Finder won't show icon previews of my items.

Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Also have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?

We can't do anything about it because we're all users like yourself. Apple engineers do not frequent these forums.

All we can do is suggest various procedures that might correct whatever wrong with your setup.

Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Any improvement. If not download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine what might be causing the problem.

If you want to tell Apple about your problem either use the phone no. at the bottom of this page or do it at Feedback - macOS - Apple.  

Get back to us on this two procedures and we'll start looking into what might be the problem.

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?

Boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to nearly twice as long as a normal boot as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

What do you have in your Photoshop preferences for Saving Files. This screenshot is from Photoshop Elements but Photoshop should have something equivalent:

If all else fails give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support and see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and check again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Hi B_Lars,

We understand that you're unable to see preview icons when using Finder. Are you seeing the preview pane at all when you select a file or folder? Let us know this helps: Use the Preview pane in the Finder on Mac

Regards.

Hello B_Lars ,

Do you have the same issue if you use a different user account? You can create a new Admin account to test this behavior. Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

If you experience this in a different user, let's start up your Mac in safe mode as it prevernts your Mac from loading certain software. Starting in safe mode will take a little longer than normal, because it verifies and repairs the directory, cleans caches, and loads only Apple-critical items. You can see How to use safe mode on your Mac.

Take care.

Hey everyone - SOLUTION FOUND!

It was in another thread with this same issue - an answer by berlindavedsg

Nov 27, 2020 10:47 PM in response to jrlombard

I think I solved this. It was a problem in Dropbox syncing and not my other files. Switch your Sync preferences in your Dropbox preferences from online to local. Then the files will be available in Preview. You will see the green checkmark beside each file in your Finder that will confirm the process has completed.

Thank you for these instructions. I realize that my complaints will not reach Apple. I'm just so frustrated about why they give us a new system with a feature I've used for 20 years that's important and no excuse for making a new system that removes important abilities. Apple did not say this is an experiment. They gave me confidence to install the system.

keith-o wrote:

Luis, we used to have previews on all cloud files before moving Big Sur.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I just opened my iCloud Drive, and... my image files do have previews... well maybe these are stored locally as well.

My "show icon preview" is checked, but I am still not seeing any icon previews. This is what I get. One of them is an actual preview. the rest aren't. What good are these forums if the Apple techs don't check them to see what problems are? Is there place to tell them about problems tag they actually check?

Why do people seem to believe that Apple is going out of their way to make their custom's lifes harder?

I understand that not seeing icon previews on an external drive is extremely inconvenient, but it is not a deliberate decision, nor a feature that was removed from Big Sur.

It is working just fine on my mac - see:

So, as usual, before you ask why, ask if.

There is definitely something to troubleshoot.

Yeah, graphic designer here too and I have to search visually for files all the time. I used to be able to search a file and have a glorious field of preview icons come up for me to look though. Now, it's just a bunch of file type icons. Not at all what I expect on a brand new M1 Mac Mini running the latest Big Sur.

Good thing I was able to retain my old workstation from freaking 2009 running El Capitan where I CAN search the way I'm supposed to be.

No trouble at all seeing icon previews of pdf, png, jpg, txt, py, Pages, even Work and Excel, etc.

There is something that is not working for some users, and obviously it's supposed to work.

There is no Apple conspiracy, and it has nothing to do with iCloud.

One may try to troubleshoot, instead of ranting.

Incidentally, and probably not coincidentally, it seems that all the ones that are not working are from Adobe software, or are set to open with Adobe, like your pdf files. This suggests that something in the Adobe applications results in not having the icon previews. I can't test that, because I don't have those applications.

In answer to the first questions, nope, nothing loaded that didn't come through the App Store.

And yes, I just tried launching in Safe mode, opened a folder in Finder and this is what I see... JPEGs are fine but all RAW files are as shown