this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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why do some YouTube videos on lemmy have a thumbnail, while some don't? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Cris_Color@lemmy.world to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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If you go to !videos@lemmy.world and scroll you'll see some of the posts have a youtube thumbnail image, but not all.

I wanna post YouTube videos, but no one seems to engage much without a thumbnail, which makes sense, but I'm not sure what would result in the post actually having a thumbnail

If anyone has advice or guidance I'd appreciate it :) Thanks!

EDIT: so far it seems like it's potentially a combination of what version of lemmy the posters account is running, and how that instance is configured...

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[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It looks like your "edit" is right (version of lemmy and instance configuration are an issue), with the additional complication that sometimes where it is hosted makes a difference (sometimes the youtube summary is in a different language and/or won't grab it because of regional restrictions) and sometimes the reader app/web interface grabs their own thumbnails and/or may not display thumbnails and/or may even try to just embed the video. There was a post on techsupport a while back about this: https://lemmy.world/post/20180043

I post to !fullmoviesonyoutube@lemm.ee from slrpnk.net and to get a thumbnail, I do the following:

  • get a thumbnail image file. either grab it from wikipedia, imdb, or by a screencap that I trim. put that file somewhere on my computer.
  • use the web interface with default client. It has a "thumbnail URL" field (which I didn't see back when I had a lemmy.world account - probably version differences) but I can't just upload the image to that field, so I have to...
  • go to the post "body" input field and click on the "upload image" button to upload the thumbnail image file from my computer. This uploads the image to the server and adds a line of code to the body input field that looks something like this: ![](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/a-long-UUID.png)
  • copy the part from "https" to "png" and put it in the "thumbnail URL" field
  • usually I then delete that code from the post "body" input field
  • edit: of course, I still have to add the youtube URL in the "URL" field...

I think this adds thumbnails, but of course I can never be sure because someone can always use a client or configuration I'm unaware of. That's the price of freedom from a single corporate server and a limited choice of viewer clients.
Ideally this whole process would be easier or automatic. I imagine the situation/process will change as time gones on.