5 ways to make your YouTube thumbnails visible again in Chrome
- Your YouTube video thumbnails play an important role in the reception you get from your audience.
- They give your viewers an idea of what to expect when they click on your video and sometimes act as an appetizer for the things to come.
- Issues such as internet speed, cached data on your browser, or simply not following YouTube's policies on thumbnails could affect how you see these thumbnails.
Facing the issue of Chrome Youtube thumbnails not showing can be a little unnerving for you if you are trying to upload your content on YouTube.
If you are familiar with YouTube, you know that other than the title of the video, the thumbnail plays an important role in attracting viewers to your content, and the same can be said about how your page looks.
Like many YouTubers across the internet, you have probably spent a lot of time and resources creating content for your audience.
The last thing you want happening is losing views because your custom thumbnail is missing.
We are going to explore why your thumbnails aren’t showing and what you can do to solve this issue.
What is the recommended YouTube thumbnail size?
YouTube Thumbnails are snapshots that represent your content. They give viewers an idea of what the video is about.
There are 3 ways to add thumbnails to your video.
- Through YouTube’s automatically generated thumbnails.
- Your custom-generated thumbnail if you have a verified account.
- Through the YouTube studio app on your mobile device.
The thumbnail should be 1280×720 px with the JPG, GIF, or PNG formats. It should also be less than 2MB in size.
YouTube also encourages users to try and maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio on all their thumbnails.
What can I do if YouTube thumbnails are not showing in Chrome?
1. Check your internet speed
- Open your Google Chrome browser.
- On the search bar, type Speed test.
- Google will provide you with some results.
- Click on Run Speed Test and wait as the information on your internet speed shows up.
- If your internet speed is slow, consider refreshing your internet and checking your thumbnails.
2. Clear your browsing cache
- Open your Google Chrome browser.
- Click on the 3 dots icon on the far right side of the browser.
- You can also click CTRL + H keys to go directly to history.
- Select Clear browsing data.
- It will send you to a new window.
- Select the appropriate time range to delete the details.
- Select Browsing history and Cookies and other site data. You can either clear all-time data or up to when the issue began.
- Click Clear data.
- Go back to your channel and see if the thumbnails are visible.
3. Use a YouTube Banner software
If you are having problems creating a good thumbnail for your video, or if YouTube keeps rejecting your custom thumbnail, consider using YouTube banner software.
There are several different and effective thumbnail makers on the internet today.
These are professional tools that enable you to meet YouTube’s standards on thumbnails allowing you to create content that is both visually appealing and acceptable.
4. Use a YouTube thumbnail maker
Sometimes, the issue of Chrome YouTube thumbnails not showing won’t be your browser or the internet, but your thumbnails.
It could be because your thumbnails don’t meet YouTube’s community guidelines or thumbnail policies for custom thumbnails.
When this happens, it is important to rely on a good thumbnail maker. This is usually a tool that allows you to create a visible thumbnail of the right size.
Whatever you decide to have as a thumbnail, always ensure that you stay within YouTube’s policies regarding thumbnails.
Also, make sure that your thumbnails are relevant and clear enough for your audience to get them to click on your video.
5. Try a different browser
Chrome is known to use up quite a large amount of system resources which can sometimes result in pages loading slowly and not being displayed correctly.
For this reason, we suggest you try a different browser to open YouTube and check if your custom thumbnails are properly shown.
A well-performing alternative that is a perfect mix when it comes to ease of use, functionality, and privacy is Opera. It has a built-in adblocker which can help load web pages faster as the task will not be hampered by annoying ads.
Opera is actually chromium-based too and provides a similar user experience. You can customize it quite a lot by installing your favorite add-ons (extensions) and using one of their themes.
As you can see there are plenty of methods to resolve this issue once and for all and get back to using YouTube without being bothered by issues.
Feel free to share what method worked for you by using the comment section found below this article.