Okay, so I found a resolution at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2148074 The steps are:

  1. Update AppArmor to version 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.6.
  2. Notice that the file /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus is missing.
  3. Open Nautilus: thumbnails are no longer displayed.

Manually restore the /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus profile. Open a terminal and use the following command to create the file using nano:

sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus

Then, copy the following content into the nano editor. Right click on the nano editor and select Paste from the context menu:

#This profile allows everything and only exists to give the
#application a name instead of having the label "unconfined"

abi <abi/4.0>,
include <tunables/global>

profile nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus flags=(unconfined) {
  userns,
  #Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details.
  include if exists <local/nautilus>
}

Save the file with Ctrl+S. Exit the nano editor with Ctrl+X.

Then reload the profile with:

sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus

A couple of extra steps were needed based on the comment by david6. The next two commands deletes the existing generic thumbnails from the cache and restarts nautilus:

rm -r ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail
nautilus -q

This restores thumbnail display.

Before the update: the "nautilus" profile was present in the AppArmor profile list (see aa-status). After the update: the profile is missing, and thumbnails no longer appear.

Answer from Tanay on askubuntu.com
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Ubuntu Fixes Desktop File Thumbnails Not Showing - OMG! Ubuntu
July 3, 2025 - According to a bug report filed in May last year, file thumbnail previews do not show on the Ubuntu 24.04 desktop itself, appearing only as generic file icons. When the ~/Desktop folder is viewed in the Nautilus file manager, the thumbnails do show.
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April 10, 2025
Thumbnails for images aren't appear in the Files manager in Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS?
Perfect example why ubuntu/linux as desktop will never become mainstream since you need to open a terminal and do shit to fix a simple desktop feature. Update broke it, not showing thumbnails in nautilus anymore for a normal desktop user is pretty big inconvenience that should be top prio to fix, does not appear to be since ok and not an issue in 26.04 all millions of users still using the old can stay deprecated. Shit like this has happened before so i thought, i'm sure there will soon be another update that sorts this out. Weeks passed. Nope. Had to start searching for how to "fix" it. Open terminal You have to create a file called nautilus i.e with vim because who really uses nano. sudo vim /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus #add the below stuff to the file nautilus and save abi , include profile nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus flags=(unconfined) { userns, # Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details. include if exists } then run in the terminal sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus Then remove all the existing old png images under /.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory Then also remove the folder gnome-thumbnail-factory or rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/* Then kill = restart nautilus in terminal with the command nautilus -q Then it works again. More on reddit.com
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14
2
May 6, 2026
Top answer
1 of 2
12

Okay, so I found a resolution at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2148074 The steps are:

  1. Update AppArmor to version 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.6.
  2. Notice that the file /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus is missing.
  3. Open Nautilus: thumbnails are no longer displayed.

Manually restore the /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus profile. Open a terminal and use the following command to create the file using nano:

sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus

Then, copy the following content into the nano editor. Right click on the nano editor and select Paste from the context menu:

#This profile allows everything and only exists to give the
#application a name instead of having the label "unconfined"

abi <abi/4.0>,
include <tunables/global>

profile nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus flags=(unconfined) {
  userns,
  #Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details.
  include if exists <local/nautilus>
}

Save the file with Ctrl+S. Exit the nano editor with Ctrl+X.

Then reload the profile with:

sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus

A couple of extra steps were needed based on the comment by david6. The next two commands deletes the existing generic thumbnails from the cache and restarts nautilus:

rm -r ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail
nautilus -q

This restores thumbnail display.

Before the update: the "nautilus" profile was present in the AppArmor profile list (see aa-status). After the update: the profile is missing, and thumbnails no longer appear.

2 of 2
3

You can install thunar as the temporary workaround til they patch this bug. That's what I did.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install thunar

Many users are just using thunar til they patch this bug

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discourse.ubuntu.com › support and help
Image thumbnails disappeared in Ubuntu 24.04 - nautilus bug - Support and Help - Ubuntu Community Hub
April 14, 2026 - Ubuntu Support Template Ubuntu Version: 24.04 Desktop Environment : GNOME Problem Description: Image thumbnails disappeared: No problem on Ubuntu 25.10 and 26.04 on different partitions of same PC.
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GNOME Discourse
discourse.gnome.org › applications
Nautilus does not generate thumbnails for mp4 files in Ubuntu 24.04 - Applications - GNOME Discourse
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According to a bug report filed in May last year, file thumbnail previews do not show on the Ubuntu 24.04 desktop itself, appearing only as generic file icons. When the ~/Desktop folder is viewed in the Nautilus file manager, the thumbnails do show.
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reddit.com › r/ubuntu › thumbnails for images aren't appear in the files manager in ubuntu 24.04.4 lts?
r/Ubuntu on Reddit: Thumbnails for images aren't appear in the Files manager in Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS?
May 6, 2026 -

Hi all, just wondering if there is a way to fix this?. I tried googling this and I did find a couple videos on YT about fixing it but nothing worked.

Top answer
1 of 5
2
Perfect example why ubuntu/linux as desktop will never become mainstream since you need to open a terminal and do shit to fix a simple desktop feature. Update broke it, not showing thumbnails in nautilus anymore for a normal desktop user is pretty big inconvenience that should be top prio to fix, does not appear to be since ok and not an issue in 26.04 all millions of users still using the old can stay deprecated. Shit like this has happened before so i thought, i'm sure there will soon be another update that sorts this out. Weeks passed. Nope. Had to start searching for how to "fix" it. Open terminal You have to create a file called nautilus i.e with vim because who really uses nano. sudo vim /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus #add the below stuff to the file nautilus and save abi , include profile nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus flags=(unconfined) { userns, # Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details. include if exists } then run in the terminal sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/nautilus Then remove all the existing old png images under /.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory Then also remove the folder gnome-thumbnail-factory or rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/* Then kill = restart nautilus in terminal with the command nautilus -q Then it works again.
2 of 5
1
Have you looked at this? Going to assume this is what you're referring to and/or experiencing, based on the little information you provided. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2148074
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How to Fix Missing Desktop File Thumbnails in Ubuntu - ServerHost Hosting Solutions Blog
July 3, 2025 - Ubuntu has resolved a long-standing issue with file thumbnail previews not displaying on the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS desktop. For nearly a year, users experienced problems where image and PDF thumbnails appeared only as generic file icons on the desktop, ...
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reddit.com › r/ubuntu › why does nautilus have thumbnails, but file viewers in browsers can't generate them?
r/Ubuntu on Reddit: Why does Nautilus have thumbnails, but file viewers in browsers can't generate them?
April 15, 2024 -

When you take a screenshot, a thumbnail appears in Nautilus. But if you take a screenshot without opening Nautilus, and instead select images in Google Chrome/Firefox when uploading, for example, to Reddit, the thumbnail won't be generated. Why is that? I checked in Kubuntu, and there it works fine. But the GNOME environment can't handle it.

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