Sony .ARW RAW thumbnails not showing in Finder

There is Catalina (10.15.4) camera raw support for the A7R IV ARW files. I just opened one in Preview, though the default application is set to Affinity Publisher which prevents Finder from showing the image. To show the image in the Finder, one must right-click on the image and select Get Info. Then scroll down the Get Info panel to the Open With section, and change the default application to Preview. Then click through the Change All… button.

When I download a RAW A7R IV image, it appears as an Affinity Photo icon (but not the actual image) in my Downloads folder. When I change that default opening application to Preview, and continue through the Change All… button. The image remains an Affinity Photo icon. When I switch away from the Downloads folder, and then back again, the Finder shows the camera raw image as the icon.

Whether I then open the file in Preview, or Affinity Photo is secondary to getting the Finder to display the actual image in the icon, which I achieved. Simply dealing with the FInder as it is presently implemented.

About This Mac > System Report… > Software > Raw Support.

Hi Mark Rosher,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! I see you have a question about photo previews when importing photos from your new camera. I'll be happy to help out.

For this issue, you'll need to contact the camera manufacturer, as to why this is happening and if they have a different viewer than the ARW viewer that you can use with a Mac. Make sure it's 64-bit, as 32-bit apps are not compatible with macOS Catalina.

I did find Sony's main page, so hopefully that can get you started. Sony

Take care!

In MacOS the Finder not being able to display the thumbnail for various RAW formats is an issue that shows up regularly with every release of the OS (over the years it hasn't been limited to only Sony files). When I first upgraded to Catalina the thumbnails for the Sony A7Riv were showing properly within Finder and disappeared recently; I'm not sure if it was caused by the latest upgrade to 10.15.4 or not. I think it is time for Apple to put some concerted effort into this and not leave it to this support community to try to resolve the issue.

I have the same issue. The files display in the Finder Preview Pane but the icons are generic.

One thing I noticed is, on two of my iMacs, Raw Support lists "Sony Alpha ILCE-7RM4" and not "Sony Alpha ILCE-7R IV" as I suspect it should.

Thanks ... I took a look and my system also lists "Sony Alpha ILCE-7RM4"; that matches the EXIF data from the RAW file where the camera is listed as "ILCE-7RM4"; which should be good news as far as getting the naming the same.

It is only on the web page at "https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT210191" that the model is listed as "Sony Alpha ILCE-7R IV" so that shouldn't be as critical.

This is support that Apple provides in OS X; the Sony A7Riv is listed in Apple's listing of supported camera formats.

Thanks VikingOSX ... in my case the thumbnails showed as a "DxO PL" icon because I use DxO Photolab. When I change the "open with" to Preview and relaunched Finder I just get the default Finder icon and not a miniature of the image.

It's nice to know your icon displays the image as I'm certain that when I first upgraded to Catalina I was also seeing the image in the icon. Are you running 10.15.4?

This is only useful in launching Preview when you double click on the image icon; it doesn't affect the display of the preview thumbnail that is supposed to show up in Finder.

dialabrain ... where on you iMacs where you able to find the Raw Support List?

You're welcome. I checked a third Mac running Catalina with the same result. I also checked a Mojave virtual machine. Same problem. No idea what the issue is.