Unable to view PDF thumbnail in confluence
Asked by Gnanavelu Murthy:

In conluence unable to preview the PDF thumbnail. People want to have thumbnail view for pdf files.

Please find the attached screenshot for your reference. The attached screenshot thumbnail shows preview for PPT file but doesn't for the PDF file.  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8928){#link_1186ca87efd19b}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/1/Thumbnail%20PDF.PNG){#display_1186ca87efd19b_0}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8929){#link_1186ca87efd19b_0}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/2/Flatirons%20Water%20Challenge%20Tracking%20Global%201.pdf){#display_1186ca87efd19b_2}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8930){#link_1186ca87efd19b_1}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/3/Flatirons%20Water%20Challenge%20Tracking%20Global.pdf){#display_1186ca87efd19b_4}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8931){#link_1186ca87efd19b_2}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/4/PDF%20as%20thumbnail%20test.pdf){#display_1186ca87efd19b_6}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8932){#link_1186ca87efd19b_3}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/5/PDF%20thumbnail%20view.PNG){#display_1186ca87efd19b_8}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-view-PDF-thumbnail-in-confluence/qaq-p/447684?attachment-id=8933){#link_1186ca87efd19b_4}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/75753/6/Word%20as%20thumbnail%20test.docx){#display_1186ca87efd19b_10}


Answers:
author: neville_collins
body: This happened for me, when I copy the page with PDFs and all the thumbnails got removed. I address this using the Atlassian Companion App with the default PDF view in Edge.

1. Edit through Companion App
2. Draw on the Page and the Erase it, so to enable Save Icon
3. Upload
4. Refresh page
5. PDF thumbnails are back


author: cook73
body: I had a similar issue. Here is what I discovered:

1) When I printed PDF files from my browser and saved them, I was able to view the thumbnail in Confluence when previewing, no problems.

2) When I printed a PDF file of an email from Microsoft Outlook, I was not able to view the thumbnail in Confluence when previewing. Instead I was getting a suggestion to download Adobe Reader (I already have adobe reader).

How I fixed this:

I have both Adobe Acrobat DC and Adobe Reader on my PC. First I tried re-saving the file from Adobe DC and I didn't see any difference in Confluence after replacing the PDF file. I then opened the offending PDF file in Adobe Reader and re-saved the file. I attached the new PDF file to a page in Confluence and find that the preview of the file is now working as expected. There appears to be some kind of extra security on the file I printed from Microsoft Outlook.


author: Tom Bowden
body: Hi was there ever a solution to this please? We have thumbnail views working fine in our Service Desk but can't see them when working in Confluence. Using latest Confluence version, Windows and Google Chrome.

comments: author: Rodney Hughes
body: There are a few things at play here ... none of them specifically the fault of Confluence

The experience I can tell is

a) make sure you are NOT using Internet Explorer or Edge - they are not fully HTML5 compatible ... it exhibits itself "randomly", i.e. teh person next to you may not have any problems ...!! Known Microsoft bug

b) check the source of your PDF ... I found the user in our system that was having trouble was using their photocopier to create a PDF but the file format metadata was a bit "off" so Confluence couldn't recognise it as a proper PDF and didn't know what to do with it.

We had to save the file to a PC, then open it with Acrobat and do a File Save As, then load the new file and it worked fine.


author: Tom Bowden
body: Hi Rodney, thanks for the quick reply!

I am using Google Chrome as mentioned. And I just tried the File \> Save As trick in my Acrobat software and that didn't work unfortunately.

I'm thinking perhaps my issue falls into problems with the new editor rather than the pdf format as per the below reports:

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-Cloud-questions/PDF-attachments-no-longer-show-a-thumbnail-of-the-first-page/qaq-p/1222391>

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-Cloud-questions/file-thumbnails-are-gone/qaq-p/1269241>

And this issue:

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-67140>


author: Pavel Kol??
body: Thumbnails are in Application Data\\Confluence\\shared-home\\dcl-thumbnail\\

Permissions?


author: Paul Henkelman
body: After logging all and poking around a bit more, I see that my issue is centered around a HibernateTemplate error:  
execute Not closing pre-bound Hibernate Session after HibernateTemplate

This is occurring during a SQL query that is pulling file details on the thumbnail from the DB. Below is the SQL query that should be executed at that time:  
select attachment0_.CONTENTID as CONTENTI1_12_0_, attachment0_.HIBERNATEVERSION as HIBERNAT2_12_0_, attachment0_.TITLE as TITLE4_12_0_, attachment0_.LOWERTITLE as LOWERTIT5_12_0_, attachment0_.VERSION as VERSION6_12_0_, attachment0_.CREATOR as CREATOR7_12_0_, attachment0_.CREATIONDATE as CREATION8_12_0_, attachment0_.LASTMODIFIER as LASTMODI9_12_0_, attachment0_.LASTMODDATE as LASTMOD10_12_0_, attachment0_.VERSIONCOMMENT as VERSION11_12_0_, attachment0_.PREVVER as PREVVER12_12_0_, attachment0_.CONTENT_STATUS as CONTENT13_12_0_, attachment0_.PAGEID as PAGEID14_12_0_, attachment0_.SPACEID as SPACEID15_12_0_ from CONTENT attachment0_ where attachment0_.CONTENTID=? and attachment0_.CONTENTTYPE='ATTACHMENT'


author: Paul Henkelman
body: The issue I'm experiencing may be the same. In Confluence 6.0.1 PDF thumbnails fail to load for all users except the first user created for this instance of Confluence. The thumbnails either show up as a broken link or as it appeared in this thread's example, depending on the browser that I use. Given that this works for the user that first created the wiki, I assume this is some sort of permission issue, but I've been unable to identify it. When I follow the image location (not the link to the document, but the actual thumbnail's URL), I receive a Confluence "Page Not Found" error:  

Page Not Found {#toc-hId-1705748127}
------------------------------------

The page you were trying to reach could not be found. This could be because:

* The page does not exist.
* The page exists, but you do not have permission to view it.


author: Hector Vazquez
body: Same issue with Confluence 5.8.13, anyone found a solution?


author: Rodney Hughes
body: I can assure you we have lots of PDF and Word documents that display directly as thumbnails

It looks like we can't display PDF/Word attachments in this forum as thumbnails - I just tried to load another test and it doesn't give the option of how to display it

<br />

But you might want to try downloading this PDF and try loading that to your system just to see if it is anything to do with your file

What happens when you try to load a Word document to your system?

<br />


author: Rodney Hughes
body: what happens when you try to load your PDF here and show as thumbnail?

I have just tried to show your attachment here as thumbnail by selecting the link insert - all I get is a link display option

<br />


author: Bhanu Lanka
body: Gnanavelu,

I have the same issue!

Did you happen to find a solution?

Thank you.


author: Gnanavelu Murthy
body: Anyone can figure out this issue...?


author: Gnanavelu Murthy
body: Windows : Win 7 Professional

Browser : Chrome - Version 50.0.2661.102 m

Attached the PDF file for test purpose

<br />


author: Rodney Hughes
body: I wonder if this is a browser issue - what Windows platform, what browser, what version, what plugins for PDF

Do you have a PDF created by someone else to try?


author: Gnanavelu Murthy
body: I tried with simple PDF file of 1-page which doen't more than four lines of text, unable to view the thumbnail view. I wanna to view the PDF thumbnail itself in page like i attached below

Thumbnail PDF.PNG


author: Rodney Hughes
body: I have no problem displaying PDFs as links or thumbnails - I can even toggle between either way in the edit screen - refer my screen shots in this posting

[Why I cannot preview but only download pdf file?](https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/38847023/why-i-cannot-preview-but-only-download-pdf-file)

You must have a bad file format or a problem in the configuration of your Confluence

Try another PDF file from another source?


author: Andrea Carl
body: It may be the version of the pdf. I know that there is no preview for Excels in Excel 97 format. It must have the new extension - .xlsx

comments: author: Gnanavelu Murthy
body: My concern about PDF only. I used Adobe Reader XI version 11.0.16


author: Steven F Behnke
body: This could be an issue with the file. Perhaps the Application Log is telling us an error.


author: Gnanavelu Murthy
body: Again it shows the same. Even i tried with the resize of thumbnail option also.


author: joanna ransome-wallis
body: what happens if you re-add it to the page?


Tags: confluence-administration