# H.265 Thumbnail Generation **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [September 15, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810 "2020-09-15T18:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/1 "2020-09-15T18:37:44Z")
Server Version#: 1.20.1.3252 I have a bunch of video encoded with H.265 10-bit and none of those videos show any thumbnails. I found 1 topic in the forums that mentions something about it, but no definitive on whether PMS is able to generate thumbnails for these types of encoded videos. Does anyone know? The post I mentioned above is: > [@\[Solved\] Video Preview Thumbnails Not Generating UPDATE](https://forums.plex.tv/t/solved-video-preview-thumbnails-not-generating-update/154382/31): > > Are your H265 files 10-bit by any chance? I haven’t tested but it’s possible extracting the image from a 10-bit video may be an issue. If you can generate me a 1 minute sample file, I’ll give it a test. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/2 "2020-09-15T18:40:05Z")
PMS should be able to handle that. As mentioned in that thread, there was a permission issue on the drive where it gets saved. Are you sure PMS has gone through and tried creating the thumbnails? This is a slow process, even slower with hevc. ---
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/3 "2020-09-15T18:54:21Z")
I added the videos about a week ago. None of them have thumbnails. It was about 20 videos in total; TV show episodes. Regarding permissions, on Windows 10, where would the directory be that holds the thumbnails? Is it `C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Thumbnails` ? I have a folder named `Genre` in there, but nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/4 "2020-09-15T19:07:46Z")
Not sure what that folder is. AFAIK, the preview thumbnails (BIF) are located in the “Media” folder. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/5 "2020-09-15T19:08:26Z")
You’ve checked that you have the options enabled to generate these thumbnails? Both in the library setting and in your PMS settings? ---
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/6 "2020-09-15T19:20:53Z")
I have `Settings -> Library -> Generate video preview thumbnails ` set to scheduled task and when media is added. I have `Manage -> Libraries -> TV Shows -> Edit -> Advanced -> Enable video preview thumbnails` checked. My TV Shows library is where I added these videos. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/7 "2020-09-15T19:30:59Z")
Ok, can you Plex dance 1 episode of a show, wait 2 minutes, then get me the PMS log. Let me know what show/episode you tried. ---
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/8 "2020-09-15T19:47:56Z")
Regrettably, I’m not sure what Plex dance is 😕. Could you spell that out for me? And with regards to a show, does it need to be one of the H.265 10-bit shows that doesn’t have a thumbnail, or can it be any show? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/9 "2020-09-15T19:52:59Z")
Plex Dance. [Plex incorrectly identifying TV episodes](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-incorrectly-identifying-tv-episodes/100265/4) It can be any episode that doesn’t have the thumbnails. But one of the h265 ones would be better. ---
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/10 "2020-09-15T20:04:35Z")
OK, so I didn’t realize a dance was necessary to get thumbnails to show up 😆 All good now. Thanks so much for the help! Much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/11 "2020-09-15T21:00:03Z")
It wasn’t necessary, but it will trigger the generation to start. It should have done it during your maintenance period. What times did you set the maintenance for? Maybe there wasn’t enough time to get this and other tasks done so it never made it to actually running. ---
**Author:** ![gregchak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/edb3f5/32.png) [@gregchak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gregchak)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2020, 11:40am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/13 "2020-09-16T11:40:54Z")
My schedule is from 1 AM to 6 AM. I’ve changed it to go from midnight to 7 AM. Every single checkbox is checked under scheduled tasks. Are there any that you would say are not necessary? One other item of note with regards to the thumbnails. Before adding the H.265 videos to the library, there were MPEG2 `.ts` files in their place. These were files that Plex recorded OTA. I re-encoded them to make them smaller and take out some parts. When I added them to the library, I deleted the `.ts` files and then copied over the H.265 files. They had the same name other than the file extension. They also had the same season and episode markings. I wonder if all those similarities confused it? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/14 "2020-09-16T18:19:41Z")
Ah yes. It’s possible that it had run the generation on the old file. There was a bug/oversite in PMS that it wouldn’t redo these if you replace the file. I believe that’s been fixed, but only for new files you replace. Anything previously replaced wouldn’t be affected. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/h-265-thumbnail-generation/633810/16 "2020-12-16T19:09:18Z")
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