File thumbnails does not show with files saved to OneDrive (Windows) #115282

Closed
opened 2023-11-22 20:42:23 +01:00 by Matias Mendiola · 5 comments

System Information
Operating system: Windows 11
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

Blender Version
Broken: (4.0.1, branch: blender-v4.0-release, commit date: 2023-11-16 16:40, hash: d0dd92834a)
Worked: -

When saving files to folders on OneDrive, the thumbnails does not show in Windows File Explorer after the file is synced.

Thumbnail_issue

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error

  • Save a blender file to OneDrive folder
  • The file thumbnail is showing correctly only until is fully synced (close and reopen the file browser to see the change)
**System Information** Operating system: Windows 11 Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 **Blender Version** Broken: (4.0.1, branch: blender-v4.0-release, commit date: 2023-11-16 16:40, hash: d0dd92834a08) Worked: - When saving files to folders on OneDrive, the thumbnails does not show in Windows File Explorer after the file is synced. ![Thumbnail_issue](/attachments/d299edf1-aa22-4e3d-9628-8af600e46151) **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** - Save a blender file to OneDrive folder - The file thumbnail is showing correctly only until is fully synced (close and reopen the file browser to see the change)
Matias Mendiola added the
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Normal
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Report
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Needs Triage
labels 2023-11-22 20:42:24 +01:00
Member

Can confirm

Can confirm
Pratik Borhade added
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User Interface
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labels 2023-11-23 12:35:02 +01:00
Member

Not sure what we could do here.

From within Blender we have control over what you see, what thumbnails are shown, and when. But this is outside of Blender. Here the operating system is deciding what to show you.

With almost all formats that are thumbnailed, these previews are entirely made by the operating system, so completely under the control of Microsoft. But since it has no knowledge of blend files we provide a "shell extension" that allows it get blend previews when it needs one. But this is a very simple process and we are simply provide the OS a thumbnail extracted from the blend file whenever it asks for one. But this is just so that you can see thumbnails of blends in most folders of your local computer. The OneDrive folders are different...

For OneDrive specifically the issue is that items that are "on the cloud" get their previews from a cloud service. This is why you see the preview before the sync - you see your local preview made on your own computer. But after the sync items get previews from the cloud and they don't have a method to view blend thumbs.

Images and PDFs that are over 100 MB will also not show thumbnails once synced, even if they do before.

This particular issue is best described by Microsoft itself in "Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint"

  • Thumbnails are not generated for images larger than 100 MB.
  • PDF previews are not generated for files larger than 100 MB.
  • Thumbnails are only supported if it's a OneDrive supported filetype, for example, Office files, PDFs and selected image and app types.

This last bit is the answer to this report: it is only a subset of directly-supported file types that get thumbnails, not any that require a custom thumbnail handler like Blender.

Not sure what we could do here. From _within_ Blender we have control over what you see, what thumbnails are shown, and when. But this is _outside_ of Blender. Here the operating system is deciding what to show you. With almost all formats that are thumbnailed, these previews are entirely made by the operating system, so completely under the control of Microsoft. But since it has no knowledge of blend files we provide a "shell extension" that allows it get blend previews when it needs one. But this is a very simple process and we are simply provide the OS a thumbnail extracted from the blend file whenever it asks for one. But this is just so that you can see thumbnails of blends in most folders of your local computer. The OneDrive folders are different... For OneDrive specifically the issue is that items that are "on the cloud" get their previews from a cloud service. This is why you see the preview before the sync - you see your local preview made on your own computer. But after the sync items get previews from the cloud and they don't have a method to view blend thumbs. Images and PDFs that are over 100 MB will also not show thumbnails once synced, even if they do before. This particular issue is best described by Microsoft itself in "[Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint](https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/restrictions-and-limitations-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa#:~:text=Thumbnails%20and%20previews,-Applies%20to%3A&text=Thumbnails%20are%20not%20generated%20for,selected%20image%20and%20app%20types.)" * Thumbnails are not generated for images larger than 100 MB. * PDF previews are not generated for files larger than 100 MB. * Thumbnails are only supported if it's a OneDrive supported filetype, for example, Office files, PDFs and selected image and app types. This last bit is the answer to this report: it is only a subset of directly-supported file types that get thumbnails, not any that require a custom thumbnail handler like Blender.
Author
Member

Thank you for taking the time to review the issue @Harley and thank you for clarifying why this is happening, now it's clear to me.
You could mark this as a known issue or resolved then.

Thank you for taking the time to review the issue @Harley and thank you for clarifying why this is happening, now it's clear to me. You could mark this as a known issue or resolved then.
Member

@mendio - Thank you for taking the time to review the issue

No worries, and thanks for bringing this issue up. I had suspected that this might be something out of our control, but I actually had no idea that they use a web service for thumbnailing. So it was an interesting rabbit hole to go down.

In hindsight it makes sense. When there are multiple people sharing a web folder, this means everyone can see a thumbnail (of regular items like images) even for items that they have never had local. So I can put an image in the folder, and you can choose to download it or not, depending on the thumbnail.

You could mark this as a known issue or resolved then

@PratikPB2123 - I'm not certain what statuses to set on this one.

> @mendio - Thank you for taking the time to review the issue No worries, and thanks for bringing this issue up. I had _suspected_ that this might be something out of our control, but I actually had no idea that they use a web service for thumbnailing. So it was an interesting rabbit hole to go down. In hindsight it makes sense. When there are multiple people sharing a web folder, this means everyone can see a thumbnail (of regular items like images) even for items that they have never had local. So I can put an image in the folder, and you can choose to download it or not, depending on the thumbnail. > You could mark this as a known issue or resolved then @PratikPB2123 - I'm not certain what statuses to set on this one.
Member

since this is not an issue in blender, also onedrive and other cloud storages support thumbnails of limited file formats, I think we can close the report.
Thanks @Harley for the details :)

since this is not an issue in blender, also onedrive and other cloud storages support thumbnails of limited file formats, I think we can close the report. Thanks @Harley for the details :)
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Reference: blender/blender#115282
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