Public bug reported:
Summary:
Nautilus incorrectly marks thumbnails as failed although the thumbnailers work
correctly and generate valid output.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Clear thumbnail cache:
rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/*
2. Restart Nautilus:
nautilus -q
3. Open a directory containing an image file (e.g. PNG)
4. Wait for thumbnail generation attempt
5. Run:
gio info ~/alacarte.png | grep thumbnail
Actual result:
Nautilus marks the thumbnail as failed for all sizes:
thumbnail::failed: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-normal: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-normal: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-large: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-large: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-xlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-xlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-xxlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-xxlarge: TRUE
Expected result:
Thumbnail should be generated and displayed correctly.
Additional debugging:
The thumbnailer itself works correctly.
Manual test (file path):
gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 /home/newcomer01/alacarte.png /tmp/test.png
Manual test (URI):
gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s 256 file:///home/newcomer01/alacarte.png /tmp/test.png
Both commands successfully create valid thumbnail images.
The issue persists even after clearing the thumbnail cache and
restarting Nautilus.
Additional observations:
- Thumbnail files are successfully created
- Nemo file manager is able to display thumbnails (after manual refresh)
- Nautilus immediately sets thumbnail::failed = TRUE after attempting generation
Conclusion:
The thumbnailer backend is working correctly.
The issue appears to be in Nautilus (or its gio/gvfs integration),
which incorrectly interprets the result of thumbnail generation and marks it as
failed.
Example output of gio info:
[11.04.2026, 17:01:09] newcomer01@newcomer01-MS-7A40:~ $ gio info
~/alacarte.png | grep thumbnail
thumbnail::failed: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-normal: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-normal: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-large: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-large: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-xlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-xlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::failed-xxlarge: TRUE
thumbnail::is-valid-xxlarge: TRUE
Environment:
Ubuntu (GNOME)
Nautilus version: 1:46.4-0ubuntu0.2
The issue is reproducible consistently.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: nautilus 1:46.4-0ubuntu0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-107.107-generic 6.8.12
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-107-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3.8
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Apr 11 17:07:25 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2025-07-13 (272 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64
(20240220)
ProcEnviron:
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
PATH=(custom, no user)
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm-256color
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2025-07-13 (272 days ago)
usr_lib_nautilus:
dropbox 2025.05.20
file-roller 44.3-0ubuntu2
nautilus-extension-gnome-terminal 3.52.0-1ubuntu2
nautilus-image-converter 0.4.0-2build2
** Affects: nautilus (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug noble third-party-packages wayland-session
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2148075
Title:
Nautilus incorrectly marks thumbnails as failed although thumbnailers
work correctly
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