Wrong thunbnails on jpg files

[briand]

Not sure if this is in the correct section, but here goes.  A couple of days ago I downloaded a batch of images fom my camera to the laptop.  I use Picassa 3.6 to import the images after having inserted the card into the laptop's reader.  This is something that I've done zillions of times without any problems.  A funny thing has happended to 10 of the images (out of a batch of about 90 that I imported in one go).  I usually do some basic tweaks to some of the images whilst Picassa is still open, then close and maybe come back another day.  All seemed OK.  However, when browsing through my files in Windows Explorer, with the contents of the folder in Thumbnails view, I noticed that for 5 images, the thumnail picture had become swapped for 5 others in the same folder.  Opening up the image file displays the correct image for that filename - just the wrong thumbnail!  This spooked me at first, but now I can see what's going on, I can get to the correct image.  Now, this behaviour does not happen within the Picassa viewer, where every thumbnail has the correct filename and correct image when opened up.  But the problem does manifest itself when in Photoshop Elements.

I'd be grateful for some idea as to what's happened, and any fixes.  I've copied the images to another machine, but same behaviour, so the issue definitely seems to be associated with the image.  I suspect it's somehow gotten corrupted by Picassa, but in a way that only Picassa can live with.

[Jon]

You might try deleting the "thumbs.db" file in whichever directory those photos are stored and allowing it to rebuild . . .

[briand]

Thanks for that thought, Jon.  I can't see any "thumbs.db" files in any of my folders containing images.  A search threw up a dozen or so files with that name, almost all within the folders associated with Photoshop Elements, which don't seem to be relevant.  Or am I misunderstanding things?

[Jon]

You may need to tell Explorer (Tools | Folder View) to show Hidden Files and System Files first. I default to those settings (Explorer will try to tell you that you don't want that - ignore it).

[briand]

Thanks Jon.  That's sorted things out.  I hadn't thought to "unhide" the system files, only the hidden files.

Very grateful as usual.
Brian