on a Synology NAS, only posted here originally as this was the only place on the forum I found any talk of this problem.
So in answer to your question, no it is not unique to Windows Server.
As I stated in one of my earlier posts, I have found a “work around” that so far has been successful and that is to program my server to shut PMS down daily for 5 minutes then restart it.
It is NOT a solution but may help the PLEX experts to find the cause and fix it if they ever read these posts.
I am running Plex on Unraid and seeing this issue as well, so it is not just Windows Server.
Update: The workaround from @Davohome works. My thumbnails were generating on my movies library, stopped generating and so I stopped the Plex docker container for 5 minutes, then clicked analyze on my movies library and it started generating again.
Update 2: Thumbnails stopped again, tried the same process, didn’t work this time for whatever reason.
