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No icon preview for eps-files in Monterey

Hi,


Just upgraded from Big Sur to Monterey on my iMac Pro and discovered that all my eps-files doesn't show any icon preview anymore, just a generic eps icon. I have tried to open one of them in the latest Adobe Illustrator 2022 and saved it again - but still no icon preview. Restart doesn't help either!


Is this a bug or am I the only one with this issue?


As an illustrator, this is really frustrating.


/Johnny

iMac Pro

Posted on Oct 28, 2021 10:46 PM

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Posted on Dec 11, 2021 1:34 AM

  1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to your desktop or any other folder you have read/write access to.
  2. Open "Illustrator.qlgenerator" by right clicking it and select "Show package contents".
  3. Open "Info.plist" in the "Contents" folder with a text editor.
  4. Find the line "<string>com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image</string>"
  5. Insert "<string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</string>" below it with the same indentation and save the "Info.plist" file.
  6. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"


If you did everything right, you should now have .EPS previews back again. That's a workaround until apple fixes it in the System/Library, hopefully soon.


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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 11, 2021 1:34 AM in response to Johnny R.

  1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to your desktop or any other folder you have read/write access to.
  2. Open "Illustrator.qlgenerator" by right clicking it and select "Show package contents".
  3. Open "Info.plist" in the "Contents" folder with a text editor.
  4. Find the line "<string>com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image</string>"
  5. Insert "<string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</string>" below it with the same indentation and save the "Info.plist" file.
  6. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"


If you did everything right, you should now have .EPS previews back again. That's a workaround until apple fixes it in the System/Library, hopefully soon.


Nov 28, 2021 12:28 PM in response to etresoft

OK. I give up. I have a new app that needs a lot of icons. I think I may have many of these icons in some of my old clip art, much of which is in eps files. I tried using a couple of different 3rd party apps, but they didn't seem to have any Quick Look previews.


So, I carried through with my threat, more or less. I wrote a little app that does nothing but open eps files and preview them. I have neither the time nor inclination to setup a payment system, so this is a free app.


Alas, the Apple Support Communities Use Agreement does not allow me to post links to my own apps, free or not. Anyone who wants the app will have to find me and e-mail me for the link. But once you have the link, you are free to post it here. I'm the only one who can't post the link.


Dec 11, 2021 9:50 AM in response to Riuma

That's why you have to copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to somewhere accessible, like your user's desktop.


Once you've made the edits in the PLIST, copy the complete "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook" to enable it for all users. Do NOT try to paste it in "/System/Library/QuickLook"! This folder is locked, as it should be.


If you only want to enable this QuickLook Generator for your user, copy it to "~/Library/QuickLook"

Dec 11, 2021 10:05 AM in response to Johnny R.

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 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


Jan 8, 2022 12:31 AM in response to Kurthis

I haven't updated Monterey recently but I discovered that the Illustrator.qlgenerator file had disappeared in the Library/Quicklook folder, not sure why but perhaps Adobe removed it when I updated the CC. After re-creating the Illustrator.qlgenerator file again the EPS icons appeared again.


I also found another "solution" to this issue, and that is to rename the .eps extension to .ai. But that's not a viable solution if you have 100 if not 1000 of files.


There's also a guy posting a free app solution, but he is not allowed to share any links to it because of Apples Communities policies. You have to google "etresoft" and send him an email and he will share his own EPS viewer with QuickLook preview. Did that but haven't received any answers yet. Here's the discussion: https://origin-discussions2-jp.apple.com/en/thread/253448931?page=1

Jan 18, 2022 9:06 AM in response to Johnny R.

Johnny R. wrote:

There's also a guy posting a free app solution, but he is not allowed to share any links to it because of Apples Communities policies. You have to google "etresoft" and send him an email and he will share his own EPS viewer with QuickLook preview. Did that but haven't received any answers yet. Here's the discussion: https://origin-discussions2-jp.apple.com/en/thread/253448931?page=1

I've answered all the e-mails I've received. But I haven't gotten very many.


Also note that this restriction only applies to me because I wrote the tool. Anyone else who has the link can post it.

Jan 19, 2022 4:36 AM in response to Johnny R.

Etresoft (who wrote earlier in this thread) was kind enough to share with me the app he created that enables Quicklook for EPS files. It does Quicklook (the preview when you press the space key) but doesn't generate the icon thumbnails. Here's the link, in case anyone else would like to use it:

https://etresoft.org/download/EPSView.zip


Instructions from Etresoft: The QuickLook plug-in is inside the app. All you need to do is copy the app to Applications and run it once. After that, QuickLook in the Finder should start working for EPS files. If it doesn't work at first then try restarting your machine.


Feb 3, 2022 12:30 AM in response to perryschumi

That worked, thank you so much! I sincerely appreciate your support.


  1. In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder, then type /System/Library/QuickLook
  2. Duplicate Illustrator.qlgenerator file to the Desctop and do the edits as described on page 3 of the discussion.
  3. Then go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder, then type /Library/QuickLook, and paste the edited file here.
  4. Restart your computer and EPS previews are back!


(Don't try to click Go + Option to open Library using Finder as QuickLook folder is empty there)

Feb 3, 2022 8:14 AM in response to Johnny R.

Just my two cents on the whole situation...


  • The problem got nothing to do with Adobe's software (as I've got nothing from Adobe installed :D )
  • The problem is, that the correct identifier for EPS files is missing in the .plist of the "Illustrator.quicklook"-Generator, which handles both, previews and QuickLook
  • Renaming EPS files to .ai is no viable solution in my opinion, you create more of a mess than it actually does good. Yes it works, but the EPS file stays an EPS file, no matter the file extension. So you just tricked the system and gave all the EPS' a wrong file extension. Have fun sorting that one out in the future...
  • Everytime there was a system update from Apple for macOS, the edited QuickLook generator file was gone. So keep that in mind, you'll have to do it with every point update again until it get's fixed.
  • The "/Library" confusion: I did use the complete path for every folder, so that it's clear what I'm talking about. You have a "/System" folder (and therein a "Library" folder) in the root of your main volume. That "/System" folder is so to say untouchable, no editing allowed whatsoever, just reading, nothing else, it's the base of your computer... Luckily there is a "/Library" in the root of your main volume too, where you can add and edit things and this "/Library" folder has effect on all users you have on your Mac. And then, there is a "Library" folder for every user as well, which is per default hidden and located in the user's home folder. Everything in there only affects the corresponding user. So you could use that as well to paste the edited QuickLook generator if you only want to affect it a special user.


That's pretty much it for now :D

Mar 2, 2022 8:23 AM in response to Johnny R.

Hi there,


Here is a working solution


  1. Download Quicklook EPS Generator Big Sur version from here : Quicklook EPS
  2. Unzip it
  3. Open your home folder Hard Drive/Users and locate the Library
  4. Locate the folder named QuickLook or create one if the folder is not there
  5. Copy EPS.qlgenerator in that Folder
  6. Open the Terminal and type the following code : sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine add a space after the last "e"
  7. Drag and and drop the EPS.qlgenerator in the Terminal window
  8. Hit Enter on your keyboard
  9. Type in your session password and hit Enter again
  10. Logout and login


EPS preview should work now

Jan 29, 2022 5:01 AM in response to TobyLoxy

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!


I already have the latest version of Bridge installed since I have an active adobe subscription.

However, I can't generate previews for EPS files using Bridge as well...

I can only see the neverending "Generating Thumbnails" dialog text at the bottom left of the window.


Unfortunately, Bridge doesn't fix this EPS preview issue on macOS Monterey either...


Nov 2, 2021 10:15 PM in response to Johnny R.

I have this problem on most of my files too. I use both Google drive and DropBox, I've tried resetting them, I've reset spotlight and relaunched finder.


I can't see .png .jpg .psd . sag . eps .pdf... the only files I can see the icons for are .ai files. The behaviour is the same regardless of the file being stored locally on my HDD or sync'd from my GD or DB.


I only upgraded yesterday and this has killed my productivity, I've depended on this feature for years so don't have a fall back process.

Nov 3, 2021 6:26 AM in response to Johnny R.

macOS Monterey is missing the generator needed to do this. It used to be in `/System/Library/Quicklook` as `EPS.qlgenerator`. Sadly, you can't just copy it over from an existing Catalina installation (I don't have a BigSur handy to try that), as that keeps crashing. Btw. you'd have to put it into `~/Library/Quicklook` as `/System` is not writeable anymore.


I can only assume that Apple had some issues with the generator and thus removed it.

No icon preview for eps-files in Monterey

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