quicktime files only show up as icons, not as thumbnails in my files

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Level 1

8 points

quicktime files only show up as icons, not as thumbnails in my files

None of my quicktime files appear as thumbnails (in their folder), even though I have selected 'show icon preview' in the view options menu. I would love to see the first frame of the video clip to help sort my clips.

I've tried posting this question in the quicktime formum with no response. I'm hoping someone can assist me with this. I would also be amenable to posting it in a more appropriate forum, if someone has such a suggestion. Please advise. Thank you in advance.

Fredsel

iMac5,1, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 7, 2008 10:49 AM

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Answer 1

fredsel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2008 5:56 AM in response to John Potts

John,
I tried that and the file does not change to a thumbnail.

I must comfess, however, that I just discovered that I was in error when I said that the files that are in my temporary folder and now show up as thumbnails were copied from one of my folders. They were actually video clips that I copied from a disc which my friend sent me -- he took them with the exact same camera that I have, imported them to his mac, copied them to cd, sent them to me and I copied them to my computer where they show up as thumbnails. So apparently, having come from his mac they were 'formated' in such a way as to show up as thumbnails on my computer----

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Answer 2

fredsel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 8, 2008 7:37 PM in response to I-love-my-macbook

I trashed the file apple.quicktimeplayer.plist and then repaired permissions and my quicktime files still show up as the quicktime icon, rather than the first clip of the video. Any other suggestions? Or other forums that would be appropriate for this (other than quicktime, which I have tried to no avail)?

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Answer 3

John Potts

Level 4

3,118 points

Dec 9, 2008 6:36 AM in response to fredsel

Mine are mixed - some QT files show as icons, some as thumbnails. The same is true of .wmv files and other formats - some do, some don't.

I have a feeling this may be related to a long-standing problem with the way OSX generates/displays file icons. I'm no expert at all, but I think that it has to do with the data contained in the resource forks. However, I am fully open to correction on this.

Advice elsewhere in these Discussions suggests trashing the Launch Services plist and restarting or logging out/in: see below for a suggestion I found in another topic.

delete the file: homedirectory/library/preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist and log out/in

I've just tried this myself, and it did not appear to work for me - it apparently fixed just one file and not the rest. However, when I did "get info" on the unchanged files and used edit/cut on the file icon, it then changed the QT icon into a thumbnail.

This may have nothing to do with trashing the LaunchServices plist, but I suspect it might as this didn't happen when I tried cutting the icons earlier. However, it doesn't seem to help with other applications (eg vlc).

Message was edited by: John Potts

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Answer 4

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Dec 9, 2008 10:15 PM in response to fredsel

fredsel wrote:
None of my quicktime files appear as thumbnails (in their folder), even though I have selected 'show icon preview' in the view options menu. I would love to see the first frame of the video clip to help sort my clips.

create a new user account and see if it works there. does it?

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Answer 5

fredsel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2008 2:13 AM in response to V.K.

John- I trashed the homedirectory/library/preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist and restarted computer. Still no thumbnails

I love my macbook-None of these are HD movies, they are all .MOV files, video clips created by using the video function on my panasonic lumix still camera- about as simple as a video can get

V.K.-I created a new 'test' account, logged in, imported a video clip, still no thumbnails.

Just to be clear with everyone, when I open the folder that my clips are in I see the quicktime icon ( a blue Q with 'the word 'movie' under it, instead of the first frame of the video clip, as I used to see a couple of years ago when I had a windows based computer. This is the same for all clips, old and new. I did upgrade to quicktime pro sometime over the last couple of years, nothing changed when I did that-----

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Answer 6

fredsel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2008 2:22 AM in response to fredsel

Ok folks,
Something bizarre to report. I just went to clean up my desktop, went to delete a temporary folder of quicktime clips that I had copied to this folder while making an imovie, looked in the folder before deleting it to make sure of what was in it, and voila!! The clips in this folder had converted to thumbnails. (I ended up keeping this folder of clips for the moment, in case I can get some info from them that might solve this mystery)

However, all of my other clips, including the original clips that I had copied these from, remain as icons

Weird------

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Answer 7

John Potts

Level 4

3,118 points

Dec 10, 2008 5:09 AM in response to fredsel

I've noticed that thumbnails sometimes don't show until the file in question has its location changed - this is true for any file/application and not specifically to QT and .mov files.

Try this as an experiment: locate a QT .mov file that doesn't display as a thumbnail, then drag this file to your desktop. Does it now generate a thumbnail?

Just a thought.

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