.XMP Results In Icons Not Thumbnails

[blitton]

Lightroom Version Number

6

Operating System

1. Windows 10

My most recent File Explorer Windows 10 Pictures folder is stubbornly producing icons instead of thumbnails. I tested the situation by by creating 1. A folder of the same dozen or so images I shot on Sunday without the .xmp sidecars, named 2022-01-02, and 2. A folder of the same images and their .xmp sidecars, named the same. The folder without the sidecars resulted in thumbnails & the other, icons. All of my other folders in Pictures besides the 2022-02 one giving me the trouble remain filled with thumbnails.

I'm especially nervous about correcting the situation, because I don't want to disrupt the other folders, which remain perfectly OK. And besides, I consider myself technically challenged, so I'm afraid any advice on what to do will be daunting, but it will be much appreciated.

My folders go back to 2014. I don't create a folder every month, but there are quite a few. I guess with as many images, some sort of correctible corruption is involved. I did look in Folder Options under View to check on settings when I was in this most recent 2022-01 folder that's giving me the problem. I took screen shots of all the boxes (checked and unchecked.) Then, I opened the same after I had opened one of the other folders that are OK and compared. All of the settings are the same.....

 

[Paul_DS256]

Can you share some screen shots of your issue?

 

[blitton]

Sure. The folder opened to icons is the 2022-01 folder. The folder opened to thumbnails represents all of my other and previous folders, back to 2014.

 

[clee01l]

Why doe the image folders not have a filetype suffix like JPG? In windows you can hide the suffix’s, but I would think that the XMP suffix would be hidden too.
Windows uses a CODEC to identify which file types are images and how to decode these to extract the thumbnail.

If you are missing the CODEC for this file type, then Windows won’t show a thumbnail or know to look for one.

What file types are the images in the folder with thumbnails and what file type are the image files in the folder with no thumbnail.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[blitton]

Thanks.

There are JPG images in the Untitled Folder, but they go by the names I assign upon export from LR. The thumbnails you see in the screenshot are RAW files. So are the images behind the icons in the other screenshot, RAW files.

So you're surmising that Windows might have somehow suddenly lost the CODEC to identify the images & extract the thumbnail?

 

[blitton]

Why doe the image folders not have a filetype suffix like JPG? In windows you can hide the suffix’s, but I would think that the XMP suffix would be hidden too.
Windows uses a CODEC to identify which file types are images and how to decode these to extract the thumbnail.

If you are missing the CODEC for this file type, then Windows won’t show a thumbnail or know to look for one.

What file types are the images in the folder with thumbnails and what file type are the image files in the folder with no thumbnail.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

(New to this forum, didn't see I could reply, so my actual reply is above this one.)

 

[Jim Wilde]

In File Explorer, there's a view option which controls whether file extensions for known file types are listed, and the default is to have them hidden (it's the first thing I change whenever I rebuild my Windows OS). On your system you appear to have that option still checked, which is why the raw and jpeg files are listed without their extension. What determines if a file extension is a "known file type" would appear to be whether or not it has an application already associated with the specific extension, and in your case it appears that Jpegs and Raw files already have an app associated with them (as expected), but you don't yet have a file association for "XMP"....so the latter extensions are listed. The file association only controls what app would be launched if you attempted to open a file directly from within the File Explorer, so the fact that one isn't currently associated with "XMP" isn't an issue (for the record, I have the Notepad app associated with the XMP extension, as that's the app I would use if I wanted to inspect or edit the contents of an XMP file). If you attempt to open an XMP file from within File Explorer you would get a dialog message asking you to select which app you want to use to open that file.

In terms of the different types of display that you are seeing when selecting a folder to view in File Explorer, if you look at the bottom right of the File Explorer window you should see two small icons.....these allow you to determine which type of view you wish to see. The one on the left will give you the "list view" as per your first screenshot, the one on the right will give you the "thumbnail view" as per your second screenshot. The thing is that if the view that File Explorer gives you on first selection isn't what you want, simply click on the appropriate icon to switch it to the view that you do want. Because I don't tend to do much work listing image contents in File Explorer, I've never really put any effort into figuring why File Explorer chooses the view mode that it does on first opening, instead I simply switch modes as required.

So try to switch the view mode to see if you get the display that you want. You might also want to think about unchecking that default option that hides file extensions for known file types.

 

[clee01l]

Thanks.

There are JPG images in the Untitled Folder, but they go by the names I assign upon export from LR. The thumbnails you see in the screenshot are RAW files. So are the images behind the icons in the other screenshot, RAW files.

So you're surmising that Windows might have somehow suddenly lost the CODEC to identify the images & extract the thumbnail?

Jim Wilde's suggestion of known file types may be on target. So, try switching the view mode first.

If your RAW file type is newer that your version of Windows there is a possibility that there is no CODEC available to Windows yet. There are many proprietary file types. So it is possible that your version of Windows does not have the correct CODEC.

I have not had to be a Windows user for over 10 years now. I have probably forgotten a lot of the inner working of Windows.

 

[Paul_DS256]

The folder without the sidecars resulted in thumbnails & the other, icons.

Two points:

• I agree with the above that it could be your viewing options set in Explorer and as a follow on to @Jim Wilde extensive explanation, I can only add the following points and example.
  
  Since you see the thumbnail, it is likely you have the Nikon CODEC installed. See below for an example of one of my directories with different Windows 10 view settings. Note I also, like Jim, have other features enabled such as always showing the file extension.
  
  
• I want to address your reference to 'sidecars/XMP'. 'sidecars/XMP' have nothing to do with preview/thumbnails. Those all come from the photo image file, in your case .NEF

 

[blitton]

In File Explorer, there's a view option which controls whether file extensions for known file types are listed, and the default is to have them hidden (it's the first thing I change whenever I rebuild my Windows OS). On your system you appear to have that option still checked, which is why the raw and jpeg files are listed without their extension. What determines if a file extension is a "known file type" would appear to be whether or not it has an application already associated with the specific extension, and in your case it appears that Jpegs and Raw files already have an app associated with them (as expected), but you don't yet have a file association for "XMP"....so the latter extensions are listed. The file association only controls what app would be launched if you attempted to open a file directly from within the File Explorer, so the fact that one isn't currently associated with "XMP" isn't an issue (for the record, I have the Notepad app associated with the XMP extension, as that's the app I would use if I wanted to inspect or edit the contents of an XMP file). If you attempt to open an XMP file from within File Explorer you would get a dialog message asking you to select which app you want to use to open that file.

In terms of the different types of display that you are seeing when selecting a folder to view in File Explorer, if you look at the bottom right of the File Explorer window you should see two small icons.....these allow you to determine which type of view you wish to see. The one on the left will give you the "list view" as per your first screenshot, the one on the right will give you the "thumbnail view" as per your second screenshot. The thing is that if the view that File Explorer gives you on first selection isn't what you want, simply click on the appropriate icon to switch it to the view that you do want. Because I don't tend to do much work listing image contents in File Explorer, I've never really put any effort into figuring why File Explorer chooses the view mode that it does on first opening, instead I simply switch modes as required.

So try to switch the view mode to see if you get the display that you want. You might also want to think about unchecking that default option that hides file extensions for known file types.

Thank you so much for your help, Jim. It worked. Goes to show that a good eye for technical detail can lead the mind to figure these things out. I did not see those options at the bottom of File Explore. I printed your message. I'm going to keep it for future reference.