diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.tsx b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.tsx
index 990510ac7a..1edbe83d31 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.tsx
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.tsx
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ interface IState {
     selected: boolean;
     notificationsMenuPosition: PartialDOMRect;
     generalMenuPosition: PartialDOMRect;
+    messagePreview?: string;
 }
 
 const messagePreviewId = (roomId: string) => `mx_RoomTile_messagePreview_${roomId}`;
@@ -123,6 +124,9 @@ export default class RoomTile extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
             selected: ActiveRoomObserver.activeRoomId === this.props.room.roomId,
             notificationsMenuPosition: null,
             generalMenuPosition: null,
+
+            // generatePreview() will return nothing if the user has previews disabled
+            messagePreview: this.generatePreview(),
         };
 
         ActiveRoomObserver.addListener(this.props.room.roomId, this.onActiveRoomUpdate);
@@ -157,13 +161,13 @@ export default class RoomTile extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
         // Whenever a prop change happens (or our parent updates) we can get told to update too. Try
         // to minimize that by seeing if anything actually changed.
         if (objectHasValueChange(this.props, nextProps)) {
-            console.log(`DIFF_PROPS@${this.props.room.roomId}`, objectDiff(this.props, nextProps));
+            console.log(`DIFF_PROPS@${this.props.room.roomId}`, JSON.stringify(objectDiff(this.props, nextProps)));
             return true;
         }
 
         // Do the same for state
         if (objectHasValueChange(this.state, nextState)) {
-            console.log(`DIFF_STATE@${this.props.room.roomId}`, objectDiff(this.state, nextState));
+            console.log(`DIFF_STATE@${this.props.room.roomId}`, JSON.stringify(objectDiff(this.state, nextState)));
             return true;
         }
 
@@ -181,10 +185,19 @@ export default class RoomTile extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
 
     private onRoomPreviewChanged = (room: Room) => {
         if (this.props.room && room.roomId === this.props.room.roomId) {
-            this.forceUpdate(); // we don't have any state to set, so just complain that we need an update
+            // generatePreview() will return nothing if the user has previews disabled
+            this.setState({messagePreview: this.generatePreview()});
         }
     };
 
+    private generatePreview(): string | null {
+        if (!this.showMessagePreview) {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        return MessagePreviewStore.instance.getPreviewForRoom(this.props.room, this.props.tag);
+    }
+
     private scrollIntoView = () => {
         if (!this.roomTileRef.current) return;
         this.roomTileRef.current.scrollIntoView({
@@ -520,18 +533,12 @@ export default class RoomTile extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
         name = name.replace(":", ":\u200b"); // add a zero-width space to allow linewrapping after the colon
 
         let messagePreview = null;
-        if (this.showMessagePreview) {
-            // The preview store heavily caches this info, so should be safe to hammer.
-            const text = MessagePreviewStore.instance.getPreviewForRoom(this.props.room, this.props.tag);
-
-            // Only show the preview if there is one to show.
-            if (text) {
-                messagePreview = (
-                    <div className="mx_RoomTile_messagePreview" id={messagePreviewId(this.props.room.roomId)}>
-                        {text}
-                    </div>
-                );
-            }
+        if (this.showMessagePreview && this.state.messagePreview) {
+            messagePreview = (
+                <div className="mx_RoomTile_messagePreview" id={messagePreviewId(this.props.room.roomId)}>
+                    {this.state.messagePreview}
+                </div>
+            );
         }
 
         const nameClasses = classNames({