Video Thumbnails Not Generating in Nextcloud Snap Version

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1

Environment:

  • Nextcloud Version: 29.0.7.1 (Snap version)
  • Server OS: Ubuntu Server
  • Nextcloud Install Method: Snap
  • PHP Version: Default provided by Snap
  • Database: MySQL
  • Web Server: Apache (provided by Snap)
  • Apps Installed: Preview Generator, FFMpeg

Issue:

I’ve been trying to set up the Preview Generator app on my Nextcloud Snap instance to generate thumbnails for videos (MP4) and PDF files, but I can’t seem to get it to work. Despite following the documentation, no thumbnails are generated for my video files, which was my main goal.

Steps Taken:

  1. Installed and enabled the Preview Generator app via the Applications UI.
  2. Ran the following command to generate all previews:
sudo nextcloud.occ preview:generate-all -vvv

This command returned logs of previews being generated, including for my video files:

2024-10-20T20:53:11+00:00 Generating previews for /seb/files/Seb Photos/Bin/VID_20240203_193416.mp4
2024-10-20T20:53:11+00:00 Generating previews for /seb/files/Seb Photos/Bin/VID_20240204_172712.mp4
2024-10-20T20:53:11+00:00 Generating previews for /seb/files/Seb Photos/Bin/VID_20240204_173231.mp4
...
  1. Set up a cron job for regular preview generation:
sudo crontab -e

Cron job entry:

*/10 * * * * /usr/bin/snap run nextcloud.occ preview:pre-generate
  1. Installed FFmpeg and added its path to the config.php file along with the following settings:
'enable_previews' => true,
'enabledPreviewProviders' => array (
    'OC\\Preview\\PNG',
    'OC\\Preview\\JPEG',
    'OC\\Preview\\GIF',
    'OC\\Preview\\HEIC',
    'OC\\Preview\\BMP',
    'OC\\Preview\\XBitmap',
    'OC\\Preview\\Movie',
    'OC\\Preview\\PDF',
),
'preview_ffmpeg_path' => '/usr/bin/ffmpeg',
  1. Re-ran the preview generation commands, but still no thumbnails appear for my video files when I visit Nextcloud.

Expected Result:

Thumbnails for video files (MP4 format) should be displayed in Nextcloud’s UI.

Actual Result:

Thumbnails are not generated for video files. Only image files display previews as expected.

Questions:

  • Am I missing something in the configuration or setup process for the Preview Generator?
  • Are there additional dependencies or steps specific to the Snap version of Nextcloud for generating video thumbnails?

I’m a complete newbie to Nextcloud, having set it up just two days ago, so any guidance would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

2

https://github.com/nextcloud-snap/nextcloud-snap/wiki/FAQ’s#q-nextcloud-snap-is-not-working-because-of-third-party-app-incompatibility-what-can-i-do

3

Hey, thank you for the link! I tried disabling the preview generator app. However, is there a way to generate thumbnails for videos (MP4)? It just doesn’t seem to work.

image

4

not in the snap as far as I know… that’s because ffmpeg is not contained inside the snap and because of snap confinement the files cannot be parsed to generate thumbnails.

5

come to think of it, why don’t you add MP4 to your array and try try again?

'OC\\Preview\\MP4

6

Yes, in fact, that’s how my configuration looked at first, and it didn’t work either, but then I read somewhere (I think on GitHub or here) that I didn’t need to include MP4 and only MOVIE. Anyway, everything was very confusing at first because I wasn’t aware that there were big dependency differences between the snap and the standard version. I think I’ll try to go with the standard version since thumbnails are quite important for my project. Thanks a lot for you help!

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