# Enabling thumbnails in a channel
<a name="thumbnails-enable"></a>

You must enable the thumbnails feature in each MediaLivechannel. 

You can enable or disable thumbnails only when the channel is idle (not running).

**Topics**
+ [

## Providing IAM access
](#thumbnails-enable-iam)
+ [

## Enabling thumbnails on the console
](#thumbnails-enable-console)
+ [

## Enabling thumbnails programmatically
](#thumbnails-enable-progammatically)

## Providing IAM access
<a name="thumbnails-enable-iam"></a>

For the thumbnails feature to work, MediaLive needs access to Amazon S3:
+ If your organization uses the MediaLiveAccessRole trusted entity, go to the **Channel and input details** page of the channel configuration, and look in the **General info** section. If the **Update role** button appears in this section, select the button. If the button doesn't appear, then the trusted entity already has the access that it needs
+ If your organization uses custom trusted entity roles, then an IAM administrator must update the appropriate trusted entity roles. For information about the operations to add, read [Access requirements for the trusted entity](trusted-entity-requirements.md). Search for **thumbnails** on that page. For information about how to update the role, see [Create the trusted entity - complex option](setup-trusted-entity-complex.md).

## Enabling thumbnails on the console
<a name="thumbnails-enable-console"></a>

**Note**  
This section assumes that you are familiar with creating or editing a channel, as described in [Creating a channel from scratch](creating-channel-scratch.md). 

1. Open the MediaLive console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/).

1. On the **Create channel** page or **Edit channel** page, choose **General settings**, then open the **Thumbnail configuration** section. 

1. Select **Enable thumbnail configuration**. In **State**, choose **AUTO** or **DISABLED**.

## Enabling thumbnails programmatically
<a name="thumbnails-enable-progammatically"></a>

To enable the thumbnails feature, include the `ThumbnailConfiguration` group of parameters in the JSON for the channel. Set the `State` parameter to `AUTO` (to enable) or `DISABLED`. 

The following example shows the relative location of the parameters in the JSON for the channel.

```
{
  "ChannelClass": "SINGLE_PIPELINE",
  .
  .
  . 
  "EncoderSettings": {
    .
    .
    .
    "TimecodeConfig": {
      "Source": "EMBEDDED"
    },
    "ThumbnailConfiguration": {
      "State": "DISABLED"
     },
    .
    .
    .
```