# Bad thumbnail generation

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-linux\
**Created:** [July 13, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838 "2025-07-13T20:36:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mcandre](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mcandre/32/210047_2.png) [@mcandre](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mcandre)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838/1 "2025-07-13T20:36:37Z")

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Occassionally, Plex generates useless thumbnails for some videos.

- Completely empty thumbnail pool
- Thumbnail pool consisting of two duplicate blank black screens

Can we please raise the number of frames selected for automatic thumbnails from 2 to a number closer to 10, which is far more likely to chance upon representative frames?

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**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838/3 "2025-07-13T21:05:22Z")

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Also consider `GenerateBIFKeyframesOnly` so you know you get a key frame

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mcandre](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mcandre/32/210047_2.png) [@mcandre](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mcandre)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838/4 "2025-07-14T00:31:12Z")

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Fantastic! Let’s expose that as an ordinary graphical parameter.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Volts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a5b964/32.png) [@Volts](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Volts)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838/5 "2025-07-14T02:11:19Z")

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That’s on by default, but I agree that changing it can sometimes help. Sometimes it helps to turn it off if a video file is unusual or has really widely spaced keyframes.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 2:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/bad-thumbnail-generation/925838/6 "2025-10-12T02:12:04Z")

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