Thumbnail cache keeps clearing

[theoneofgod]

System Specifications:
Windows 8 x64
Intel i7 3770k
16GB 1866MHz RAM
840 Pro SSD.

I've noticed very often that Media Preview has to re-cache all the thumbnails, usually after a reboot. Is this normal? Is there a way to stop it happening?

Page file is switched on, 1024/2048MB

I'll happily test anything.

[BabelSoft]

What is the size of your primary drive? And most importantly, what is the remaining free space size? If you have anything below 2-3 GB then Windows may automatically purge the thumbnail cache... Other factors may also let Windows initiate the cache purge.

So try to free a big amount of space if you have a lot of media files. A future version of Media Preview should fix this issue but for now you'll have to work within Windows default parameters.

[theoneofgod]

BIOS Mode: UEFI
Capacity: 237GB
Used: 41.5GB
Free: 196GB

My Media files aren't on this drive, would that make a difference? That drive has over 40GB free.

[BabelSoft]

It doesn't matter where your media files are.

I answered based on my experience on Windows XP to 7. It seems that the issue you reported is a well known new issue happening with Windows 8. Some background system processes are regularly resetting the thumbnail cache. Seriously, I don't understand why the preview system in Windows 8 is so broken...

1/ it doesn't allow to retrieve some important pieces of information so Media Preview has to do some workarounds to enable thumbnail generation.
2/ most of the time, it asks for crazy thumbnail sizes, so that everything would go slower if not taken into account.
3/ and now, I understand that the caching system is basically useless...

For now, you're stuck with the issue but I already planned for Media Preview to get its own caching system to solve another unrelated issue. It probably won't be ready for quite some time, so in the mean time, live with the issue or if you really can't bear it, downgrade to Windows 7. If we're lucky, Microsoft may fix this with Windows 8.1 due soon...

[BabelSoft]

I forgot another alternative: you can set Media Preview to "Speed " in the configuration tool so that missing cache won't be such a big issue anymore, but obviously produced thumbnail quality will be quite lessen.

[theoneofgod]

I forgot another alternative: you can set Media Preview to "Speed " in the configuration tool so that missing cache won't be such a big issue anymore, but obviously produced thumbnail quality will be quite lessen.

Thanks for the replies. It has been helpful. Lets hope Windows 8.1 has this fixed.
I'll try "Speed" now.

[theoneofgod]

Hi. Have you managed to test the 8.1 RTM yet, to see if this behaviour continues to happen?

[BabelSoft]

Not yet, but it should be done by the end of this week.

[BabelSoft]

After a few testing, I can say that Windows 8.1 is a bit better than vanilla 8.

1/ it doesn't allow to retrieve some important pieces of information so Media Preview has to do some workarounds to enable thumbnail generation.
2/ most of the time, it asks for crazy thumbnail sizes, so that everything would go slower if not taken into account.
3/ and now, I understand that the caching system is basically useless...

Out of the 3 problematic points I gave out earlier, the 1st has been fixed (it seems like Microsoft Shell team do read Shell related 3rd party blogs/forums as there's no official way to report bugs to them).
2nd point is still true, but at least there is a very easy fix Media Preview can use to avoid the issue.
About 3rd point, the cache system seems to get better, but only a daily use of Win 8.1 by several users should confirm that everything is back to normal on this particular point...

Anyway, Win 8.1 is getting better on every aspects, so don't hesitate to upgrade as soon as it'll be officially available to the general public.

[theoneofgod]

Thanks for your reply. Does the latest version (inlcuding the beta) work for 8.1? I have it installed but it's taking a very long time to cache the thumbnails, mkv's aren't being shown either.