Plex Media server does not generate video preview thumbnails for series files that are upgraded

Plex Media Server
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1

Server Version#: 1.41.7.9823
Player Version#: n/a

This has been an ongoing issue. I have upgraded some series’ video files (with pre-existing preview thumbnails) to a better quality or adding extra subtitles/audio, the preview thumbnails disappear which is reasonable since its a new file, however there is no way to make the server naturally re-generate these thumbnails.

This is what I have tried:
Enabling preview thumbnail generation when scheduled and when media is added, then adding the file
setting scheduled tasks to run from 00:00 to 23:00
Deleting all preview thumbnails in library menu and waiting for plex to reanalyze the library
Deleting all .bif files in the plex directory (and then waiting for plex to re-encode)
All of these lead to the same result of specifically the files I upgraded not having preview thumbnails, everything else works fine.

The only solution is to drag the entire series out of the plex folder, waiting for it to be trashed, and adding it back from scratch, but I can’t do this most of the time because there are some series’ that are 100s or 1000s of episodes, and upgrading just one file will cause this issue, meanining I have to drag the entire series out of the plex folder, clean rubbish, drag back in and re-encode thumbnails for the entire series from scratch, and some series video files need updates multiple times a week at times, which would neccesitate 100s of watt hours of electricity being used. This is a waste of resources and will needlessly impact my electricity bill. This can’t be called a solution.

Another reason is that some of these series’ have custom metadata that I would have to painstakingly re-configure that each time which can take hours, and I honestly just like seeing the little “added 5 years ago” card below my titles, I don’t want that to be reset.

Please fix this by making PMS recognise that updated episodes/seasons/movies will need to have the preview thumbnails re-encoded during the next scheduled task period and/or make PMS wipe the metadata and .bif files regarding the preview thumbnails when an item is upgraded.

2

Have you tried hovering over the items, clicking the vertical ellipsis and clicking analyze? That usually does it for me.

3

Yes I have tried this, usually nothing happens, not even the activity circle at the top right lights up.

4

Sorry, I don’t know then. When you’re clicking analyze though I think I read in another thread it’s best to do it on the season and not the entire series.

5

Preview thumbs should get updated during the next server maintenance period.
You might want to trigger “Analyze” on each episode after switching out the files. As well as a library scan at the end.

6

I’ve tried the individual episode, season, and series with a scan with no luck.
There are no issues with the file either, preview thumbnails generate normally in a fresh new library.

7

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