Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156
For the life of me I cannot seem to delete the video thumbnails. I have migrated my server database a few times in the past but it’s probably been six years since the last time I did that. I followed all directions available on the docs and several guides available from multiple other sources. The only thing I haven’t done is start over with my server by either deleting all my libraries and recreating or doing a full uninstall and reinstall. Is there any guidance on safely just deleting the files from my computer? Mostly just need to know what files I can safely remove with the server software offline.
If you’re referring to Video Preview Thumbs,
then with the server running, choose a library, and
Edit → Advanced, srcroll down and Delete Preview Thumbnails
If you feel like you want them regenerated, change the GenerateBIFFrameInterval to be 10s rather than 2s. You’ll have a lot fewer, and it works like a charm.
Credit @Volts:
That is the first thing I did after reading the support article Why is my Plex Media Server directory so large?
I searched my test PMS server Media folder to find index-sd.bif files.
I found approx. 32 of them inside bundles.
When I then used that Delete Preview Thumbnails procedure on my test PMS server with 12 videos, I found 12 bundles where the index-sd.bif file was removed, leaving behind another 20 or so bundles that still had them.
When I next emptied trash and cleaned bundles, I found zero bundles with index-sd.bif files.
May I ask why you say you can’t seem to delete them?
That’s the real issue. Why is my server not deleting the files?
1,179 copies of index-sd.bif found and all the chapter jpg files are still there. I really am turning chapters off, deleting the chapters, cleaning the bundles, optimizing the database, and emptying the trash on each library.
Just to be clear, I’m using WinDirStat to find large directories and files to clean up. I didn’t realize chapter thumbnails were a thing until I found my Plex Media Server app folder to be 38.2 GB.
I’m not experienced enough with Windows to answer that, but a reasonable method of reducing the variables would be to check the log for database corruption.
- restart PMS and wait 2 minutes.
- Open the hosted web app or Plex for Windows,
- Settings → Troubleshooting → Downloads Logs
- Drill into the zip, find your
Plex Media Server.log and open it in Notepad
- Search for
corrupt or malformed and perhaps ERROR
Let us know.
There were a few errors related to metadata folders and something about images.
Oct 14, 2025 02:07:45.264 [75608] ERROR - [Req#1845bd] Unknown metadata type: folder
Oct 14, 2025 02:02:05.308 [78560] ERROR - [UltraBlurProcessor] Failed to decode image data
Just wanted to also thank you for helping. This is the only issue I’ve not been able to figure out on my own since the very beginnings of the plex program. I’ve been a user for quite some time.
So not corruption from the errors you posted.
While I think I’ve shown how VPTs can manually be deleted, I can see you’re concerned why Plex can’t do this as expected.
@OttoKerner May we ask for your expertise with Windows on this?
We are curious what can be corrected so that a Plex player’s Delete Preview Thumbnails works as intended. Could the user really have 32 GB of VPTs no longer tracked by PMS due to registry issues or something else?
Thank you sir.
A size of 38GB in total, while video preview thumbs are activated, is nothing unusual.
I have turned them off and tried to delete them. I know the size isn’t unusual but it is not wanted.
I just want to reiterate that I have disabled the thumbnails for every library, used the buttons to delete the existing thumbnails, cleaned the bundles, optimized the database, and the files in question are still there.
The only information that may be of use that I have not though to share yet is that I’m in the process of recovering from massive data loss from hard drive failure on the drive that held my media files. The drive with Plex Media Server itself was never affected.
Do you know how I can safely remove the thumbnails and associated files without breaking my database or anything of the like?
Simply deleting all .bif files should be ok.
After using the database repair script, you should also trigger ‘Clean Bundles’.
