ArcGIS Pro Thumbnails

[PROBERT68]

Whenever you create a new folder when you are in ArcGIS Pro and create a new project folder....

Why does it create these thumbnails ?

Here is of a screenshot I did in ArcCatalog as I am going through to do some cleaning up my C drive...

Is it okay for me to delete these thumbnails or do I need to leave them alone ?

[Robert_LeClair · Accepted solution]

Robert - I think these are used for previews of the data and are generated by default.  You can read more about it here.  To disable this, go to the Project Tab->Options->Indexing and uncheck "Generate thumbnails when a connection is refreshed."  This "should" not generate more thumbnails.

[PROBERT68]

I'm thinking as I did read it and it seems like if I had unchecked the thumbnails, does it mean it will open my project very slow rather than open it faster ?

[Robert_LeClair]

Robert - I don't believe so.  Thumbnails are just an image to preview I believe for Item Description.

[AletaVienneau]

The thumbnails generated in that folder are created to support searching, when search results would include maps or layouts or other items stored in a project, so you can better evaluate the results that are returned. For example, in a project with a large number of maps, to determine which map is the one you want. They have absolutely no impact on the performance of opening the project. They are generated by the indexing process on a background thread if the computer isn't busy or using a scheduled task that may run when Pro is not open at all.

[PROBERT68]

Thank you !  That explains clearly !