How to stop Nautilus from creating thumbnails of specific file types?

Thumbnails of specific file types can be disabled using dconf editor.

Install dconf editor:

Hit Alt+Ctrl+T and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Or search for "dconf-tools" in Software Center and install it from there.

How to disable thumbnails of specific file type?

  • Once installed, Hit super key (windows key) to open Unity dash and search for "dconf editor" and open it.

  • Navigate to org > gnome > desktop > thumbnailers

  • Paste the MIME type of PDF 'application/pdf' in the value field of disable key, Like shown below.

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This will prevent Nautilus from generating thumbnails of PDF's in the future but old thumbnails will be there. To solve this you'll have to clear Nautilus thumbnail cache.

  • Open your home directory and Hit Ctrl+H to show the hidden files and folders.
  • Open .thumbnails and delete all the files in it. Edit for 19.10: Open .cache and delete the thumbnails folder.

  • Restart your system or kill Nautilus (alt+f2; nautilus -q) for change to take effect.

To disable thumbnails for other file types, Add there MIME type in disable list as described above. Seprate multiple types with comma. like this:

['application/pdf','image/jpeg','video/mp4']

For complete list of MIME types visit iana.org.


In order to stop showing thumbnails for any video file (because on my little HTPC it's causing high CPU usage):

First, clean the thumbnail cache:

rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails

Apply the mime type list:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.thumbnailers disable "['application/annodex','application/mp4','application/ogg','application/vnd.rn-realmedia','application/x-matroska','video/3gpp','video/3gpp2','video/annodex','video/divx','video/flv','video/h264','video/mp4','video/mp4v-es','video/mpeg','video/mpeg-2','video/mpeg4','video/ogg','video/ogm','video/quicktime','video/ty','video/vdo','video/vivo','video/vnd.rn-realvideo','video/vnd.vivo','video/webm','video/x-bin','video/x-cdg','video/x-divx','video/x-dv','video/x-flv','video/x-la-asf','video/x-m4v','video/x-matroska','video/x-motion-jpeg','video/x-ms-asf','video/x-ms-dvr','video/x-ms-wm','video/x-ms-wmv','video/x-msvideo','video/x-sgi-movie','video/x-tivo','video/avi','video/x-ms-asx','video/x-ms-wvx','video/x-ms-wmx']"

Then, just in case:

nautilus -q

I have got the mime type list from here.