Photo thumbnail icon changing to JPEG Preview icons

Question

Level 2

248 points

Photo thumbnail icon changing to JPEG Preview icons

Being a designer I use photos a lot and have lots of folders of them containing lots of pix. Usually I can see what the photo is from the thumbnail in the folder, especially if I change the 'view icon size' to large. It saves a lot of time being able to do this as it means I don't have to open up the image to see what it is.

HOWEVER sometimes the photo loses it's 'picture' and becomes just an icon with the Preview application symbol with the word Jpeg on it. This is very annoying as it means to find the picture i'm looking for I will sometimes have to open in preview all the pictures which takes a long time as they are very large files.

I'm especially noticing this in the photos I've copied across to my external hard-drive, and it seems to have no rhyme or reason ie Picture IMG-2734.JPG is a miniature of the photo itself, so I can see what it is, yet Picture IMG-2735.JPG taken the same day has become the JPEG Preview icon so I can't see what it is - hope I'm explaining this OK....

Does anyone know if I can get back the 'picture' icon? If so how?

Posted on Oct 31, 2005 11:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

LSF

Level 2

335 points

Nov 1, 2005 6:05 AM in response to Kathykate

Open a folder, hit command j and click on show icon preview.

Reply

Answer 2

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 6:17 AM in response to LSF

It's already checked!

Any other ideas?

Reply

Answer 3

LSF

Level 2

335 points

Nov 1, 2005 6:28 AM in response to Kathykate

You can try relaunching Finder, and/or trashing finder preferences. Also, if you've got a lot of JPEGs in a folder, and a slow system, it can take awhile to load all the image icons. How much free space do you have on your HD?

Reply

Answer 4

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 7:14 AM in response to LSF

On my mac I have 13.2GB available, on the external HD partition where a lot of the pix are stored there's 113.6GB available. It happens so randomly, and on both the mac and the ext HD. I have one folder of tiffs where all the images have become the unseeable Preview icon, another folder of tiffs where all the images icons are still seeable, and a folder full of jpegs where some are seeable and some are the unseeable icon.

I'd love to get it sorted....

Reply

Answer 5

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 7:16 AM in response to Kathykate

ps where exactly are my finder prefs?

Reply

Answer 6

LSF

Level 2

335 points

Nov 1, 2005 7:26 AM in response to Kathykate

Finder preferences are in the user's Library preference folder. Look for com.apple.finder.plist. Sometimes relaunching Finder will also correct screwy icons. You can also try repairing permissions and clearing caches with Onyx or Cocktail. When you do a Get Info on these icons, what default apps open them. Did you create these yourself and if you open and save them again, does that change anything?

Reply

Answer 7

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 7:36 AM in response to LSF

Preview is set as the default to open both the ones that have the icon and those that don't so no clues there. Interestingly I just did an experimental resave of one bum one and now I can see it again! Can't go and do that to all the bum ones though, too many. Gotta go out now but will do other stuff mentioned and get back to you later.

Thanks for input

Reply

Answer 8

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 1:42 PM in response to LSF

OK good news mostly sorted! Somewhere between chucking the finder prefs and doing a clean/repair in Onyx something changed. After doing one of the above I again did Apple j and noticed that the view icon was no longer checked (it definitely was before) so I checked it and one by one my pictures started reappearing!! Fantastic!!

I say mostly sorted because there is one annoying thing. Some of them still haven't appeared. The weird thing is that when I do an apple j on these folders, I get a different set of options, no sliding bar to change size of icon, just either small or large, and there is no 'view icon' to check.

On all the ones which are fine I do apple j and get a sliding bar to change size of icon and an option to check 'view icon'. Hence they are working. Peculiar.... any ideas? Still it's tons better than it was! So thanks.

Reply

Answer 9

LSF

Level 2

335 points

Nov 1, 2005 2:17 PM in response to Kathykate

All Finder windows should have the same view options. Make sure Finder is shown in the Menu bar when you hit command-J. Those problem files could be corrupt. Try open them up to see if they're okay. You can try dragging them into a new folder to see if that helps.

When you clean your system with Onyx, make sure all apps are closed and then be sure to restart your machine. If need be, trash the finder preferences again and relaunch the Finder.

Reply

Answer 10

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 1, 2005 2:39 PM in response to LSF

OK all finder windows should be the same but they are not! But anyway, I seem to have sorted it. As you suggested I created new folders and dragged the problem pics out of the problem folders (with the dodgy finder windows) and into the new ones. Now the finder window on the new folders are 'good' ie have the 'show icon preview' checkbox and sliding icon size bar, and the missing pics are reappearing. Cheers for the help!

Reply

Answer 11

LSF

Level 2

335 points

Nov 2, 2005 12:42 AM in response to Kathykate

Glad everything worked out.

I failed to mention this, but the finder window must be set to icon view. If you have it set to list or column view, the viewng options will be different.

Reply

Answer 12

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 2, 2005 2:42 AM in response to LSF

Ack! That's what it was - the dud folders were set to view in list format. When I changed them to view icon they were fine.

Still a weird thing though that only some (about an eight) of my pix were affected.

But thanks once again, you don't know how much time this will save me!

Reply