Thumbnail cache

1. A method of operation of a thumbnail engine of an electronic device, comprising:

accessing, by a processor associated with the electronic device, a thumbnail image in a storage, the thumbnail image being associated with a media file;

upon an occurrence of a thumbnail expiration event, marking the thumbnail image for deletion, wherein the thumbnail expiration event comprises deletion of the associated media file; and

upon an occurrence of a delete event, the delete event being different from the thumbnail expiration event, and determining that the thumbnail image is marked for deletion, deleting the thumbnail image from the storage; and

wherein the delete event occurs upon determining that an amount of free space in the storage is below a threshold free space value to increase the amount of free space.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising retrieving a stored thumbnail image by a thumbnail identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving requests for the thumbnail image;

storing a timestamp of a receive request associated with the thumbnail image; and

returning the thumbnail image.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thumbnail expiration event further comprises determining a last access of the thumbnail image was prior to a threshold expiration value.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thumbnail expiration event further comprises determining that a time the thumbnail image was last accessed was prior to a time that another thumbnail image was accessed.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

associating the thumbnail image with a media type in accord with a category associated with the media file; and

wherein marking the thumbnail image for deletion, further comprises, marking the thumbnail image for deletion in accordance with the media type.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the category associated with the media file is at least one of text, audio, video frame, a plurality of video frames, live programming, media provider, media creator, still image and interactive content.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

scanning the media file;

extracting a raw thumbnail image from the scanned media;

processing the raw thumbnail image; and

creating the thumbnail image from the processed raw thumbnail image.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the processing of the raw thumbnail image comprises at least one of scaling, cropping and rotating.

10. An electronic device, comprising:

a storage;

a processor;

wherein the storage contains a thumbnail associated with a media file;

wherein the processor automatically marks the thumbnail for deletion upon a determination that an expiration event occurred, the expiration event being different from a delete event and wherein the expiration event comprises a determination that the associated media file has been deleted from the storage; and

wherein the processor detects an occurrence of the delete event and, in response thereto, deletes the marked thumbnail; and

wherein the delete event occurs upon determining that an amount of free space in the storage is below a threshold free space value to increase the amount of free space.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processor further retrieves the thumbnail upon receiving a request associated with an identifier associated with the thumbnail.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processor further automatically marks the thumbnail for deletion upon the determination that the expiration event occurred wherein the expiration event is associated with a category of the media file.

13. The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein marking the thumbnail for deletion, further comprises, marking the thumbnail for deletion in accordance with a media type of the media file.

14. The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the processor further:

scans the media file;

extracts a raw thumbnail image from the scanned media;

processes the raw thumbnail image; and

performs the creating of the thumbnail from the processed raw thumbnail image.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the processing of the raw thumbnail image comprises at least one of scaling, cropping and rotating.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions thereon to cause a computer to perform:

creating a thumbnail image associated with a media;

storing a thumbnail image in a storage associated with an electronic device;

associating the thumbnail image with the media;

upon an occurrence of a thumbnail expiration event, marking the thumbnail image for deletion, wherein the thumbnail expiration event comprises deletion of the associated media; and

upon an occurrence of a delete event different from the thumbnail expiration event, deleting the thumbnail image; and

wherein the delete event occurs upon determining that an amount of free space in the storage is below a threshold free space value to increase the amount of free space.

17. The medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to retrieve a stored thumbnail image by a thumbnail identifier.

18. The medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:

receive a request for the thumbnail image;

store a timestamp of the receive request associated with the thumbnail image; and

return the thumbnail image.

19. The medium of claim 16 , wherein marking the thumbnail image for deletion, further comprises, marking the thumbnail image for deletion in accordance with a media type of a media file.

20. The medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:

scan the media;

extract a raw thumbnail image from the scanned media;

process the raw thumbnail image; and

perform the creating of the thumbnail image from the processed raw thumbnail image.