diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/persistance/FileBackend.java b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/persistance/FileBackend.java
index 266553b8f08e57725c65712fa228a6f10ed2b700..c680cc823f233c9eeb5fba0bc7d5be245eceeed8 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/persistance/FileBackend.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/persistance/FileBackend.java
@@ -1209,7 +1209,7 @@ public class FileBackend {
     public Drawable getThumbnail(DownloadableFile file, Resources res, int size, boolean cacheOnly, String cacheKey) throws IOException {
         final LruCache<String, Drawable> cache = mXmppConnectionService.getDrawableCache();
         Drawable thumbnail = cache.get(cacheKey);
-        if ((thumbnail == null) && (!cacheOnly)) {
+        if ((thumbnail == null) && (!cacheOnly) && file.exists()) {
             synchronized (THUMBNAIL_LOCK) {
                 thumbnail = cache.get(cacheKey);
                 if (thumbnail != null) {