#2227·umbrel

Photos thumbnails hang on /api/photos/thumb/ in umbrelOS 2.0.0-beta.1

Author: iant333Created Sep 12, 2026Updated Sep 12, 2026

Environment

  • Umbrel Pro
  • umbrelOS 2.0.0-beta.1
  • New Photos app

Problem

Photos displays solid-colour placeholders instead of photo thumbnails.

Diagnostics

  • Original photo files are intact and readable.
  • File index reconciles successfully.
  • Existing cached thumbnails are valid WebP files.
  • Adding a new JPEG immediately generates 192, 512 and 1280 WebP thumbnails.
  • Database records for the newly generated thumbnails show state=ready, failure_count=0, and no error.
  • Despite this, Photos still displays placeholders.
  • Network inspection shows Photos requesting /api/photos/thumb/<hash>?s=512&token=....
  • Authenticated thumbnail requests receive 0 bytes and hang.
  • Reproduced with two different thumbnails using curl; both timed out after 10 seconds with 0 bytes received.
  • An unauthenticated request to the same endpoint immediately returns HTTP 401, confirming the endpoint itself responds.
  • No corresponding error appears in journalctl -u umbrel.service while the authenticated request is hanging.

Expected

/api/photos/thumb/ should return the generated WebP thumbnail and Photos should display it.

Actual

Authenticated thumbnail requests hang indefinitely with 0 bytes returned, leaving Photos showing coloured placeholders.

I have not deleted or rebuilt the file index, database, or thumbnail cache because thumbnail generation and database state appear healthy.