diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 60ae5bc2..81f01f9c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -511,7 +511,7 @@ it does static images with Pillow / pyvips / FFmpeg, and uses FFmpeg for video f
 audio files are covnerted into spectrograms using FFmpeg unless you `--no-athumb` (and some FFmpeg builds may need `--th-ff-swr`)
 
 images with the following names (see `--th-covers`) become the thumbnail of the folder they're in: `folder.png`, `folder.jpg`, `cover.png`, `cover.jpg`
-* and, if you enable [file indexing](#file-indexing), all remaining folders will also get thumbnails (as long as they contain any pics at all)
+* and, if you enable [file indexing](#file-indexing), it will also try those names as dotfiles (`.folder.jpg` and so), and then fallback on the first picture in the folder (if it has any pictures at all)
 
 in the grid/thumbnail view, if the audio player panel is open, songs will start playing when clicked
 * indicated by the audio files having the ▶ icon instead of 💾
diff --git a/copyparty/__main__.py b/copyparty/__main__.py
index 6e871d4a..0525671e 100755
--- a/copyparty/__main__.py
+++ b/copyparty/__main__.py
@@ -1138,7 +1138,7 @@ def add_thumbnail(ap):
     ap2.add_argument("--th-poke", metavar="SEC", type=int, default=300, help="activity labeling cooldown -- avoids doing keepalive pokes (updating the mtime) on thumbnail folders more often than \033[33mSEC\033[0m seconds")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-clean", metavar="SEC", type=int, default=43200, help="cleanup interval; 0=disabled")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-maxage", metavar="SEC", type=int, default=604800, help="max folder age -- folders which haven't been poked for longer than \033[33m--th-poke\033[0m seconds will get deleted every \033[33m--th-clean\033[0m seconds")
-    ap2.add_argument("--th-covers", metavar="N,N", type=u, default="folder.png,folder.jpg,cover.png,cover.jpg", help="folder thumbnails to stat/look for; enabling \033[33m-e2d\033[0m will make these case-insensitive, and also automatically select thumbnails for all folders that contain pics, even if none match this pattern")
+    ap2.add_argument("--th-covers", metavar="N,N", type=u, default="folder.png,folder.jpg,cover.png,cover.jpg", help="folder thumbnails to stat/look for; enabling \033[33m-e2d\033[0m will make these case-insensitive, and try them as dotfiles (.folder.jpg), and also automatically select thumbnails for all folders that contain pics, even if none match this pattern")
     # https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/handbook/image-file-formats.html
     # https://github.com/libvips/libvips
     # ffmpeg -hide_banner -demuxers | awk '/^ D  /{print$2}' | while IFS= read -r x; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -h demuxer=$x; done | grep -E '^Demuxer |extensions:'
diff --git a/copyparty/svchub.py b/copyparty/svchub.py
index a6082ef8..1a84ad35 100644
--- a/copyparty/svchub.py
+++ b/copyparty/svchub.py
@@ -405,7 +405,11 @@ class SvcHub(object):
         if al.rsp_jtr:
             al.rsp_slp = 0.000001
 
-        al.th_covers = set(al.th_covers.split(","))
+        zsl = al.th_covers.split(",")
+        zsl = [x.strip() for x in zsl]
+        zsl = [x for x in zsl if x]
+        al.th_covers = set(zsl)
+        al.th_coversd = set(zsl + ["." + x for x in zsl])
 
         for k in "c".split(" "):
             vl = getattr(al, k)
diff --git a/copyparty/up2k.py b/copyparty/up2k.py
index 414f8c1f..32e8685e 100644
--- a/copyparty/up2k.py
+++ b/copyparty/up2k.py
@@ -1165,8 +1165,12 @@ class Up2k(object):
                 files.append((sz, lmod, iname))
                 liname = iname.lower()
                 if sz and (
-                    iname in self.args.th_covers
-                    or (not cv and liname.rsplit(".", 1)[-1] in CV_EXTS)
+                    iname in self.args.th_coversd
+                    or (
+                        not cv
+                        and liname.rsplit(".", 1)[-1] in CV_EXTS
+                        and not iname.startswith(".")
+                    )
                 ):
                     cv = iname
 
@@ -3088,7 +3092,7 @@ class Up2k(object):
                 with self.rescan_cond:
                     self.rescan_cond.notify_all()
 
-        if rd and sz and fn.lower() in self.args.th_covers:
+        if rd and sz and fn.lower() in self.args.th_coversd:
             # wasteful; db_add will re-index actual covers
             # but that won't catch existing files
             crd, cdn = rd.rsplit("/", 1) if "/" in rd else ("", rd)