Some of the movies and shows in my media ■■■■… I mean collection already have chapter thumbnails generated, but much of it does not. I do realize that this is a lengthy process, but I’m going to be gone for a couple of days and I’d like to force (if you will) my Plex server to spend all that time or as much as possible of it doing that so when I come back, everything has its thumbnails generated.
Obviosly, when adding new media it’ll have to render them for that as it comes in, but that’s fine and expected.
For now, I’m just hoping I can make good use of the server’s soon-to-be copious amount of idle time. I couldn’t find a “button” or link anywhere that could let me launch the process - it’s only referenced in the scheduled tasks section -, hence the question.
If you look on the server web page under Library, you should have to options.
Generate video preview thumbnails
Generate chapter thumbnails
Make sure both of those have the “as scheduled tasks” option set.
Then under your Scheduled Task settings, adjust your start/stop time to maximize your time while you are away on vacation. Just remember to change that back to normal when you return so they aren’t bogging things down.
Note: Make sure and click “Show Advanced” button to see all settings.
I am not sure how changing 4 drop down option clicks is “jumping through hoops.”
The process for creating those if I recall correctly is single threaded and fairly CPU intensive so rather than impacting the system when people likely will be using it, we give people the choice to run it overnight when they are sleeping.
I am not sure why having a button to launch a background process - however CPU intensive - is so out of the question.
Put a another big warning label (which has already been added all over the myriad of places where the thumbnail generation can be activated) stating that this is a potentially lengthy and CPU-intensive operation, and that’s that.
I’m not arguing whether it can bog down the system during productive times - that’s OBVIOUS!!! I’m arguing that when I know I have idle time that I can fire off the process (i.e. I’m working from home, everyone else is away, and I can fire off the process and forget about it) - I can’t do it “right now” because I have to do it your way…
This is right up there with having the ability to upload playlists (I found the REST API that allows that and wrote a script TYVM…), but not having a UI for it or doing…
Anyhow, the question isn’t the horsepower/time required: the question is why there isn’t just a button a user can click to fire off the process - hell, add a warning dialog!!! “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BOG DOWN THE SYSTEM!!!” …
Well since I am not a Plex employee or developer, I feel fine .
I understand your need, but reality is right now Plex is dealing with bigger changes (such as Roku interface redesign/etc.) that are more wide spread in terms of impact and usage.
So, today I re-added a movie to the database, that I had added previously, watched, and then deleted. When I initially added the movie, I guess ‘generate chapter thumbnails’ wasn’t an option because when I re-added the movie today, there were no chapter thumbnails added. So I refreshed the metadata and clicked ‘analyze’ on that movie. Now I have chapter points, but ‘blank’ thumbnails. Every thumbnail is just a blank square. I’m not sure how to get the server to re-scan this movie like it’s brand new and add the actual chapter thumbnail. Any Help?
I am experiencing the same issue. There are a number of us who are also having issues with no thumbnail generation for movie extras, or music videos within music libraries. The only “help” we’re going to get is to wait for a server update to address the thumbnail issues…imho.
With some degree of sadness I’ve opted to switch to Emby simply because they’re more responsive to this type of thing, and they do have buttons to assist in this sort of maintenance task.
Also, Emby doesn’t have some Live TV playback issues that Plex has - Plex would complain that the signal was weak or troublesome, but Emby would play back the exact same signal from the exact same source without issue (no transcoding was going on in either scenario).
The only thing that Plex has above Emby at this point is the UI maturity and aesthetics. But I suspect that will change soon enough since that’s a relatively easy fix.
Being in the mood for some mental masochism I decided to get my head wrapped around the scanner via command line “fun” (thought of another F word while going through it though). After reading and experimenting, I did manage to get the thumbnails generated for a recently added movie with the following command line:
C:\> “C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Scanner.exe” --generate --item 549335 --chapter-thumbs-only
Okay, I get the fact that it is a work-around when PMS won’t do it on its own. But why no acknowledgement that there currently is a PMS issue with thumbnail generation for some items and that Plex is looking into it…or at least will??
While I have no interest in Emby at this point I can understand how, short answers like this - that also offer a bit of a complex solution for something that should be automatic - is driving much of the rhetoric on this forum for Emby.
@bradbart948 - I too am experiencing this since the last few PMS versions, and have created a thread detailing my findings so far…
However for me, although I have found this to be new behavior, I have narrowed it down to having special characters in the folder name, such as (year). If I remove the (year) from the folder name, the chapter thumbnails are generated.
I too am a little frustrated by this, and by the sheer amount of oddities that have been introduced in the last few months!
For me, I’m just gonna keep bumping my posts until someone takes notice… Or, simply ask any a Plex employee that I can find on the Forums the very specific Question… “Are you looking into this???”
already have chapter thumbnails generated, but much of it does not. I do realize that this is a lengthy process, but I’m going to be gone for a couple of days and I’d like to force (if you will) my Plex server to spend all that time or as much as possible of it doing that so when I come back, everything has its thumbnails generated.
