Enable Thumbnails for Videos (like Photos)

[tokenwizard]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Thumbnail Previews don't work for video files

Describe the solution you'd like
When browsing a folder of Videos, be able to see a thumbnail preview, like you would on a desktop file browser.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Prior to FileRise, I was using Nextcloud but it is too heavy, cumbersome, and overkill for my needs.

Additional context

FileRise version: Core 2.11.2 Pro 1.4.0
Running via Docker Compose with Cloudflared Tunnel to access publicly. 

No console/output errors that I can see related to thumbnails not loading.

Are there any other codec or other requirements to install on the hosting server or in the docker compose stack to allow thumbnail generation?

[error311]

@tokenwizard
Thanks for the suggestion this was added in v2.12.1.

[tokenwizard]

@error311 Is there something else that needs to be done to enable this? I just pulled the latest image and still not seeing thumbs for the video files. Or maybe it only works with specific formats?

[error311]

@tokenwizard Yeah this is improved further in Core v2.13.0. No extra codecs/packages needed in your compose.
Please update to v2.13.0, restart the container (to pull the new image), and hard-refresh the browser. MP4 thumbnails should start showing automatically.
If they still don’t show, let me know the approx file size and whether they’re H.264 vs H.265, since very large/H.265 videos may be skipped depending on the new preview size limit.

[tokenwizard]

@error311 Ok, pulled the latest imaged and restarted. I uploaded a smaller (<100MB) MP$ and it does show the thumbnail. So I guess maybe a file size limit. I see settings for Hover thumbnail/preview size limit. Is that what you are referring to?

[tokenwizard]

Any chance we can get file size displayed in the UI? I can submit a separate feature request.

[tokenwizard]

I do still ahve some MP4 files that are not displaying thumbnails, even being smaller than the size limit. Here is one that is under 40MB:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/home/tokenwizard/Videos/Dirty Lil warpig/20251226_133242.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2025-12-26T18:32:56.000000Z
    com.android.version: 15
    com.android.capture.fps: 30.000000
    com.samsung.android.utc_offset: -0500
  Duration: 00:00:13.63, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 20886 kb/s
  Stream #0:0[0x1](eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 2400x1080, 20076 kb/s, 30.01 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2025-12-26T18:32:56.000000Z
      handler_name    : VideoHandle
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
  Stream #0:1[0x2](eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s, start 0.100292 (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2025-12-26T18:32:56.000000Z
      handler_name    : SoundHandle
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]

[error311]

Any chance we can get file size displayed in the UI? I can submit a separate feature request.

If you could create a separate request would be great just to track.

[error311]

@tokenwizard
Thanks for the details. That MP4 looks totally valid (H.264 + AAC), so it’s likely the thumbnail generator hitting a codec/metadata edge case rather than the size limit.

Can you try the latest release (v2.13.1)?

If it still doesn’t, I’ll probably add an optional FFmpeg-based thumbnail layer later (more reliable across weird MP4 variants), since built-in methods can be inconsistent depending on the environment.