Today’s Question: Sometimes when I select a folder to browse in Lightroom Classic, instead of seeing thumbnails at first I only see gray rectangles. After a while those get updated to actual image thumbnails. Is there a way to have all the thumbnails created so I don’t have to wait when I navigate to a folder?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can build standard previews for your entire catalog to ensure you’ll always have thumbnails (and previews) for your photos when you navigate among folders.
More Detail: If you’re seeing gray rectangles in place of image thumbnails in Lightroom Classic, that’s an indication that there isn’t currently a preview for those images. As long as the photos aren’t missing (such as if the hard drive they’re stored on isn’t connected) the previews will be generated automatically when you browse the photos. However, this can be a frustrating experience because the previews can take considerable time to build, and overall performance can be degraded while the previews are being built.
Therefore, I recommend building previews for your entire catalog if you have noticed that a fair number of previews are not available for your photos.
To get started, navigate to the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. Make sure all hard drives containing your photos are connected, so that the photos will be available for preview building. Then, on the Library Filter Bar above the grid view (choose View > Show Filter Bar from the menu if it isn’t visible) choose “None” so all images are displayed. Then select all images (Edit > Select All) and choose Library > Previews > Build Standard-Sized Previews from the menu.
It can take quite a bit of time (literally hours or days) to build previews for all photos in your catalog, depending on how many photos are in the catalog, how many of those photos lack standard previews, and other factors. But once the process is complete, you’ll have a much faster (and less frustrating) experience browsing your photos.
