# Plex sometimes doesn't generate episode thumbnail **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux, plex-web\ **Created:** [June 22, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242 "2023-06-22T17:33:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/1 "2023-06-22T17:33:26Z")
Server Version#: 1.32.3.7089 Player Version#: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/3/3/a/33a2926d9af860fd1b82ba9721a704cf0a2349f2.jpeg) I’m getting this issue on some shows (not all) where it will not generate a thumbnail for TV Shows. Sometimes its hit and miss, sometimes its a whole season, sometimes its none. I believe it downloads tmdb/tvdb images fine, but the ones where a show doesn’t have anything to download it becomes blank as per my screenshot. Is there a way to fix this? ---
**Author:** ![BigWheel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bigwheel/32/78783_2.png) [@BigWheel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BigWheel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/2 "2023-06-22T17:40:36Z")
Are they all the same type of file or codecs? ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/3 "2023-06-22T17:41:57Z")
I’ve seen it happen with a range of different codecs both video and audio. There is no real pattern to which ones don’t get a thumbnail other than, from what I can tell, if an image isn’t available from where Plex pulls its metadata, it leaves it blank instead of analysing the file to generate one. If I manually analyze it will then create one and apply it. ---
**Author:** ![BigWheel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bigwheel/32/78783_2.png) [@BigWheel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BigWheel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/4 "2023-06-23T18:12:51Z")
do you happen to have the [server logs](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/) from when that happened? or can you grab them the next time it does ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/6 "2023-06-27T00:08:14Z")
[Plex Media Server Logs\_2023-06-27\_00-07-30.zip](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/ywjf25Ugo7Pg6p7GMfgbKUElFqz.zip) (6.2 MB) The latest show I added was Glastonbury 2023, it failed to download quite a few metadata/thumbs. ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 11:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/7 "2023-06-28T23:57:54Z")
Was this of any help? Is there a problem with my setup? ---
**Author:** ![BigWheel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bigwheel/32/78783_2.png) [@BigWheel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BigWheel)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/8 "2023-06-29T00:06:35Z")
I don’t think there is any problem in your setup from what I can tell from your logs. Sorry have not figured out why it is happening yet but devs think it has to do with some server components crashing. ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/9 "2023-06-29T14:36:03Z")
Okay, is it a case of wait and see what you can do about it or is there something I can do on my end to help this? ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/10 "2023-07-06T19:36:52Z")
@BigWheel is there any update on this? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![DTR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc348/32.png) [@DTR](https://forums.plex.tv/u/DTR)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/11 "2023-07-06T19:44:29Z")
> [@JL94x4](#): > > The latest show I added was Glastonbury 2023, it failed to download quite a few metadata/thumbs. Maybe not directly related to your broader issue, but what episode ordering do you have set for the show (edit show \> Advanced \> Episode ordering)? Because TMDB doesn’t have a TV show entry for Glastonbury 2023, just individual “movies” for each set, so you’ll probably have to switch to ‘TheTVDB (Aired)’ order (if it isn’t already) if you want the right metadata to be pulled in. ---
**Author:** ![JL94x4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jl94x4/32/84905_2.png) [@JL94x4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JL94x4)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/12 "2023-07-06T20:29:22Z")
Yeah, Thetvdbv is at the top 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DTR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc348/32.png) [@DTR](https://forums.plex.tv/u/DTR)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/13 "2023-07-06T20:31:58Z")
What agent are you using? Because if it’s the new one (‘Plex TV Series’), nothing in Settings \> Agents applies. Everything is controlled via Manage Library \> Edit \> Advanced: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/2/0/a/20ae15762406fac12b0b9f5ebfbb938bb2c9695d.png) ---
**Author:** ![BigWheel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bigwheel/32/78783_2.png) [@BigWheel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BigWheel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 11:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/14 "2023-07-12T23:30:13Z")
I meant to ask if you can create a test library with just that show Glastonberry and grab logs after adding that show to it. ---
**Author:** ![sa2000](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/sa2000/32/6922_2.png) [@sa2000](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sa2000)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 9:29am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/15 "2023-08-31T09:29:58Z")
We have a released a fix for server related crashes when generating thumbnails - don’t know if that was the reason thumbs were not being generated. The fix has been released to the beta version 1.32.6.7468 which is available to Plex Pass users. It will be available to everyone when the release becomes Public > [@Plex Media Server](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server/30447/596): > > Note: This version has been temporarily rolled back. We will update this as soon as it’s brought back. For more information, see [this thread](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-1-32-6-hw-transcoding-issues-and-corrections/853757). Plex Media Server 1.32.6.7468 is now available to Plex Pass users in the Beta update channel. FIXES: (Agents) Some attributes were missing from legacy agent api responses (#14436) (Analysis) MP4 Atom Parsing could fill logs (#14418) (Automatic Scanning) Symbolic links with missing targets could cause changes to later entries in a directory not to be de… - (Thumbnails) Certain JPEG images caused PMS to exhibit unexpected behavior when generating thumbnails (#14407) ---
**Author:** ![ChristianKent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@ChristianKent](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChristianKent)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/16 "2023-11-12T00:29:16Z")
I also had this problem and the only way to regenerate the thumbnails is to remove the media, do the [plex dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064), then add the media back. I’m not sure why it’s happening. It’s still happening randomly to me. I have to go through my library and check if the thumbnails are there or not manually every few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![ChristianKent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@ChristianKent](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChristianKent)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 8:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/17 "2023-11-12T08:23:10Z")
So I figured something out. You can fix this without doing the [Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064). All you have to do is re-match it, and for some reason, it’ll just load all the thumbnails for the episodes. ---
**Author:** ![sa2000](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/sa2000/32/6922_2.png) [@sa2000](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sa2000)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/18 "2023-11-16T10:15:00Z")
Thanks for the feedback. See if you can capture debug [server logs](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/) after you notice the problem arising - Logs would need to show the scanning process so would need to be captured just after that actions completes and when you expect the thumbnails to be there ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sometimes-doesnt-generate-episode-thumbnail/845242/19 "2024-02-14T10:15:57Z")
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