IssueTracker

I have this same problem on a different phone and its driving me crazy lol. Found any solution?

I also have this problem and with only 1.4gb the file fills the phone immediately.  Please address this issue as my phone is virtually unusable.  I have to clear the file to use other apps.  I have to wait half an hour to regenerate the file to use the camera our three gallery.

Me, too!

Thumbnail files become bigger than the combined size of all other photos, so it has to be a bug.
Gallery and Camera become extremly sluggish after a while (because they have to read those massive thumbnail files?). They become responsive after deleteing those files. But the files become autocreated, and keep growing again.

Only workaround seem to ba a couple of hacks that stop the Gallery App from re-creating those darn files (e.g. chmod a-w, or creating directories with those filenames names)

as far as I know it's a bug from Android, that spread to all devices and there's no official solution at the moment.
The only workaround to temporary fix it is trough command line:
1) delete these files and make the .thumbnail folder read-only
2) create a script that every now and since cleanup this folder

Unfortunately, the CPU consumption will still be there in both cases. Try to use as less as possible the official gallery, and use instead another one (e.g. xperia gallery, or any app)

Ciao
Pietro

I too have same problem.if any of u find a solution pls mail me

maybe that could help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35259769&postcount=12

the same problem...thumbnails is eating 1.7GB of storage.

Does Google know about this issue? This is a major issue and is completely unacceptable. My thumbnails folder got to almost 3 GB and when I deleted it I didn't get the space back! This has happened twice already! Google, get off your collective ass and fix this extremely irritating issue!

[Comment deleted]

can someone confirm if this is still happening on kitkat

Same problem......thumbnails occupide 1.2 GB please any one can help

Same for me, but i dont have a linux PC, i found there is a sudo command to redirect the creation of this folder to a null.

Same here. Basically, the thumbnail file eat every free storage I have. How large the free space there are, how giant it is. It can be deleted but will re-created if start the build-in camera app or any app that need to show the thumbnails for media that in my device. If the camera app told you the storage is out of the space during taking photos, thumbnail file manually will not free the space until you reboot and delete the thumbnail file which show up in the folder "LOST.DIR" with a random name.

In my case, the largest record for the file "thumbdata3-(random digits)" is 3.7G.


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Device Model: Sony XPERIA P (Lt22i)
Android Version: 4.1.2
ROM Version: Sony official ROM 6.2.A.1.100

I notice a direct correlation between using the phone camera and the file size growth. So I don't think it's the stock gallery. I think it's the phone camera thumbnail file. I have seen solutions for those running rooted phones, but none for stock phones. Deleting the file repeatedly is a work around. Where is the official response from Google?

This problem is really ridicolous... amateur!!!
Huawey Ascend Y300, phone is totally unusable, 1GB eaten by NOTHING!!!!!!!

I've had luck creating a FOLDER with the same exact name as the thumbdata FILE. I tried a file with the same name, but it got overwritten. If you use a folder, it works. You'll need some type of file browser with view hidden files enabled. BTW, you must add the . at the begging of your folder name to make it hidden.

Hi all, i found out this file is being created by Whatsapp, when sending a picture to a contact.  I created the empty folder using winrar because windows didnt allow that .name, however it still rewritting.  Any other idea?

it isn't whatsapp, camera or gallery alone. These thumb files are created whenever you make changes to any picture, I mean if you delete any pics or add some more pics then if you browse those pictures let say "attach image from gmail/whatsapp" it will regenerate thumbs.

I'm really embarrassed.. please let me know if anyone got solution yet

Same here. I delete .thumbdata file manually but it returns as soon as I use camera/gallery app. No wonder my device gets unresponsive if it generates such a massive file in the background.
My .thumbdata file is around 1GB which is way more than total size of all images on device, that doesn't make sense does it ?
--
GT-I8160
4.1.2

[Comment deleted]

I've got 3.2GB of images and video on my device. The DCIM/.thumbnails folder takes up 1.7GB of space. My phone has 8Gb of internal memory, with only 4.7GB available for all my apps, and this thumbnails file. I keep all my media on SDcard.
This is irritating that I have to keep manually deleting the thumbnails folder to free up space so my phone can function. Every time I use the gallery or camera, this stupid folder gets created again and runs my phone out of memory.
Using a Samsung Galaxy Light, running 4.2.2, with latest updates.

I recently found an app in Google play called FX File Explorer, this app is
probably the best file "manager" I have used, its simple to use and very
organized. It allows me to manipulate files/folders how I want and give
access to all file systems (add-on for root). The reason this app helped me
with thumbnail issue is because it allowed you to create
shortcuts/bookmarks of any folder and place it on the home screen or by
default it has its own home screen where you have access to your file
systems and bookmarks. It takes just a few clicks to delete a folder and
create a new one. Oh plus you can use split screen for multiple windows.
Here is a link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.fx .
I hope it helps. At least for now.

James Doyle

Just a question, is there anyway to make thumbdata smaller rather than trying to delete it?

We should make people facing this problem come here and upvote it.

Exactly same problem here, with a Huawei Daytona. It's incredible not having a solution yet. Help!

Same problem here. The thumbdata file eats all the space available, which makes my phone unusable. Can't create nor send nor receive any file, due to lack of space. Even with no pics on the phone!
Deleting the file and creating a folder with the same name is no good, as it keeps overwriting it & creating the massive file over and over again. Using non-stock camera, file manager and gallery only delays the process.

This is a major flaw.

I have the same problem and it gets worse. I believe this is a high priority.  How can we alert Google and make sure they know about this problem?

We can upvote this page by clicking on the star at the comment box

I have the same problem, 2 .thumbdata3* files, each one with around 650MB (total 1300MB). If I delete them, the storage space is not recovered and later the files return with another id but with (more or less) the same size.
At this time, the storage space also does not incremented in 1300MB.

So, it seems that if we delete the file, the system will not really remove it.
May this file works as a link to an internal system file?

Using Android 4.1.2

The same problem. 3GB single file!!! Samsung S4 unusable. I can't get it. It is not new problem. Many years ago people pointed on it. Still living thing. Bunch of idiots - droid developers.

SamS4 - If I need something hot in my pocket in the winter, I just delete .thumbnails and my phone get warm very quickly, when fiercely creating new one. But battery is consumed very very fast. Thank u android developers!!!

I created a file (not folder) with the same name as the thumbnail folder in the DCIM folder, and I haven't had a problem with saving thumbnails. I used FX file manager I got from Google play store to create the file but I think any file could work such as a text or a photo with the exact name as the original folder(don't forget the .dot(s).) .

I have the same issue either my ASUS Memopad HD7 RUNNING jellybeean 4.2.2 please fix this

[Comment deleted]

As experienced users in android, you may have noticed that android gallery app is creating a huge thumbnail file in "DCIM/.thumbnails" folder on your sd card. In my case it is more than 1GB. I tried deleting it. But, it is getting regenerated after some time. So I searched for a method to stop creating that file to save my sd card space and found this trick. This method may not be 100% permanant solution for this. But so far I haven't got that huge file in my sd card. Here's the way to do the trick,

Solution:

1. Go to "DCIM/.thumbnails" folder of your sd card and copy the name of the thumbnail file.(mine is " .thumbdata3--1967290299")

2. Now select any unwanted file or take a copy of any file and rename it with that thumbnail filename.( .thumbdata3--1967290299)

Note: Select any small file that you can find in your device. ( I took a 5kb file)

DON'T GET A 0kb FILE!!!

3. Now replace the original thumbnail file with the small file that we renamed.

THAT'S ALL!!!! YOU HAVE DONE IT!!! IT WON'T BE CREATED AGAIN

OK, now explain how to get the few gigs of space lost when you delete the thumbnail folder. Because I never got it back. That's the main issue here. It's a stupid bug, but it's made much worse by the fact that often you will not get the space back after deleting the thumbnails.

I think this issue won't be fixed until the day we all use phones with 64gb storage

Hi, I had the same problem in my xperia l. So JUST DELETE THE .thumbnails FOLDER FROM DCIM FOLDER AND CREATE A EMPTY FILE USING ES FILE EXPLORER OR USE PC AND RENAME IT (.thumbnails). ALSO DO THE SAME WITH LOST.DIR FOLDER. AND RESTART UR PHONE.
Enjoy :)

Tested on -> Xperia L, Galaxy Core, Micromax Canvas A110, Galaxy Star. 500% works....

Can someone please give me mailadresses to some real people within Google so I can confront them personally with this stupid problem? I don't think that I should have to fix real program bugs with some DIY fix. I don't like the idea. This is something Google should have fixed long time ago! If they think this issue is too yesterday to even bother then maybe their attitude could interest some tech journals?
"Ticking time-bomb bug renders android phones useless after a few years. Google don't give a shit"
Or something like that with fewer words.

I created a FOLDER with the exact name as the thumbdata FILE.  

Just like #16 Rob.tuto...@gmail.com suggested.  As it seems to work.

The cause of the problem is that the .thumbdata3-whatever file:

1) Keeps info about files you have deleted from your phone. The file gets bigger everytime you shoot a photo, but doesn't get smaller when you delete one. If you shoot many photos and then reject lots of them, it will get massive.

2) It's NOT deletable (at least on some phones). If you delete it using say, ES file explorer, it appears deleted, but you do NOT get any free space back. And it reappears after 15 minutes of so with the same size (you may have to open the camera and gallery in the meantime).

Back in the days of 2.x, you could jus delete it using your PC, but 4.x devices hide files starting with a dot from the PC.

PS: Interesting conversation here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12396715/android-huge-thumbdata4-file-in-dcim-folder

IMO Android should have a "clear and recreate thumbnail cache" button.

Either that or Google should put a competent developer on the Gallery app so that it doesn't require a huge thumbnails cache (QuickPic works great and doesn't need that).

First post Nov 12, 2012, status "New", Type "Defect" and Priority "Medium".

A collection of different devices and different Android systems (mine is SIII updated to Android 4.3) with "46 people starred this issue and may be notified of changes" as of this comment and the only "@android" Project member comment is "Issue 36949180  has been merged into this issue."

Google ".thumbdata3" and you'll find many people with this problem, trying to apply a DIY solution.

So, a defect that's been around for more than 1 year and 3 months affecting lots of users of Android systems and that's not a "High" priority?

Come on guys! this is worth a fix ASAP. As time goes by and the use of Android devices increases, this is going to happen everywhere.

I think most people don't know it's an issue. They think it's "system files". Anyone knows Pichai's tweeter or something?

exact same problem here , samsung galaxy s4 mini DUOS (gt-i9192) android 4.2.2 .
I also have to say something else, i have 2 .thumbdata3 files each of 1.9GB witch means 3,8GB total but if i delete them using either CleanMaster or manually using FX file manager , i don't get "back" those 3,8GB for free space. instead i get something about 500MB !!! this is realy wierd

Same problem here. Had to wipe my phone to get the space back.

Guys, I think there is a permanent Solution to this. At least this solution worked for me for now...:

Copy one file (anyone) like jpg picture & paste it to DCIM Folder. Then delete the folder named ".thumbnails" first & then rename that picture you've just copied with the same name as of that folder quickly i.e. ".thumbnails".

Now Android will not even be able to access the location called "sdcard/DCIM/.thumnails" to regenerate those ".thumbdata*******" files which were Occupying huge space in your phone.

This problem got solved in my case by the said method. I don't know if it works in other phones.

If anyone gets problem like they did delete the folder named ".thumbnails" but they didn't get the whole space back which was occupied by those files than here is the solution...:

To delete the file(s) named as ".thumbdata******" you have to create one file in other (Anyother) folder & rename it with the same name as of that file i.e. ".thumbdata******" & then copy this new file & paste it to the folder ".thumbnails" & then on being asked about whether to overwrite it then tap on "yes". Now your work done. The space which was occupied by that file will be free. Now go for the above given trick to stop it being regenerated.

The method for getting the space back did not work for me. Here are the steps I went through:

1. I replaced my .thumbnails folder with a file of the same name months ago, after deleting the files inside. I did not get back my space.

2. Read the fix today above for getting the space back. I was hopeful! So I renamed the .thumbnails file so that the .thumbnails folder would get recreated. The folder was recreated but was empty.

3. I then took a picture with the stock camera and viewed it in Gallery. The .thumdataXXX file was recreated, with the full 4.54 GB size that it was when I first deleted it. This was exciting!

4. Created a file, renamed it to be the same name as the .thumbataXXX file (I copied the name so it was not mistyped), then copied the new .thumbdataXXX into the .thumbnails folder and overwrote when prompted. I did not get the space back. I restarted the phone just in case as well.

5. I deleted my replacement .thumbdataXXX file, then took another picture with the stock camera and viewed it in Gallery, and it was recreated again with the full file size.

I also repeated step 4 after freezing Camera and Gallery with Titanium Backup. Same result.

So at this point at least we know how to get that file back. It still exists somewhere, as Android knows to recreate it at that same file size. I would really love to know how to wipe out this file permanently and get the space back without wiping my phone.

Just a reminder, if you don't "star" this issue, nobody from Google will care. So do it.

The method didn't work for me either.

"It still exists somewhere"

Exactly. Since 4.2 introduced "emulated storage", you just can't go ahead and delete a file Android considers "important". You don't have access to the real filesystem. And Android just pretends it deleted the file.

Man, this bug makes me hate Android. It's one sole bug in an otherwise excellent OS sure, but it's a really nasty one. Do we leave in an age when it's considered OK to just waste 1-2GB of a mobile device? WTF.

Also, if you have a Galaxy SIII with 4.3 and you just read a guide telling you to replace the file with another file/folder, or force stop/delete cache/delete data/turn off the "Media Storage" or the "Gallery" app, do NOT do it.

I did, and now not only I didn't got any space back, but the original 1.4GB file is now invisible, and I have a second thumbdata3 file with the same name of 27.11MB in size.

Struggling with the same problem here. Delete the huge thumbnail file, but it gets regenerated every time when I do anything that involves opening pictures or videos. Replacing it with a small fake thumbnail doesn't help since when I shoot a new photo or change any existing picture, the giant file reappears with a different ending number. Furthermore, after deleting the file, using camera freezes the system and then it takes forever to come back alive! It is very annoying and I am surprised that Google hasn't yet provide a fix for this bug.

I am quite surprised that this problem has got no apparent attention since it's inception around 5 years ago.

There is a very detailed explanation for this in the cyanogenmod issue tracker:

https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-1173?focusedCommentId=13742&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-13742

As it points out this is not an easy task to do. But I'd really like at least some improvements.

Android Developers should really take note of this issue.Taking photos is basically slowly feeding poison to our android devices. This issue really affect those who like to take pictures.

How do i see whats in this thumbdata3-1967290299_2.null & 1763508120

occupying over 1 gigs in my htc one s.
this thumbnail data is really serious bug and immediate attention is required pls..!!
how can i prevent this without OS updates as my HTC is not going to get further updates.

LeonH #58 I'm not one that knows a lot about this, but that looks like a duplicated file folder. If you have a duplicate file finder(app) such as FX File manager has that option built in on its main page. After it does a search for DUP's it places all of the same files together in their folders for you to clean. And sometimes those files are the same but the name might be different, and to overcome to conflicts of the two or more files having different names than the containing folder that is supposed to display its file(s) names,but it can't so it replaces the difference in name with .null or similar. I can't think any good reason to have duplicate files on one device. If you agree with that then you should run a duplicate file finder tool and get rid of all but the one of each file. You could get these on backed-up files too so know which one to save or remove. If I'm wrong, don't quote me.

I noticed that a lot of people have complained about getting only some of their storage if they were one that got the commom rename option to work at all. I wanted to point out that the /DCIM folder stores thumbnail images of files used in the camera and gallery, Which uses alot space based on quality and frequency of use. But their are other areas of the phone that do the exact same thing, pretty much every app has its own area for cache and thumbnails. If you only get some of your memory back after deleting the entire thumbnail file in DCIM, then you should consider looking outside of the camera at other apps and their hidden folders.

@ #50 keval.sa...@gmail.com

it worked :)
Thanks a ton..

Mine is 3,7GB i'm getting realy sick of this shit. My phone lacks space when the file is there, my phone is slow when it is recreating the file.. again.

I will try some fixes listed above, if they don't work i'm wiping the phone.

Solution - Delete the .thumbnails folder, and creat a empty file (not
folder) with the same name. Like - (.thumbnails). That's it... ;)

The following solutions did not work for me;

- delete / create other .thumbnails file / folder

Deleting the gigantic 3,7GB file, and after that deleting app data/cache from gallery and all my media players did work. I now only have a 708MB thumbnail file which is appropriate for the amount of pictures and videos i have.  

I am getting this issue.  Was "only" 350Mb but is now nearly 1Gb on a 1.1Gb.  Trying the methods above, but it is really pathetic that Google cannot sort out this idiotic issue.  They've had so much notice it makes one wonder what planet they are on.  

i know a marriage that ended because of the thumbnail issue ... good work google keeping peoples privacy...

The solution that works for me:
- delete the thumbnail folder or the thumbdata file
- never again use the Gallery App, not even to send photos on whatsapp,... I use QuickPic instead.

It's the photos widget on the homescreen which is creating problem, #50 solution worked at first(even opening xperia album app didn't create any problem) but the moment I scrolled through the in images in the widget,the problem started again...only solution-follow the steps mentioned in #50 then restart your phone, don't keep that widiet on the homescreen and for other phones(my phone-sony xperia l)try not to use default album app..

I don't have and never had had the photos widget on any screens on any of my android devices.  But I still have the problem.

It's not the widget. I have never used it either.

@ #47.  I agree with you that most users probably don't know about this problem they just assume that the reason they get failures to update apps on their phones once they're about a year or so old is because they're on an old version of Android or have too many apps installed.

If journalists were to pick up on what is effectively a planned obsolescence issue - essentially, this bug makes any Android phone or tablet useless once it's about 2 years old it might causes a big enough stink for even Google to take notice.

If you have any images on your phone, a thumbnail image will be created as
soon as they are recognised by the device in addition to other applications
also creating a thumbnail image in that app data folder. the image isn't
necessarily created when you view the full-sized image, it's created when
the smaller icon/thumbnail-sized image is viewed/recognised, such as in the
list of picture files in a file explorer or the home screen of the
gallery/player/viewer. Most all apps have their own data files that saves
thumbnails for quick access. The original mfg folder that saves images and
thumbnails for Android gallery is DCIM, (.thumbnail) file uses most storage
and can be deleted or replaced(prefered) as mentioned in this issue.

Google+ <https://plus.google.com/+JamesDoyle6969/>

Ok,it was too early to come to a conclusion, so maybe it's not the widget..yesterday I used watsapp to send images, and instantly the problem came back, and I'm sure that these two big files doesn't contain thumbnails for album, cause I was able to view all the thumbnails inside the album without the file being created

Delete the thumbnails folder and replace it with a empty file with same
name(.thumbnails) .
Most important - enjoy.. :D

Right, enjoy... until you find out the 4 GB worth of thumbnails you deleted did not give you 4 GB back. That's the real issue.

Well, it works on my xperia L and ihv also tested in Xperia M, Galaxy Core,
Galaxy young, MMX Canvas 2, Galaxy Star pro....
Restart/Reset ur phone
Than try this again... (-.-)

still a problem, years later. Google really need to get off their butts and fix this instead of playing with extra features.  There needs to be an option to disable thumbnail creation completely.
It's not acceptable to ignore it for so long. Smartphones have such small amounts of internal ram - where everything (like this) now needs to be stored thanks to the stupid External Storage restriction (with their flimsy and implausible excuse of a reason) in KitKat.

I'll prefix this with some visual noise to increase the chances of people seeing it who come here to complain and scroll over all the comments without reading them. :)

##############################################################################
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##############################################################################
########################                              ########################
########################    THIS  IS  NOT  A  BUG     ########################
######################## YOUR  SPACE  IS  NOT  WASTED ########################
########################                              ########################
##############################################################################
##############################################################################
##############################################################################

The thumbnail file is a so called sparse file. That means it reports itself as being a certain size, but actually uses much less on your storage. Details on this are on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file

You can verify on your own phone just how much space the file actually uses by installing these tools (not even rooting is needed):

- BusyBox - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox
- Android Terminal Emulator - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm

With these installed you can run these commands to confim the actual sizes:

$ cd sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails
$ ls -la
$ du -k *
$ du -k .*

These commands will: Go to the thumbnail dir; show all files and their supposed size in bytes; show the sizes, in kilobytes, of all files not starting with a '.'; show the sizes, in kilobytes, of all files starting with a '.'.

That last du command will indicate a much smaller number than the one indicated by the ls command.

This means that all tricks to delete the files and prevent them from being recreated are entirely pointless, as they will, after deletion, in fact only use up almost no space whatsoever. Additionally i recommend you send emails to the developers of whatever tools showed you those giant file sizes, so they know they need to upgrade their software to not show you the apparent file sizes for files that use up much less actual space.

Android team, please close this ticket. There is nothing for you to do here besides maybe educating people about this. :)

So you are saying that devices crashing with "out of disk space" message is something people fantasized about?!

It is not "not a bug" if normal system operation id interrupted because of missing disk space. But maybe you can educate us where the space has gone then, if it is not the tumbnails file.

There is more to this than a few sparse files.
A considerable of quantity of thumbnail files ARE created. The thumbnails created but no longer relevant (due to the destination files no longer being present) hang around for extended periods of time until certain conditions are met.
This in itself creates conflicts within applications viewing the thumbnails, many of which are effective dead ends.
Whilst various components within the OS and various apps view space as allocated, that space is notwithstanding unavailable to those OS components and apps.
If we are to assume that the removal of RW privileges to External Storage within KitKat are for the purpose of not having third party crap lying around, then it's about time Google sorted its own house out and stopped leaving crap lying around hogging disk space or virtual disk space.
There is an issue here still to be resolved. The whole way thumbnails are generated and stored, cleaned up and accessed by various different apps and by elements within the OS needs to be examined as the current behaviour is a legacy from the early days, and more reminiscent of something Symbian would've done ten years ago. It's a chaotic, disordered, untidy and wasteful mess.

#80

The space went to installed apps, which most third-party tools cannot usefully report on, and of course the other files stored on the phone. As i described, you can check for yourself just how much space those files actually occupy.

#81

This ticket is specifically about the two sparse files in .thumbnails which seemingly grow uncontrollably and eat up all space without recourse for the user, but in reality do nothing of the sort. There may be other parts of the system that use space on the device in a sub-optimal manner, but they are not those two files and as such should be reported on in a different ticket.

Do keep in mind that for bug tickets to be useful they must describe a fault as small as possible.

#82 - I understand what you're saying - however there is a wide, general issue with thumbnails which needs to be addressed (IMO) and I'd like to think that Android Developers can think outside the box (and not just the one that says Dominos), otherwise there is a danger to examining a microscopic side-effect of existing behaviour and seeing it as a harmless pimple, completely missing the melanoma.
Really what is needed is a high-level policy decision about thumbnails as, with the exponential growth in popularity of android, the speed of internet connections, the size of modern images and thumbnail files and the typical quantity of image data that is now held on the current generation of devices, the problematic impact of  any sloppy behaviour is magnified, exponentially.

[Comment deleted]

#83

You understand most of what i'm saying, but overlook the important part: If you wish something to be adressed, you need to describe it concisely, precisely, clearly, and most importantly: In a new ticket. :)

Why is it a new ticket?

Files under DCIM/.thumbnails ARE eating away at storage, just as it says in the subject line.

OK, so the person who opened the ticket perhaps overstated the role the .thumb.. file has in this but the fact is the thumbnails THEMSELVES are there, eat up the space and don't go away when deleted.

If you are an Android developer, walde.ch.., then I must have a wry smile to myself when I see the tradition, captured so often in Dilbert comic strips, of blaming the user for not being able to express the FAULT in your exact terms (because they don't have access to the design detail you have and therefore can't!) and dismissing their reports is being kept up in the 21st Century.  

> don't go away when deleted.

They do. See my first post above. Read up on sparse files if you're not clear about why what i explained means they do. And no, i am not affiliated with Android in any way, which is why i asked them to close this.

But they come back.

I get the idea that the .thumb...31919 file (or whatever it's called today) is sparse.

But I don't get how it is that some rather personal images that were on a SD card I loaded into my phone to find out who's card it actually was are now there for life - I delete them and they come back.  I delete them and they come back.

Luckily my wife knows how those images came to be there!

> I get the idea that the .thumb...31919 file (or whatever it's called today) is sparse.

No you don't. The files come back, but contain no actual data. They are mostly empty. That's what sparse means. Try copying them onto your computer and look at them with a text editor. They consist largely of 00 bytes, which take up no space on your phone.

All this technical stuff is very interesting but it doesn't help me. I'm a simple user and this is what I see on my Galaxy Ace phone with a 1.1gb internal SD card. If I don't follow the tips above and try to take a photo the phone tells me that there is insufficient space on the card to store it and to delete some files. If I delete the folder called .thumbnails and replace it with a bogus file with the same name the problem seems to go away. I don't know about sparse files & all that but it doesn't seem that Android is working properly to me.

Peter

#89 that's good then isn't it because there is obviously no problem and zero length files use no space whatsoever, anywhere. Not even when there are hundreds or thousands of zero length files. No directory structures are impacted in any way and no storage or memory is used, no available space counters are offset.
So these thumbnail files that are cluttering up the storage space and keep recurring following deletion of the originals, even the pornographic ones which the owner is desperately trying to delete, permanently (but can't) aren't actually a problem, in terms of the strictest subdivision of this bug report down to one or two specific files as you claim is the exact meaning of the OP's bug report. Is that what you're saying ?
I would honestly like to think that the minds that managed to create the Android operating system in the first place are sufficiently adapt at determining what is (and is not) a problem, once flagged, and are capable of determining the root cause and knock on effects for themselves without someone splitting hairs over a few imprecisions on the part of the person submitting the bug report and telling them that "it's ok guys, I got this one, he didn't define the problem in sufficiently infinitesimal detail so you can chuck it out the window."
Perhaps we should step back and allow this bug report to rise or fall on it's own merits, based on whether it's observed to be a problem by enough users without nit-picking minutiae in order to demonstrate greater technical competence. These are bug reports to try to improve and operating system and its applications. There's no need to feel personally involved. :)
The problem of "thumbnails are eating away at SD card storage" persists even if the strict directory location for the problem is not /DCIM/.thumbnails.

#90

I suspect you're conflating the effects of deleting the two big cache files with the effects of deleting the individual thumbnail files in that directory. Have you tried simply deleting the directory from time to time without doing the whole replacement dance?

#91

> zero length files

I was trying to help you by dissuading you from railing at imagined windmills, but you simply seem content, and even intent, on doing so, despite continuously showing a lack of even the smallest grasp of an understanding, leading to me starting to rail against my own windmill, embodied by you. As such, i shall stop. :)

I may be conflating effects. I don't know. But yes I have tried simply deleting the directory, but unfortunately it seems that time to time means every time I use the camera, a gallery app, reboot the phone, and lots of other things. My SD card storage goes from about 290 mb used to 1.1gb. That's the entire card. I don't know if this is the right forum or ticket or whatever. I came across the link while searching for a way to use my phone. If there's a better place for this I'd be very happy to be directed there.

Peter

[Comment deleted]

#79

I do not think you are right here. Most phones has storage formated as FAT. There is no support for sparse files on FAT, AFAIK. So, the thumbnail file is not sparse, it is really taking so much space as shown by ls.

For reference, here is a fix used in CyanogenMod, over a year old, verified, working:
http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/36850

#95

Interesting, you're right, for FAT file systems this would be a problem. I didn't think of that. I guess the important point then is to check with du, whether one's phone is afflicted with this problem or not.

my phone fast fills up with the thumbnails and all the deleted images, videos have their thumbnails in the album that means you over a period of time there will be more unwanted/deleted thumbnails clogging your phone and you have to struggle to find the actual images that you are looking for. currently i have nearly 3000 thumbnails which i cant manually delete them, i may choose to install other apps like quickpic where i can hide the folders which have thumbnails but then google has blocked the access to all the apps to write to SD cards, which means i can't delete the pictures that i have taken. i can't use the stock picture manager app which can write to sd card because it shows all the 3000 thumbnails and its near impossible to find the images that i am looking for among the junk.

Hmm, is this why the Documents file picker still shows files that have already been deleted?

Just confirming that making a folder named ".thumbdata3--1967290299" using root browser app where the huge ".thumbdata3--1967290299" file should be, solved my problem. Gallery works, Whatsapp works as it should. I have 1.12GB free memory (Internal). Thanks. Android 4.2.2

on HTC One X just create a .thumbnail file in dcim . Android 4.2.2

I have a Toshiba tablet, new at Xmas Toshiba excite pro,
I have this problem too, memory is definitely taken up by this file, I deleted it and it can back and later on made another so now I have 2.27GB used by these files, checking with es file explorer and its own file explorer I can see the numbers all add up to 11gb including the thumbdata files, without them I am 2.27gb short!
So yes this is still a problem, now I don't want to connect my SD card with pictures on or plug in USB hard drive or even risk watching a film/pictures from my wireless Seagate media drive.
This bug is rendering my devices useless.
Please fix it!
Thanks
 

hey google, allow the users to choose between using thumbnails or not, stop FORCING them. THIS PROBLEM DOESNT EXIST IN IOS DEVICES and affects everyone, advanced users complain to google but the noobs complain to other noob users that will think IOS is better because of that

I need this fixed. So dumb.

Still no response or fix at all? Wow. Nearing 3 years into this and still nothing.

I came here to understand what is meant by thumbnail files. But seeing the problem it is causing to all, I have a temporary solution. The CCleaner app from Piriform helps delete thumbnail cache. I noticed that my menu function is much faster when I perform this clean up. Hopefully this helps you.

I'm using Sony xperia m running Android 4.1.2. jelly bean
When I viewed my Data Storage under
Settings, I noticed that 1.08GB was
allocated to "Pictures, Video".
but now available is only 348MB
There are no photos or videos stored
on my device. I've deleted all
photos/videos from the Camera
folder. I also don't have any photos
"made available offline" or
downloaded any media from Google
Play. Meaning, I don't have ANY
photos or videos stored on the
device.
Using a file explorer, I found that
there were two files in the mnt/
storage/sdcard0/DCIM/.thumbnails folder that
were each taking about 823 MB.  so I cannot install apps it show low space in sdcard. please give me solution...... iam waiting for your reply

I now have to go through the same routine of cleaning up the thumbnail folder every time I need to do updates and I read insufficient memory.  I use Tree size to find the largest memory culprit and every time it is the thumbnail folder.  My wife's phone has this issue too.

[Comment deleted]

https://www.google.ru/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=s3gYVKilBIKCzAOur4HoAw&url=http://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D_PlFBr2Ji1g&cd=1&ved=0CBsQtwIwAA&usg=AFQjCNHlfikVLO3I-VvY7ylzgBhqRDkeWw&sig2=0S75H_gJRdG98Zal1G8Xhw
Helped for Me. Try it. No more thumbnails.
But i find/delete/create 2 files like on video.  And they was little different name. But it works.

This happens to my 4.1.1 tablet too whenever I use my gallery, a third-party gallery app, or anything that will access the gallery. I use disk-usage to see a large thumbnail file created leaving no free space. It takes 700mb-1Gb of my storage depending on my free-space.

 My temporary solution is to delete the thumbnail file. Most of the time the space consumed by this massive file is not returned. What I do is go to Settings> Apps> Running apps> then tap "cache process"> then select "media"> and select "stop". It works in getting back the lost space.

Sadly, I have to do these things everytime.

Also experiencing this on a CoolPad8720Q running Android 4.2.1

To be clear about this: filesystem is FAT, so the space _is_ lost ().

Tried deleting .thumbnails and replacing it with a file of the same name - did not work (folder re-recreated).

Developers, please can you address this?

From reading, it appears that the issue is that old/stale indexes are never removed, even after images are deleted. is this correct?

[Comment deleted]

I solved this problem of thumbnail files in case of Sony xperia phones this path and opposite path for other android phones
Emulated / Android /data / com. Sony Ericsson album /cache

Then this cache contain thumbnail images you can change the name of this folder to cache1 for instance then add folder and name it cache then delete cache1 folder reboot your device and say thank you for me

Is this fixed in L? Can someone test?

Thanks u people here. This here have helped me. I did do it this way if that can help others. My phone is Xperia Z1 with up to date system (android 4.4.4) and not rooted. I know different phone need sometimes different medicine.

1. First I did move all pic that still was on phone mem to the memo card (and deleted some).
2. Then, after our of organising, I restated my phone.
 - I saw immediately almost nothing had changed with this folder ".thumbnail" in size (and phone mem), still over 3 GB folders total use, but just a little less than before and fewer files also -
3. Then I deleted this folder ".thumbnail" (Main Storage/DCIM/.thumbnail (sometimes SD 0 or storage/emulated/0/DCIM/.thumbnail)). This took only seconds, and no waiting like some people had experiences here. Then, because, I wait one two minute (just in case).
4. I restarted my phone. The folder had disappeared but I did not see my extra mem jet. I started my album and it took around or less than minute (some her talk about "up til 30 minutes", that was not the case here, quick and my phone even didn't be hot like some other phone here).
 - I also took picture with my cam. The folder .thumbnail came back (not direct, after some time) but had shrinked from somewhere over 3GB to 975 MiB (still big but huge different) and now only had two files inside the folder (one small thumb-picture and the file .thumbdata-3xxxxxx) I had over 5.000 files before. I didn't se more mem jet. It was like system files took most of the difference (probably this .thumdata is "sparse file" (like #79 Walde.ch did talk about))
 so mem is there but telling your system is not, (don't jet know how it works).
5. Then I used "Advanced Mobile Care" (from iobit.com) and deep scanned all the system and chose auto repair and I got lot of memory back - NOT ALL, but half of it

To theirs not familiar and can't find ".thumbnail" it is hidden and can't be found with free version of "File Commander - FC" (Original file editor in many phones and peace of shit). Then use ES or FX File Explorer (and sett it to "sowing hidden files"), both high ratings apps in Google play store)
 I know the problem is still there. The .thumbnail folder will from now start to grow again. But I am still happy with this solution now and in some folder with images I will also paste .nomedia copy from folder that have that (if that helps? I am not sure?). Then it will be less there. I am still happy with my phone and will renew to newer Sony Z-(X) again. But.
Google..!, when will they fix this in android. And when will they change policy with SD card back to that before. So all app you install and buy, and that u give permission, can write on your "owned" external memory card

Ok, I did a trick that worked for me so far. Using Root explorer I went to the folder and deleted the huge file. Then with the + I chose New file and named it the same .thumbdata3-.... it created a file that is 0 Bytes and then I went and used the camera and the apps, so far the file stays the same size so maybe that trick will work for others too. Good luck.

Hey everyone! I was facing the same problem and i couldnt stand it. So i went to DCIM and deleted the whole thumbnail file. Restarted my phone and i freed more than 2GB!! I did this when i read some comments from the guys commented here before. Well,it worked for me i guess,for now at least. Should try this out

To Xperia mobile Guys
I found a solution to our mobile!!
Yu can see tat ur internal storage s filled with thumbnail data which eats more than 1 Gb of internal storage. You might be facing the problem of notification showing tat ur internal storage is 75% full, 95% full, But yu might have oly less applications, images, videos,etc in internal storage.
The problem is nothing but d "thumbnail data".
you can delete tis thumbnail using ur pc,but it ll b automatically created wen u use camera or gallery in ur mobile.

So the only solution is
1. Install File manager (CHEETAK software)
2. Go to internal storage\DCIM\.thumbnails folder
3. Yu can find .thumbdata3--1967290299 file (file name varies)
4. Note down the file name (eg. .thumbdata3--**********)
5. Go one folder back i.e DCIM folder
6. Click option Create and select new file
7. Create the file with tat name but without '.' in front(example  thumbdata3--ur 10 figit)
8. Then go to thumbnails folder again, delete tat orginal  .thumbdata3--********** file
9. Then go back one folder rename the created file with '.' in front of the file name
(example .thumbdata3--ur 10digit no)
10. Cut the duplicate file and paste it into the thumbnails folder.

This prevents the android from creating orginal thumbnail data. Yu can save upto 1.5 Gb of internal storage.
Thank you guys.
By Venkat Sha

Well I tried everything here, nothing worked.
I have over 3gb lost , I have 2.9gb of apps and nothing much else, only have 710mb memory left from 16gb of memory!!!!!
Well 11gb total memory according to the settings!

I just a email linking to this saying the problem was obsolete!!!!!!!

I dare not use my tablet to look at or take photos because everyone I do more memory is lost.
This is beyond a joke.

I replaced the thumdata files with empty ones, no memory comes back, last time I did this it created another file instead and I lost another 1.2gb.

Toshiba excite pro is my tablet, less then a year old and no good for much due to this problem.
Thinking I may have to root it or something.????

Well I tried everything here, nothing worked.
I have over 3gb lost , I have 2.9gb of apps and nothing much else, only have 710mb memory left from 16gb of memory!!!!!
Well 11gb total memory according to the settings!

I just a email linking to this saying the problem was obsolete!!!!!!!

I dare not use my tablet to look at or take photos because everyone I do more memory is lost.
This is beyond a joke.

I replaced the thumdata files with empty ones, no memory comes back, last time I did this it created another file instead and I lost another 1.2gb.

Toshiba excite pro is my tablet, less then a year old and no good for much due to this problem.
Thinking I may have to root it or something.????

Well, I went through the 121 arguments and I still haven't gotten a concrete solution to this issue. Is there none?

I got the same problem, the file is recreated over and over again, so, where is the size of the file updated? this just happen to some phones? theres a way to get rid of it?

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Tengo un Samsung Galaxy II y observo el mismo problema descripto.

Encontré una solución que me funcionó, espero que a los demás les sirva.
La misma fue extraída de este link:
http://devophuman.blogspot.com.ar/2014/01/android-fills-flash-card-with.html

1) Eliminar la carpeta DCIM\.thumbnails
2) crear un archivo vacío dentro de la carpeta DCIM llamado .thumbnails

Solucionado.

¿Cómo crear el archivo? El explorador de archivos de Android no permite crear un archivo con ese nombre, por lo tanto debe usarse soft de terceros como Jota Editor, Personal Code Editor, WebMasterLite, File Expert, etc., o bien conectar el celular a la PC y desde una ventana DOS (comando CMD) escribir el comando:

echo vacio > "L:\DCIM\.thumbnails"

Donde L: es la ruta de la memoria interna del celular.

Saludos desde Argentina:
Leonardo.

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ok, on some phones you will not see the file thumbnails as it is not visible, so click on allfiles then go do DCIM, then click on the menu options, then select the option "show hidden files" the thumbnail file should then appear. you then select all files and delete them...

I had kept my pics in keep safe.. and I was seeing my data storage I saw there was an option .keepsafe2  I saw it was having 'manifest.in' , 'face.data' , 'keepsafe.' By mistake I had delete the keep safe 2 nd after wards I was looking for my pics I saw nthng was there it was containing all the folders but not having any pics ..... what to do please let me know if I can get my pics back...??

This issue is a joke. It needs to be fixed. IOS doesn't have this issue. No other OS does.

After some research, I finally think that the thumbdata files on the .thumbnail folder is not as huge as we can think.

I'm using a Galaxy S4 Jelly Bean 4.3 rooted.

I just used DiskUsage (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage) to see in details the content on my internal SD Card.

And compared to the ES Explorer app or the native app to check the free space and the space used by my apps, It was completely different.

Using ES Explorer and its SD Card Analysis function, it appears that I had only ~2GB used. and I had before 2 thumbdata files , 2,45GB each. Then, It was using at about 7GB and I was very disgusted by the memory consumption.

Then, I perform the traditional solution to this issue, i.e. deleting the thumbdata files and replacing them with folder (that couldn't be overwritten by the system).
I also tried to fill the SD card completely, and gain only 300mb of data after cleaning.

I was Finally at 6GB of data.
But with the DiskUsage, I can see the "truth".
When analyzing the Sotrage folder, I could see 2 main parts : "Apps" and "media" .
The first one is about 3,2GB, the second about 2GB.  I also have a "System Data Part" of 400mb. It was sounding correctly, compared to the space used , as seen in the ES Explorer app.


The "Apps" Folder contains all the APK downloaded, from Google Play or others. No cache or anything else.


The "media" (the partition we can all access) contains only the Android folder (1GB for me), and some folders created by apps. Cache files for Dropbox, Google Translate, Waze, and other stuffs i often use.


So finally, I'm really using the space on my SD Card, but ES Explorer couldn't show me the total space used by the installed apps (or I couldn't find how to do it clearly).

Even if the thumbdata file was seen as huge "2,47 GB *2". it doesn't fit with the difference of space from the beginning (7GB) to the ending (5/6GB).

Hope it helps.

:)

I just deleted all the thump nails under DCIM and my storage has increased by 2.2 GB, while my total storage itself is only 4.64 GB as shown under storage! I deleted then the thump nails itself. Till now nothing has reappeared, and it is more than an hour. I have opened photos many times to check

for thumbs.db files go download thumb viewer https://code.google.com/p/thumbs-viewer/ then you can see ALL pics that are inside this file. it'll even "save all pics" to a folder you specify

With this android defect, that has not been fixed in over 4 years now, I:

A) CANNOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING
B) CANNOT TAKE PICTURES
C) CANNOT RECEIVE EMAILS OR MESSAGES

with my stupid android phone.

Why? BECAUSE ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTACT ANYONE TO COMPLAIN

This defect has been so annoying that cant even store songs. In phone memory..
I Have 4.2 gb of thumbnail space constituting 2 files of 2.1 gb.
Please resove this annoying issue..  I Have tried most of methods given above.
Taking a android phone was really a mistake..

well i've found a different solution, phone must be rooted and twrp installed, in twrp go to file manager in dcim/.thumbnail select folder and chmod this folder 0440. this will change. thumbnail folder just to read. done!no more thumbnail at all

Well, after so many reports it seems that this problem is an example of a "PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE", a practice loved by Apple and now seems that also by Google. It makes devices seem to be too old to work properly, despite they are perfectly OK from the hardware point of view. To learn more about this practice search for "The Light Bulb Conspiracy", 2010 documentary, very informative.

This issue has been around for so long that now a software exists specifically to clean the damned file.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appandmobile.thumbspace

It's called Thumb Space.

I went the hardcore route and simply disabled gallery (using NoBloat) on my rooted device. I don't use it anyway.

I've had this issue too!

Yes I am facing the same problem too.I have micromax canvas A121 in which 4.3 jelly bean is loaded.

Hi all i have a solution for this problem.
This trick works for me

Same probleme appeared with my lava x604.
Remaining all space eaten by .thumbnaidata and no space remain even can't save screenshot. There is a tricks works for me here is a trick..

Rename a photo .thumbnails (rename just .thumbnails not like .thumbnails.jpg) on another folder than go to DCIM and delete .thumbnails folder (delete .thumbnails folder not .thumbnaildata) now move that renamed photo to DCIM folder.
Now there is no chance to auto creat .thumbnails folder because of there is a already a file name with .thumbnails and if thumbnails folder is not aito create than there is no chance to auto create thumbdata.....this works for me try to do it.

This problem is a nightmare.  It's gotten impossible to install any apps because they insist that there's no space left.  The thumbnail file eats up over 700 megabytes, and once it's gone, there's plenty of space, but it starts recreating itself almost immediately after deletion.

This is serious problem , it showed 2 thumbnail file worth 56MB + 634MB,

I cut those folders and put in my external Sd card, but the  still the free space of internal memory not changed,
Moreover now i tried to restore in original space , 56MB file got transferred to  internal from External SD card , but while transferreing 634MB , the internal is not sufficient to have it. But actually i removed from that location only.
RIDICULOUS

hi ... can any one help me ... how can i open this file after i put it in my Pc ..i need to get my photos (already delated) .

hey guys...hey guys!!
please do that trick which i already comment on this post.
believe me it will work....now im not facing this problem because of that trick.....just do it 100% work

All you need to do is delete the thumbdata3 - 1967290299 file then create a new one with exactly the same name which stops the file returning each time you reboot, i got this from xda forum who know android inside out.

Here's an interesting one for you.  I was using a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, running CyanogenMod 10.2 Skyrocket, Android 4.3.  Bought a new (to me) Galaxy S3, T-Mobile variant, running stock 4.3 Android.  I copied the pictures from the Downloads folder and from the Camera folder from the Skyrocket, thru my PC, to the S3.  I moved the SIM and External SD card from the Skyrocket to the S3.  Interesting, I have the same Thumbnails files on the S3 as were on the Skyrocket.  Two phones, not connected.  The thumbnails must have come over with the copied images or the SIM card.  Interestingly, many of the thumbnails were of images ONLY taken with the Skyrocket camera, then deleted (I thought) from the Skyrocket.  They NEVER would have been on the S3 in any way.

Same problem in my htc m8 eye thumbnaildata is using 4.67 gb of internal space no solutions is working! Seems like hard reset is the only way

[Comment deleted]

I have the similar problem. I am using Micromax unite 3 phone.When i copy any file(images,videos,tracks) to my memory card, most of them are visible for the first time. When i try to see it again it will not be there, but still the memory is allocated for them.
Please suggest any resolution for this issue.

As the 147 others, having the same problem here. Kinda a shame that this is going on for 2 years now, and there is no solution yet (!). But when I delete my .thumbnail files, it does not free space at all, so it only makes it worse. I'm just stuck here with a file that takes in 3 GB of space, which I can't get rid of. So even if I did delete it and replaced it with a file/folder of the same name, it doesn't help me a bit.
Frankly, I would be happy if it would at least free space by deleting it, that way I can actually use that space but now it's just gone.

I guess the only way out would be a full reset, wait until the data get created and replace it with a folder (A file doesn't seem to work in some of above mentioned cases) so it won't grow any bigger.

i deleted a video from my phone but still have the .thumbdata3 for it can i recover it ?

This issue is not a matter of storage space only, it's also about privacy.

By keeping the thumbnails on the phone, you compromise the users' privacy.
People can go to jail, lose their job, or have their life ruined because of this kind of carelessness.

Developers, please think about how your actions, or lack thereof, can affect the end user.

Same happens to me but I don't know when problem really started.

Android 4.2.2
Alcatel One Touch Idol

I lost about 5.4GB space due to those thumbnails files. And I have tried every method except a hard reset here; No one works. Deleting thumbnail files, or deleting the folder containing thumbnail files, or replace the folder with an empty file of the same name, or replace thumbnail files with an small sized file of the same name, blahblah, all failed to reclaim my 5.4GB diskspace. This is on my phone Xperia Z2 4.4.2.

I'll prefix this with some visual noise to increase the chances of people seeing it who come here to complain and scroll over all the comments without reading them. :)

##############################################################################
##############################################################################
##############################################################################
########################                              ########################
########################    THIS  IS  A  BUG          ########################
######################## YOUR SPACE CAN BE  RECLAIMED ########################
########################                              ########################
##############################################################################
##############################################################################
##############################################################################

if you have tried all those know methods and still can’t get disk space back, here is the solution:
the idea is to use real files instead of sparse files to occupy the disk space claimed by sparse files. When free space is hitting the limit, the android system will free disk space occupied by sparse files. After having occupied all disk spaces originally owned by sparse files, you can delete those real files and android system now will show you real free disk space. Even if you restart your phone, the free disk space will remain unchanged.

here are the steps:
1. copy huge size file on your computer to the sdcard: for example, use video files bigger than 1GB;
  command line: adb push some_huge_size_file /sdcard/test1.file
                adb push some_huge_size_file /sdcard/test2.file
                adb push some_huge_size_file /sdcard/test3.file
                …
2. repeat step 1 several times if you want to claim more sparse space
3. delete test files:
  command line: adb shell rm /sdcard/test1.file
                adb shell rm /sdcard/test2.file
                adb shell rm /sdcard/test3.file
                …
                       

I have HTC One M8 with 5.0.1. And lost around 4GB from sdcard because of thumbnails.
I tried to create files .thumb* and also .thumbnails. That's working, no more thumbnails created, but 4GB is lost. I tried the procedure from #153 but no success. Same result like #152.
Do you know where are those "sparse" files? How to delete them ?

I have a rooted Sony Z3 dual sim D6633 running KitKat.
I have tried all the suggestions, including #152 and #153, but to no avail: after deleting 5 GBs of thumbnails, the available space has not changed. The s'torage analzyer' app says I have 5.89 GBs of 'used by android/inaccesible file'. What on earth are those? Causing half the available space to disappear on a flagship phone is utterly unacceptable! Google should fix this asap!

 simply delete thumbnail folder and create a file with the exact name which u dlted,attachment would help

If you are suffering from Huge Thumbnails and you problem is not solved yet, there is a permanent solution that i have wrote in the below link :

http://dailyexpertise.blog.ir/1394/10/12/Get-rid-of-andoird-huge-thumbnails

its a 100% working solution.

I discovered one software to destroy thumbnails permanently... Farther details contact my email smnkundu3@gmail.com..

I am also facing same issue.Even i have deleted thumbnail folder from DCIM. Again thummbnail size rebuilding whenever i am attaching image to wahtsapp.
Please suggest me something..

very easy....

delete thumbnail folder in DCIM and create a file named ".thumbnails" in DCIM folder. create file not folder.

or

delete all unwanted files in thumbnail folder and create a file ". no media" in thumbnail folder.

you can create a file by using any expolrer, You can download ES file explorer.

Same prob with Moto-E first gen

I have this problem on my Xperia ZL (running 5.1.1) that I've been using for about two year...

and found that I'm having a storage problem that sourced from storing and having images in my device is more than a bummer for me. As my work and hobby need me to take, send and receive images actively in daily basis. And to my horror, i have two of those .thumbdata3 files in my device in the same folder, and they've grown to 2.5GB each... :\