topic Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive in Inventor Forum

File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

bkoeseVJRTT — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 13:01:16 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Currently I'm using Inventor 2025 and storing all my files on OneDrive. As the title suggests, I'm not seeing Inventor thumbnails in Windows Explorer or the Open dialog box; which is quite inconvenient.

I followed the steps outlined in this article: Inventor files thumbnails do not appear in the Inventor Open Dialogue box; however, the issue remains unresolved. Interestingly, this problem doesn't occur when I save files to a non-synced folder or when I disable OneDrive. In addition, I can see a thumbnail in every part when I check the properties of the file in exporer, which tells me that a thumbnail is being made.

I hope anyone knows how to fix this issue.

Kind regards,

Bart.

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

k.hendrickx — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 12:31:30 GMT

I'm following this.

We also use a OneDrive to sync a library of parts.

With me this works fine and I can see the thumbnails from within Inventor and Explorer.

My colleagues however have the same problem as you describe and have tried pretty much everything there is to get it fixed without success.

It's going so far, that at the moment I'm not even updating to windows 11 (they have) because I'm afraid it will mess up mine as well 😅

So maybe it can be useful information for your question, I'm on windows 10 with a OneDrive build 24.186.0915.0004

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

bkoeseVJRTT — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:05:24 GMT

nobody?

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

johnsonshiue — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:15:00 GMT

Hi! I suspect this could be OneDrive setting related. I don't think it is related to the application. Someone mentioned that disabling "Save space and download files as you use" option in OneDrive may fix the missing thumbnail issues.

Many thanks!

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

k.hendrickx — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 22:41:20 GMT

Hi Johnson,

We thought the same thing, but we've set all the setting identical and all files are fully synced and downloaded on all of our pc's. So in terms of OneDrive our machines are identical.

Yet on mine the thumbnails are displayed and with my team members they are not... We already went as far as creating separate image files of the thumbnails which then do get displayed next to the parts which is a very poor work around.

Still seems like OneDrive isn't able to access the thumbnail image inside the file. Is there any way to extract the thumbnail from the file?

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

bkoeseVJRTT — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 06:50:11 GMT

Dear Johnson,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I had already turned off Files on Demand, but this did not resolve the issue. Other files, such as PDFs, images, and PowerPoint documents, display thumbnails correctly. The problem seems to occur only with Inventor files, which makes me think it might be specific to Inventor.

Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

johnsonshiue — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 23:44:48 GMT

Hi! Here is another related discussion on Microsoft Community.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/certain-onedrive-thumbnails-not-showing/fcc29b0b-192c-4230-a007-f3adb363b4a1

It seems that OneDrive does have trouble displaying non-generic file types. There are a few tips offered in the above thread. Please take a look.

Many thanks!

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

bkoeseVJRTT — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 07:38:21 GMT

Thanks again John,

Unfortunately no solution was shown in here. I will keep following that topic.

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

robinTU2J8 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:58:21 GMT

Unfortunately the Microsoft Thread has been closed, but the problem still exists.

I recently switched off of a private onedrive, to business onedrive. After switching f3d Files in OneDrive folders show no thumbnail anymore.

Stl files show the "normal" Thumbnail, created by PowerToys, and after the file is uploaded the preview gets changed to a new thumbnail with gray background and different color. So Onedrive is changing the thumbnail preview.

Has anyone been able to disable this function of Onedrive Business? I checked through preview handlers but could not find a way to get f3d files working.

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

DycoMatt — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:25:36 GMT

Same problem here on OneDrive.

My workaround was to create a symbolic link, to have the files stored locally, so the thumbnails show, and trick OneDrive into thinking they were stored in the OneDrive folder.

Has been working for a couple of months now.

Re: File thumbnails dissapear after synchronization with Onedrive

robinTU2J8 — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 12:23:37 GMT

I might have found a solution. Checking the OneDrive.admx for Group Policies, I was able to load it into my Windows 11 local group policies and used it to deactivate "Files-On-Demand" completely.

Although I already disabled files on demand in the OneDrive app, I still had Folders with a green checkmark and white background, not the full green background and white checkmark.

With the group policy set to disable files on demand, all folders have the full green sync icon and the thumbnails show up as usual.

If you want to do the same:

You can find the admx files and adml (language) in your Onedrive Installation folder, either:
- %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\\*BuildNumber*\adm\ or
- %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft OneDrive\BuildNumber\adm\ or
- %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft OneDrive\BuildNumber\adm\
Copy the admx file to: %SYSTEMROOT%\PolicyDefinitions (thats your windows folder \PolicyDefinitions)
And copy the adml file of your language, to the corresponding subfolder.
- For me it was the german adml file from C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\26.026.0209.0004\adm\de
- The english file was directly in the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\26.026.0209.0004\adm\ together with the admx file.
Now start your local group policy editor, in German its "Gruppenrichtlienien bearbeiten", should be something like "Edit Group Policies" in english.
Go to Computerconfiguration, then Adminsitrative Templates, then OneDrive and find the option "OneDrive-Dateien bei Bedarf verwenden", in English it should be something like:
- Enable files on Demand, Allow files on Demand

I restarted my system and now all folders show the full green checkbox and thumbnails for f3d, m3f and stl files are working again, as well as other formats.

If your pc is part of a company domain, your administrator can disable file on demand for you through a centralised group policy.

I hope this helps some people, have a nice day!