PDF Thumbnails no longer being generated

  • Ever since the last WP upgrade – 5.3 to 5.3.1, automatic generation of thumbnail images to PDF files no longer works. When I insert a newly uploaded PDF into a post, only the link shows up, and looking at the upload folder, there are no thumbnails generated. Any previously uploaded PDF files show in the media page as a thumbnail, but they do not show up as a thumbnail when added to a page or post.
    I am on a Go Daddy server with all the proper php applications running. I turned off all plugins and tried uploading and no change. What happened?

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by drward1958.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

  • Even though that latest upgrade was a minor one, there’s always a possibility of a side-effect. You should access the site’s error log, probably through the control panel of your hosting, else by requiring it to hosting support.
    It should display whether there’s an error in that image generation.

    Thread Starter drward1958

    (@drward1958)

    After discussing with web host Go Daddy, they could not find any issues in the backend. I was unable to revert back to an older version of WordPress, so I ended up installing an older plugin that generates the PDF thumbnail. I had to upload all the previous PDFs to get them to work again.
    I have no idea why this feature no longer works, but I needed a quick fix and did what I had to do to get it working again via a plugin.

    I’m having this problem also. My existing PDF thumbnails are displaying fine, but inserting any new PDF files only gets me a text link instead of a thumbnail preview. This occurred after updating to WordPress 5.3.2 from 4.9. I’ve tried disabling all of my plugins and using a basic theme. No difference.

    Active editor: WP_Image_Editor_Imagick
    ImageMagick version number: 1673
    ImageMagick version string: ImageMagick 6.8.9-9 Q16 x86_64 2019-06-15 https://www.imagemagick.org
    Imagick Resource Limits
    area: 63 GB
    disk: 1.844674407371E+19
    file: 15000
    map: 63 GB
    memory: 31 GB
    thread: 4
    GD version: bundled (2.1.0 compatible)
    Ghostscript version: 9.26

    I am having the same PDF issue with 5.3.2.
    I have tried everything. What plugin did you install @drward1958

    Thread Starter drward1958

    (@drward1958)

    I installed PDF Image Generator by Mizuho Ogino. It is very old and not supported, but it works.

    We’ve been able to identify that the images of the PDF file are being generated, but the image tag is not being created when you Add Media to bring the PDF in from the Media Library.
    Generated JPGS (screen cap):
    https://salkeiz.k12.or.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/uploads-screenCap.jpg

    No Image tag for the PDF file (screen cap)
    https://salkeiz.k12.or.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-02-17-13_57_33-Edit-Post-?-DEMO-SITE-Salem-Keizer-—-WordPress.jpg

    Note: We are using the Classic Editor, not the block editor.

    I am having the same issue. Is WordPress going to resolve this?

    same here

    We are also experiencing the same.
    Whenever we upload a PDF file in WP Admin’s Media Library, it does not show the thumbnail.
    I upgrade to the latest WP version 5.4.1 but still the same.

    I even re-upload an old file that has a thumbnail thinking that it may just be file issue, but even that file does not generate a thumbnail.
    Please help. Thanks!

    Thread Starter drward1958

    (@drward1958)

    The image is being generated – you can find them in your uploads folder. The issue seems to be the link to it is not being generated.

    In my case, every once in a while but very rare, an uploaded PDF does show its image in the Media library. In those cases, the images are generated and present in the uploads folder. For those PDFs that do not have an image in the Media library, no image is present in the uploads folder.

    This problem is still there WP 5.5.1 and Classic editor. No image files in /uploads folder.
    Used to work fine for posting pdf Newsletters to the site.

    Tedious doing an external work-around to create an image.

    Is it on the “ToDo” list?

    I’ve been trying this for a long time but still didn’t get any solution

    This is the solution that we have been using. We have the Avada theme, so your mileage may vary.

    1. Add the Image element
    2. “Upload Image” button to get PDF
    3. Upload PDF or if the PDF is already in the Media library, you have to change the filter media type to Documents to force it to show PDF files.
    4. Copy file URL
    5. Click on the Insert into post button to add
    6. Paste the file URL into Picture Link URL box
    7. Save

    Hope that helps!

    pcoweb

    (@pcoweb)

    Same issue on Dreamhost Dreampress running WordPress 5.5.3 after I moved from a legacy hosting to the new hosting plan, all plugins disabled. Thumbnails are generated for jpg uploads but not pdf uploads.

    I do have the plugin Media Library Assistant that enables me (after reactivating) to regenerate from the media list from the app page using the ‘bulk actions’ options and the default WP thumbnail generation works from that menu. This requires an extra step but is our current work-around.

    It is interesting that it was working on the legacy (2015 era) hosting plan but seemed to break when moving to the current hosting plan. The installation on the legacy site was 5.5.x. This implies that there may be some issue related to underlying software dependencies.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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