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User profile for user: skeckulous
skeckulous Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Thumbnails and Quicklook not showing up (only of files opened by Preview app)

Recently switched over to a new to me macbook pro mid 2015 and used a TimeMachine copy from my older laptop. When I opened things up the thumbnails and Quicklook was not showing up but only from items open by Preview app (txt, psd, .doc, etc files show up in both).

Currently just getting the standard icon...


Scoured the forums and tried about 20 different things to no avail. Any thoughts?

Some of the things tried...

  • Finder>View>Show View Option>Show icon Preview (duh... yes this was checked)
  • Delete - ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and relaunch Finder (also full restart of the computer after trying this)
  • Tried something with Dropbox... I forgot...
  • Checked in Safe Mode (nope they don't show up)
  • Checked in another profile (nope)
  • Checked to see what app opens it and did a "Change All" back and forth, back to Preview.
  • Was wondering if it was an issue with encrypting the drive, as I had to re-encrypt, but waited for the HD to fully encrypt (diskutil cs list) and then tried the stuff above again... No luck.
  • This stuff: https://macspro.com/thumbnail-cache-high-sierra/
  • Some sacrifices to various technology gods
  • Didn't check to see if Mercury is in retrograde, because that phrase drives me insane...
  • And then I think my old laptop died after someone got a bit of rubbing alcohol on the keyboard...


Is it just 2020? Should I just wait until the 1st and try again?


Currently running High Sierra - 10.13.6


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 29, 2020 11:37 PM

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7 replies
User profile for user: CarlAVII
CarlAVII
User level: Community Specialist

Dec 31, 2020 5:37 PM in response to skeckulous

Hi there skeckulous,


Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you were trying to transfer your data from your old Mac to your newer Mac and everything but your Preview files has transferred okay. Can you clarify if this issue is only occurring with the thumbnails and Quick Look or if those files aren’t opening or showing at all? What macOS version were you using on your older Mac?


These articles might help:

View and edit files with Quick Look on Mac

Ways to quickly see items in the Finder on Mac

Move your content to a new Mac


We hope this helps!

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User profile for user: skeckulous
skeckulous Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jan 23, 2021 6:16 PM in response to chuck_3rd

For 99% of the icons and images Quick Look shows me the generic Preview Icon (two overlapped pictures with a lens in the right bottom corner) and same thing for all of the Thumbnails.

All information is correct with size, date, etc... But there is no actual preview of the image and no associated image icon for the thumbnails.


Again, for some reason I found literally 4 random jpgs that have proper Quick Looks and Thumbnails associated with the file. They are pretty old files and I'm not sure why... Maybe because they were modified in Photoshop (but honestly that was years ago).


Also all PSD files have proper Thumbnails and Quick Looks, but I'm assuming that's because of how Photoshop formats a file.

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Thumbnails and Quicklook not showing up (only of files opened by Preview app)

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