Thumbnails Not Showing in File Explorer on Windows 11? Turn Previews Back On

Pictures, PDFs, and videos in File Explorer show plain generic icons instead of a small preview of the actual file.

Why: Windows draws those previews from a thumbnail cache, but two settings switch them off — a per-folder “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option in File Explorer Options, and a matching “Show thumbnails instead of icons” option in Performance settings. A corrupt thumbnail cache can also leave you with blank or wrong previews. Fix the settings first, then clear the cache.

Fix 1: Turn off “Always show icons, never thumbnails”

1. Open File Explorer, click the … (See more) button → Options to open File Explorer Options.
2. Go to the View tab.
3. In Advanced settings, make sure Always show icons, never thumbnails is unticked.
4. Click Apply, then OK.

This single checkbox is the most common cause — when it’s ticked, every file shows a generic icon.

Fix 2: Check the Performance setting for thumbnails

Windows also has a system-wide performance toggle that can hide previews:

1. In the taskbar search, type View advanced system settings and open it.
2. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
3. On the Visual Effects tab, tick Show thumbnails instead of icons.
4. Click Apply → OK.

Fix 3: Use a view that shows thumbnails

Thumbnails don’t appear in List or Details view, or at Small icons size. In the folder, right-click an empty area → View, and choose Large icons, Extra large icons, Tiles, or Content.

Fix 4: Rebuild the thumbnail cache with Disk Cleanup

If previews are still blank, wrong, or missing for only some files, the cache is corrupt — clear it and let Windows regenerate it:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup and open it.
2. Select your Windows drive (usually C:) → OK.
3. Tick Thumbnails, then OK → Delete files.

Browse the folder again and Windows rebuilds fresh previews.

FAQ

Why do my photos show but PDFs/videos don’t? Previews for those depend on the app that handles them. PDF thumbnails need a PDF app (e.g. Acrobat with its preview handler enabled); some video formats need the right codec installed from Microsoft Store.

Thumbnails came back but then disappeared again. The setting was re-enabled, or the cache is filling up and corrupting. Confirm Fix 1 and Fix 2 are set, then clear the cache (Fix 4); if it keeps happening, low disk space can prevent the cache from saving.

Sources: Microsoft Support — Disk Cleanup in Windows · Microsoft Support — Error: Windows Explorer has stopped working