Quick Look not working on Mac Catalina for older PDF files in Finder

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Level 1

132 points

Quick Look not working on Mac Catalina for older PDF files in Finder

I use the Quick Look feature in Mac OS all the time to preview PDF and other file types in the Finder by selecting the file and pressing the Space bar. Since installing Catalina I find that at first, new PDF files work fine in this manner. But as they age, at some point the Quick Look fails and I see a message that nothing is selected. This is what it looks like. But the PDF was selected as it determine it was a PDF at least. If I then open this same file in Preview and close it, then the Quick Look works fine again.

Anyone else seen this? Any solutions? Bug?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 25, 2020 12:18 PM

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Answer 1

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Dec 3, 2020 12:47 PM in response to TeaMan

Hello TeaMan,

Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are unable to use the Quick Look with older PDFs on your Mac. First, try running First Aid on your hard drive with the built in Disk Utility tool, as this can correct simple issues like you're experiencing.

Disk Utility for Mac: Repair a disk using Disk Utility

Next, use safe mode to start up your Mac as it does the following things:

Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
Loads only required kernel extensions
Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
Disables user-installed fonts
Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Log in to your user account and test the issue while in safe mode and then restart normally and test the issue again.

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Graphics performance limited in macOS Recovery, safe mode, or Guest User mode

Cheers!

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Answer 2

Dec 3, 2020 2:24 PM in response to TeaMan

If you cannot open this PDF directly in Preview, then either it has internal formatting that Preview (and Quick Look) cannot process, or it is actually damaged, which would show that particular icon too. If you have the current Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and it too, cannot open the PDF, then damaged is now a foregone conclusion.

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Answer 3

TeaMan Author

Level 1

132 points

Dec 3, 2020 6:11 PM in response to jdo_apple

I ran Disk Utilities Repair Disk and it didn't help. I then rebooted in Safe mode. I then could not access the PDFs I was having issues with. I realized that they are all on box.com and Safe Mode prevents box folder from loading. So maybe this is an issue with box.com services? Keep in mind that when I say old files, they are only weeks old, not months or years. So box is doing something after several weeks of non-use. Opening the PDF in Preview and then closing them seems to resolve the Preview mode for several weeks, then it like goes to sleep and Quick View fails again.

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Quick Look not working on Mac Catalina for older PDF files in Finder

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