Ubuntu – My video (.mkv) thumbnails are green (or monochromatic)

mkvnautilusthumbnails

When I installed Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 thumbnails for .mkv were not showing up at all, Then it automatically got fixed, now it's generating the Thumbnails but as weird as it may sound, they're all green (or purple or pink but they are all monochromatic for sure). files are not affected by this only the thumbnails. other video file formats are okay as well, .mp4 .flv, just the .mkv's are affected.

I've no idea where should I start to fix this.

Screenshot

affected .mkv files

screenshot2

not affected .mp4 files

Best Answer

This answer is based on Another answer posted by Elder Geek, this just makes it easy for new users to execute

Original Work

For 17.04

Enable Multiverse and Universe repositories

Open the software and updates app and select multiverse and universe repositories

software and update screenshot

and run the following command after enabling them

sudo apt-get update

Install ubuntu-restricted-extras

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This command should do it, You'll need to use the Tab key to highlight the OK button for the mscore fonts package and hit enter to accept the agreement, How do I install the ubuntu-restricted extras package? (for more details)

You don't need to install ubuntu-restricted-extras if you've already installed media drivers while installing ubuntu

Install ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg ffmpegthumbnailer

These commands will install ffmpeg, after that delete all the existing thumbnails. by doing

rm -r ~/.cache/thumbnails

Change the job of creating thumbnails from Totem to ffmpeg

sudo nano /usr/share/thumbnailers/totem.thumbnailer

a text file will open up, replace all the text inside it with the following

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=ffmpegthumbnailer
Exec=ffmpegthumbnailer -s %s -i %i -o %o -c png -f -t 10
MimeType=application/mxf;application/ogg;application/ram;application/sdp;application/vnd.ms-wpl;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;application/x-extension-m4a;application/x-extension-mp4;application/x-flash-video;application/x-matroska;application/x-netshow-channel;application/x-ogg;application/x-quicktimeplayer;application/x-shorten;image/vnd.rn-realpix;image/x-pict;misc/ultravox;text/x-google-video-pointer;video/3gpp;video/dv;video/fli;video/flv;video/mp2t;video/mp4;video/mp4v-es;video/mpeg;video/msvideo;video/ogg;video/quicktime;video/vivo;video/vnd.divx;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;video/vnd.vivo;video/webm;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;video/x-flic;video/x-flv;video/x-m4v;video/x-matroska;video/x-mpeg;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-asx;video/x-msvideo;video/x-ms-wm;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-ms-wmx;video/x-ms-wvx;video/x-nsv;video/x-ogm+ogg;video/x-theora+ogg;video/x-totem-stream;audio/x-pn-realaudio;audio/3gpp;audio/ac3;audio/AMR;audio/AMR-WB;audio/basic;audio/midi;audio/mp2;audio/mp4;audio/mpeg;audio/ogg;audio/prs.sid;audio/vnd.rn-realaudio;audio/x-aiff;audio/x-ape;audio/x-flac;audio/x-gsm;audio/x-it;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-matroska;audio/x-mod;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/x-ms-asf;audio/x-ms-asx;audio/x-ms-wax;audio/x-ms-wma;audio/x-musepack;audio/x-pn-aiff;audio/x-pn-au;audio/x-pn-wav;audio/x-pn-windows-acm;audio/x-realaudio;audio/x-real-audio;audio/x-sbc;audio/x-speex;audio/x-tta;audio/x-wav;audio/x-wavpack;audio/x-vorbis;audio/x-vorbis+ogg;audio/x-xm;application/x-flac;

To save updated file in Nano press Ctrl + X and then type y and enter. How to edit files in a terminal with nano?

You can use other text editing apps to edit /usr/share/thumbnailers/totem.thumbnailer file if you're not comfortable using nano

and the restart nautilus

nautilus -q

Clear all the thumbnails again and check if you're problem is solved

rm -r ~/.cache/thumbnails

The command above will clear all the thumbnails again, go check them, they will not be monochromatic now'

If you're losing Mp3/flac thumbnails after doing this, then try this approach instead

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