Windows 7: Thumbnail Cache Won't Stop Regenerating

Last time I looked at the size of the thumbnail cache it was 253 megabytes. Now I look and it's 14. I didn't use disk cleanup to clean the cache as it is unchecked. The only thing I can think of that could be the culprit is I have added my XBOX 360 extender, but this isn't the first time it has reset the cache. I'm pretty confused here. Is there some limit on the cache? any help is much appreciated.

Yes, i have the exact same problem. I open a folder with pics or vids and it scans the files to create thumbs and get other meta data (picture dimentions, video run time, etc). If I close the folder and then a couple minutes later re-open it, the files are not rescanned, as it should be. But if I re-open the folder a couple of hours later or the next day, the entire folder is rescanned to create the thumbs. even though nothing in the folder has changed. WTF???

This happens on internal or external drives and with drives containing any media; music, vids, or pics.

If you know of any solution please post!

Dan

Check your other post, I think this will help,
Thumbnail Cache - Enable or Disable

When researching the issue of slow load times for folders containing lots of video, or picture files, I happened upon an easy solution which does not involve altering the security settings of the thumbnail cache folder or the turning off of the thumbnail visual effects feature under system properties.

The solution is as follows

Right click on folder or drive in question
select properties
select the customize tab
under "Optimize this folder for" select general items instead of the other alternatives (Optional - click the check box immediately underneath if you wish to apply this template to all sub folders otherwise just leave unselected to apply to the subject folder only)

Click apply to save the changes

Click OK to exit the window




Thumbnails for the files in the selected folder will no longer be loaded thus reducing the load time for the folder exponentially.

Thanks for the tip Poseidon, I note that there is no customise tab in My Pictures, or anywhere in My Documents so this cannot work for these folders? This seems to be a major problem with Windows 7, I have it on both of my machines running Windows 7 HP 32 bit, from my research it seems like it might have been a problem on Vista also (after they changed from using the old Thumbs.db in each folder to having the central thumbcache database). There is a 3 page thread on 7forums here which lists this fix by lilamezz which involves preventing Windows deleting the thumbcache files. I found this does not really solve the issue though, it just prevents all the thumbnails getting deleted at once. There are a couple of other threads on the net about this issue:

Thumbnail Cache Randomly Deleting and Recreating

Stop/Prevent Windows 7 From Deleting Thumbnail Cache

The solution I provided is for any folder when you are browsing your computer using windows explorer. For the "my pictures" or "my documents" options shown in my computer you do not have to select a customize tab. all you have to do is right click on the my pictures" or "my documents icon, select properties and use the drop down box that says "optimize this library for" and select general items.

Ah, OK I see that just prevents any thumbs from being created. Mine, and I think ryana1980 & djswin7's problem is that we want the thumbnails but they keep regenerating after just a few hours or a day after previously regenerating, for no apparent reason since no files have been added or changed. It is a complete waste of CPU time & energy and puts strain on the hard disk, as well as negating the whole point of thumbnails in the first place, i.e. that they make files quickly identifiable, instead you have to wait 20 seconds for a folder to get its thumbnails back.

I have the same issue with the thumbnails being deleted. I am trying the solution in one of the above links to set deny permissions. Hopefully it works

I have had this come up over and over again, and the only solution I have found is to rebuild the disk. It works for a while and then stops again. I one time did get it working, but when going thru the steps a second time, it did not work. So there is a bug in there someplace.

Some of them are cached, since they show up immediately and are scattered among the 1000 files I am working with.

Someone please help. The solution above did not help me.

I have gone so far as to delete all the cache files in C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer and thumbs.db in the effected directories, letting windows rebuild them, which it does, and they get big (but not unusually big). So there is an issue here with the display not accessing the cache (at least that is what i think.)

your input is most appreciated.

Ok, I'm back already. I have it working again. Here's what I did.

I deleted the thumbs.db files (don't know if this was needed)
deleted the Caches in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

used information in Thumbnail Cache - Enable or Disable to make sure that it was set to cache even though i have done nothing to cause it to not be set up. (don't forget to run regedit in administrator mode)

then I Rebooted.

Then fired up Resources Monitor and opened the Library (Music Videos) which has all the directories I am concerned about in it.)

Guess what, I could see the thumbcache_96 and thumbcache_256 being written to constantly as well as the thumbs.db files.

And after all that got done, I reopened the library, and the thumbs all displayed instantaneously.

I am now feeling better.

But there is a bug someplace that causes it to stop working. for me it had to do with restructuring the directories ....