Troubleshooting blank thumbnails

Troubleshooting blank thumbnails

This article explains how to troubleshoot a missing thumbnail in the source.

There are various situations in which Peakto can produce Blank thumbnails, but these situations are rare, and there should always be a good reason for it. If you see blank thumbnails outside of these conditions, then please contact our support.

Blank thumbnails are generated when:
1. the source is the Finder and the image format is unsupported and Peakto has no image engine that can interpret the format or extract an image from it. This can happen for some new RAW variants of exisiting RAW formats, or for problematic images such as exotic DNGs and difficult RAW types (CR3 for example). As of the time of writing, the only problematic format is CR3.
2. the image is corrupt or is not of the type suggested by its extension
3. the image is inaccessible. 
4. the image has no preview in the source catalog. This can happen in LR or C1 if the app has not generated the previews.


Let's see how to fix this

1. Blanck images in the case of Watched Folders: 
Watched folders are the only sources for which we built the previews and thumbnails directly without the help of a cataloging app.
If you have a blank image, this is probably due to the fact that the format is unsupported or the file is corrupt.
Check the file format


2. Blanck images in the case of Catalog Sources (LR, C1, Apple Photos, Luminar, ...): 
When we deal with a source catalog, we use the preview generated by the catalog because this preview needs to reflect the edits performed in the app.
If you have a blank image, this is probably due to the fact that the preview generation is incomplete.

Check the preview generation by launching the catalog. If the app supports it (LR, C1...), explicitly launch a generation of missing previews.

You can use the Developer menu (see How to activate the Developer Menu?) to audit the quality of previews. To do this:
  1. Select a problematic preview in Peakto
  2. Control + clic (or Right clic) to reveal the contextual menu, and choose Developer > Analyse Available Previews...


This will launch a dialog where the list of previews will be displayed. If you have previews in the host app and Peakto displays a blank thumbnail and reports no accessible previews, please contact us.


3. Master images that appear offline in Peakto but are online in reality
This situation can arise very rarely in the case of ghost drives (see Volume is online but catatogs on that volume appear offline)

Check for the presence of "ghost" drives

    • Related Articles

    • Metadata does not show up in Lightroom

      If you don't see any metadata in Lightroom after a conversion, chances are, that the problem comes from a Lightroom setting, and not from the conversion. In Lightroom, ensure that the Metadata panel is not in Edit-Only Mode, otherwise the metadata ...
    • How to reset Peakto and start afresh

      Sometimes you wish to start from a blank sheet again and reingest content, or rebuild a complete Peakto catalog with your content If you feel like you need to start afresh because of an issue, please contact support first so we can help and prevent ...
    • How much free space does Peakto need ?

      Short answer, that depends on how many photographs you will index in Peakto. Peakto will need about 200 kB per picture. The table below describes the space needed in different scenarios: # of pictures Size needed by Peakto in GB 10,000 1.9 100,000 ...
    • How to send the Peakto database when the support asks for it

      Peakto saves its catalog structure in a folder that you can define yourself via the Preferences. If you don't do anything special, the default location is : ~/Library/Application Support/Peakto The Peakto catalog consists in several database files: ...
    • Understanding previews in Peakto

      Peakto needs to render previews and thumbnails for all photos referenced. Sometimes, the correct rendering for an image is the result of complex adjustments being applied on an original image (the master). Peakto therefore relies completely on the ...