Windows Explorer thumbnail cache keeps being deleted.

Hi,

 

It might be that the icon cache is corrupted, I would suggest you to rebuilt the icon cache and check whether it helps, I would suggest you to follow the steps mentioned by Dale Qiao in the link mentioned below.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/a9d3d9a5-9b90-4a3d-833f-2040929ed328

 

Thank you and Regards.           

Thahaseena M
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer.
Visit ourMicrosoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Thanks for the reply, but this is not a problem with my program icons. These all display with out problems. The thumbnails that disapear and need to be re scanned by explorer, nearly every day, are the thumbnails of all the photos I have on my PC. And the only way to stop this is by changing the permissions to the files in the directory I mentioned above to stop the system deleting the cache files.

I have never had to go near the iconcache.db file and have never had issues wth program icon pictures. If it does not break forums rules I can point out the mutiple places where this is being dicussed by other users having the same issue. And also the many windows tweak sites that give the work around to this issue. I am hoping as more time goes on other users will post in this thread to show how many of us are affected.

One place that should not break rules as it is from this forum is here, where the user is having the same problem as me: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wlmedia/threa/1248b2a3-1bd8-4443-a096-68acdcdac5d9

And here becuase the link you kindly provided is to this forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/9878f7db-57ff-409e-ac04-d7d678d2b629

It is extremely frustrating this issue has not been fixed despite having been reported ever since the Windows 7 BETAs/RCs came out. As ph0b0s123 indicates it concerns thumbnails of all files, pictures, videos, music, pdf, office files. It is extremely wasteful on energy & resources for the user as COM Surrogate (dllhost.exe) can use over 50% of CPU to regenerate the thumbnails and can take an hour or more of browsing to new folders to make sure all thumbnails are regenerated. The issue is not system specific as it occurs on both my Windows 7 laptop & desktop, completely different hardware, and occurs just a day or so after a new install after effort has been made to create thumbnails. The issue is covered on many threads on this forum and others such as these links:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/9878f7db-57ff-409e-ac04-d7d678d2b629

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/90fb7141-d178-4419-80af-033c3bd12de5

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wlmedia/thread/3c106fd1-83e4-47d0-8e69-45ad8c5b3287/

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wlmedia/thread/1248b2a3-1bd8-4443-a096-68acdcdac5d9

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/bcc404f5-69fa-4da4-bbb0-488bdf53dbb4

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/21162-windows-7-thumbnail-cache-keeps-deleting-itself.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8470-thumbnail-cache-wont-stop-regenerating.html

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/stopprevent-windows-7-from-deleting-thumbnail-cache/

 

 

I agree with all the posts above. This issue has been reported continuously but still no solution in sight. Looks like it will never be resolved as I am yet to see a proper response or acknowledgement for this issue from MS.

The issue  is that the thumbnail cache file is restricted to a certain size and when it exceeds this size then it deletes the whole file instead of appending to it and recreates the thumbnails . This process is repeated every time the size of the cache file exceeds the pre-set limit.

I have all but given hope for a solution.

It's only my opinion but I don't think it's a "bug" in the traditional sense.  I can't believe MS would ignore something like this for so long if it were a bug.  I guess there are people out there who like all their hundreds and thousands of pics displayed as img4438.jpg but personally, I think I'm in the majority who want a thumbnail.  I doubt there's any point in adding to a list touting unhappiness with this "bug" as I don't think MS has any intention of fixing this.  It's either "the way win7 works" and can't be changed or MS doesn't want us using thumbnails.  Of course that doesn't stop me from saying I'm fairly disappointed and unhappy about this. 

Ye this problem is a real downer. I keep thousands of small videos and pictures and I lose all the thumbnails for every file and everytime it happens I feel so angry because replacing them all across all my mapped drives takes me nearly 2 hours. Why will they not fix it or give us control of the size, not that I'd want to delete my cache. The work around worry's me because when I move files there thumbnail will not be able to be deleted by the cache. I just dont get it, they were told about it back in the beta but they just dont care. I've just been hit just now and was so fed up I tried to find a viable solution but it's looking grim

I have not noticed this issue,

Does this issue exist in windows media player with videos that play or from play lists,

I use vlc media player and only use it to view videos, so I'm not having any issues with the videos loading,

I browse them in explorer but still it doesn't stall just looking at a list of video names or folders they are in ?

I personally don't see a need for a thumbnail on a video file,

Names are just as good for me ?

I have not noticed this issue,

Does this issue exist in windows media player with videos that play or from play lists,

I use vlc media player and only use it to view videos, so I'm not having any issues with the videos loading,

I browse them in explorer but still it doesn't stall just looking at a list of video names or folders they are in ?

I personally don't see a need for a thumbnail on a video file,

Names are just as good for me ?

The issue only exists when viewing a folder full of anything you'd normally like to view in thumbnail form such as a photo.  It's most pronounced when you have many folders with many photos (thumbnails).  If you don't have many and indeed if you normally view things as a list, you won't run into this issue.  As a photographer, even though my computer is blazingly fast, it's still inconvenient to occasionally have to recreate thumbs when opening one of my many folders with hundreds of photos.  It's not so bad when I'm viewing measly 2-10 meg jpegs but opening a folder with a few hundred tiffs that run 100megs plus can be irritating.  I think that's the other issue too in that for many people with simple jpegs, numerous though they may be, are actually relatively small files and will recreate quickly.  I enjoy thumbing my nose at the MAC people but in this case I'd have to say MS has let me (us) down.

I have not noticed this issue,

Does this issue exist in windows media player with videos that play or from play lists,

I use vlc media player and only use it to view videos, so I'm not having any issues with the videos loading,

I browse them in explorer but still it doesn't stall just looking at a list of video names or folders they are in ?

I personally don't see a need for a thumbnail on a video file,

Names are just as good for me ?

The issue only exists when viewing a folder full of anything you'd normally like to view in thumbnail form such as a photo.  It's most pronounced when you have many folders with many photos (thumbnails).  If you don't have many and indeed if you normally view things as a list, you won't run into this issue.  As a photographer, even though my computer is blazingly fast, it's still inconvenient to occasionally have to recreate thumbs when opening one of my many folders with hundreds of photos.  It's not so bad when I'm viewing measly 2-10 meg jpegs but opening a folder with a few hundred tiffs that run 100megs plus can be irritating.  I think that's the other issue too in that for many people with simple jpegs, numerous though they may be, are actually relatively small files and will recreate quickly.  I enjoy thumbing my nose at the MAC people but in this case I'd have to say MS has let me (us) down.

I have not noticed this issue,

Does this issue exist in windows media player with videos that play or from play lists,

I use vlc media player and only use it to view videos, so I'm not having any issues with the videos loading,

I browse them in explorer but still it doesn't stall just looking at a list of video names or folders they are in ?

I personally don't see a need for a thumbnail on a video file,

Names are just as good for me ?

The issue only exists when viewing a folder full of anything you'd normally like to view in thumbnail form such as a photo.  It's most pronounced when you have many folders with many photos (thumbnails).  If you don't have many and indeed if you normally view things as a list, you won't run into this issue.  As a photographer, even though my computer is blazingly fast, it's still inconvenient to occasionally have to recreate thumbs when opening one of my many folders with hundreds of photos.  It's not so bad when I'm viewing measly 2-10 meg jpegs but opening a folder with a few hundred tiffs that run 100megs plus can be irritating.  I think that's the other issue too in that for many people with simple jpegs, numerous though they may be, are actually relatively small files and will recreate quickly.  I enjoy thumbing my nose at the MAC people but in this case I'd have to say MS has let me (us) down.

I don't mean any disrespect but if you don't notice this, why are you replying to a thread that is more than three years old?  And if you'd read the very first sentence..."The issue only exists when viewing a folder full of anything you'd normally like to view in thumbnail form such as a photo", you'd see that this "issue" does not apply to you.  I too do not have any problems with anything that's an icon or list name.  Try loading your computer with photos (for which thumbnails are infinitely handy), and I mean hundreds and thousands and then one day, magically, Win7 has to recreate the thumbs because you've reached some preset number (amount) and you have to sit there and watch them be recreated.  Right now I have 14,809 photos in 610 folders totaling 90gigs.  Just the other day, Win7 decided to make new thumbs.  Yippee.  Not a problem for piddly jpegs int he 2-20meg range but a pain for those 100-150meg tiffs.  I'm glad it's not an issue for you and names are fine.  However, those of us who use thumbs, should not have to have the computer bogged down now and again to recreate what's already there.  I miss XP sometimes.