[SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

rouelle · 2026-02-12 04:01:19

Arch Linux
Gnome 49.4 / nautilus 49.4
Gimp 3.0.8

Three or four months ago I started to see the replacement of jpeg thumbnails in Nautilus by the generic icon. A slow and strange change, not all images where affected. I work a lot with Darktable and Gimp since years, having more than 100000 photos in raw and jpeg format. Nautilus was quite fast to show me the thumbnails of these images and Gnome shushi practical for a quick preview.

I use the default kernel (not the hardened one needing bubblewrap-suid) and the four glycin packages are installed (glycin, glycin-gtk4, glycin1, glycin1-gtk4) to create thumbnails.

Whatever I try, saving a picture with Gimp in jpeg (even using all the options like save thumbnails) now only shoes generic icon instead of thumbnails in nautilus. I recreated several times the thumbnail cache (sudo rm -R ./cache/thumbnails) and all the jpeg thumbnails prior to 3 or 4 months are all recreated. Any other image format (.dng, .nef, .tiff, .png, .xcf, etc) have their thumbnails created perfectly.

I tried to create the same jpeg images with Gimp with another user and another desktop (hyprland) and the same behavior occurs, no jpeg thumbnail for any images created since gimp 3.0.6 (or around).

Someone has a hint to solve this problem?

p.s. Recent thumbnails appear in thunar but I don't want to use two different file manager, I want the normal behavior back.

Last edited by rouelle (2026-02-13 03:07:27)

seth · 2026-02-12 10:07:13

Is gimp embedding an empty/bogus thumbnail into the images?

exiv2 -e t epstein_file_12345.jpg

This might get you "epstein_file_12345-thumb.jpg" or an error that there's no embedded thumbnail.

rouelle · 2026-02-12 16:58:14

exiv2 -e t  260103-1404_celr.jpg

gives

260103-1404_celr.jpg: L'image ne contient pas de miniature Exif

my locale is in french, it translates as : The image doesn't contain any Exif thumbnail

Like I said when I save a jpeg image in Gimp I allways have to check "Save thumbnails" in the jpeg options - Gimp doesn't save this option as default.
I even tried to start Gimp from scratch by deleting its ./config/GIMP but the same behavior persist.

seth · 2026-02-12 19:57:24

If it's not an embedded thumbnail (gimp could just ignore the checkbox) the thumbnailer cannot read the file.
Thunar uses https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/tumbler/ nautilus probably some internal feature - is this actually a regression? Have you tried to downgrade nautilus?
Also see whether there're any glycin/pixbuf2 related errors in the journal.

Also see whether gimp's jpeg options have any impact (progressive format or the specifics of the DCT)
Can you share a dysfunctional and a functional image?
(Don't use an image pasting service as those will typically re-encode the image)

rouelle · 2026-02-12 21:47:25

Well, I crawl in the fog :-)

I check

exiv2 -e t anyimage.jpg

on any of my working directory having jpeg images showing their thumbnails and none has an embedded Exif thumbnail. Nautilus shows correctly their thumbnail.

Any image saved with Gimp 3.0.8 in a format that is not jpeg has a correct thumbnail showed in Nautilus - even if the save thumbnail option is not checked in Gimp.

If I convert an image using magick to jpeg format, then the thumbnail is correctly showed in Nautilus.

I even tried

magick convert -quality 94 test.jpg test0.jpg

and the image size grows by about 10% and the thumbnail is showed correctly in Nautilus.

Finally, any non working jpeg image cannot be previewed with gnome-shushi but working image does…

So I guess Gimp jpeg saving plugin is the culprit but I can't find out how to correct it.

rouelle · 2026-02-12 21:55:23

Also see whether there're any glycin/pixbuf2 related errors in the journal.

journalctl -f | grep -i glycin

fév 12 15:40:41 papordi systemd[4623]: dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@3.service: Unit process 33410 (glycin-svg) remains running after unit stopped.
fév 12 16:30:47 papordi systemd[4623]: dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@6.service: Unit process 44221 (glycin-svg) remains running after unit stopped.
fév 12 16:31:22 papordi systemd[4623]: dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@7.service: Unit process 44404 (glycin-image-rs) remains running after unit stopped.
fév 12 16:31:22 papordi systemd[4623]: dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@7.service: Unit process 44420 (glycin-svg) remains running after unit stopped.
fév 12 16:31:22 papordi systemd[4623]: dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@7.service: Unit process 44839 (glycin-image-rs) remains running after unit stopped.

journal took a very long time to answer. Why is glycin talking about -svg or -image-rs while trying to read jpeg images?

seth · 2026-02-12 22:04:08

seth wrote:

Can you share a dysfunctional and a functional image?
(Don't use an image pasting service as those will typically re-encode the image)

rouelle · 2026-02-12 22:53:53

This image works perfectly: 250912-1509-1.jpg -> link to download: https://upload.disroot.org/r/pC4s7QRN#b … tUde8lWM0=

This one doesn't: 250912-1509.jpg -> link to download https://upload.disroot.org/r/z2E2MPFq#0 … c9iw2SXFo=

But if I resize both image to 50% using Gimp 3.0.8 then both images don't show any thumbnail in Nautilus.

seth · 2026-02-12 23:16:33

Do you have arithmetic encoding enabled?
That being said

gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 250912-1509-1.jpg 250912-1509-1_tmb.jpg
gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 250912-1509.jpg 250912-1509_tmb.jpg

both produce usable thumbnails here

rouelle · 2026-02-13 02:48:01

Do you have arithmetic encoding enabled?

Yes, I disabled it and voilà, it seems to work! I'll further check but for now it seems to be the solution! I'll mark this thread as SOLVED tomorrow if it is the case.

That being said

gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 250912-1509-1.jpg 250912-1509-1_tmb.jpg
gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 250912-1509.jpg 250912-1509_tmb.jpg

both produce usable thumbnails here

gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer is no more in Arch packages nor in AUR :-( glycin's change?

rouelle · 2026-02-13 03:06:54

Disabling arithmetic encoding in Gimp did the trick for jpeg image; thumbnails are back in Nautilus and no need too to check the option "save thumbnail" in Gimp.

I probably checked arithmetic encoding a few weeks ago (by mistake?). I'm marking this thread as solved, thanks seth!

seth · 2026-02-13 09:17:23

gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer is no more in Arch packages nor in AUR :-( glycin's change?

Probably, I'm not using that.
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glycin/-/issues/179

Arch Linux

#1 2026-02-12 04:01:19

[SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#2 2026-02-12 10:07:13

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#3 2026-02-12 16:58:14

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#4 2026-02-12 19:57:24

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#5 2026-02-12 21:47:25

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#6 2026-02-12 21:55:23

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#7 2026-02-12 22:04:08

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#8 2026-02-12 22:53:53

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#9 2026-02-12 23:16:33

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#10 2026-02-13 02:48:01

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#11 2026-02-13 03:06:54

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

#12 2026-02-13 09:17:23

Re: [SOLVED] No jpeg thumbnails in nautilus when image saved by gimp

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