## Grey Thumbnail of Death! <h2>

OK, OK. Maybe it's not a thumbnail that will kill you, but it might feel like that after your thumbnail doesn't show up. If you have spent 5 hours making sure your post is great, then your thumbnail turns gray...you might get **mad**.


![thumbnail.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmW2Lnwi3qUrns6Q3BNpWKaeZoejV9NyuJQzxcTieWDZHP/thumbnail.jpg)

Have you ever been scrolling down the feed and noticed a grayed out thumbnail?
This can happen if you do not upload your picture properly.

![see it 1.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWLp2FVersAo64p2L8gkzLKEMhFzQ3p834jyUNwSwEsSq/see%20it%201.JPG)

## Don't miss out on exposure <h2>
Having a nice looking thumbnail is a huge factor for gaining exposure to your post.
Make sure you don't fall victim to the curse of the *gray thumbnail*.
Your post may quickly become lost if people can't see your pretty little thumbnail.

## Why does this happen? <h2>
This happens when you upload the image and the characters in the image file name are unexpected characters for the Steemit's upload server.

If you use any characters other then the URL approved characters, you will have problems.


---
*Allowed characters for a file name to be uploaded:*
>In general URIs as defined by RFC 3986 (see Section 2: Characters) may contain any of the following characters:
>
>ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-._~:/?#[]@!$&'()*+,;=`.

[source](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1856785/characters-allowed-in-a-url)

---

One of the most common ways of making this mistake is when an apostrophe ( ' ) is in your image file name.

![do and not do final.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR9BQZgp2FMhHgeeM7sMicGcbLN2gzfp4QUQ6Rb7rerDf/do%20and%20not%20do%20final.JPG)

---
** The FIX**

If you have a gray thumbnail:

1. Rename your image file name
2. Edit your post
3. Remove the old image 
4. Upload the new image with a valid file name

___

Have you ever seen this gray thumbnail?
Have you every had this gray thumbnail problem?

Please resteem if you think this post can help others on Steemit.

Thanks so much for your support!

@acromott