PowerPivot Gallery Snapshots not Generating

Issue

When new Excel files are added or updated in a PowerPivot Gallery library in SharePoint 2013, a process called GallerySnapshot.exe is supposed to kick off and generate some pretty thumbnail images for the Silverlight gallery view of the library.  I ran into a scenario where the process was not running and no thumbnails were generating.  No hourglass was showing (should happen while process is running.)  No red X was showing (happens when errors during the process occur.)

This is an example of what I was seeing:

This is what it should look like when the process is running (not happening in my environment):

The full path to the executable is: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\BIN\GallerySnapshot.exe”

 

Testing

I determine the GallerySnapshot.exe process was not even being called by:

1. Add a sample excel file
2. Start up ProcMon and set a filter on the process name contain ‘GallerySnapshot’
3. Modify the properties of the Excel file (this should trigger the process)

In my case, the GallerySnapshot process was not even being called.

Solution

Turns out to be a pretty easy fix.  All you need to do is deactivate the site collection feature called “PowerPivot Feature Integration for Site Collections”.  Once the feature is deactivated, re-activate it.  Then update the Excel workbook and you should see the process start to kick off.  Thumbnails should show up in a minute or two.