Macbook Pro Preview app copying files results in duplicates

rag001 wrote:

Note# I get below message after pasting it.. so it is trying to past the image twice...

How are you triggering the paste command?

A mouse can occasionally 'click twice' as they become old. Keyboards can do similar odd things sometimes.

Try using an alternate method to paste such as…

1. command + v
2. Edit menu > Paste
3. Right click (or ctrl+click) > Paste Item
4. Also try opening the Edit menu, navigate to the Paste command via the arrow keys hit return to apply the paste command.

Does the exact same thing happen with all of those methods?

If it is consistent then something in the OS is probably causing it. If it is inconsistent it may be some strange rapid double click or other hardware issue.

6. You can also check if it happens in safe mode - that can rule out third party software.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

I went back to El Capitan to figure this out. First thing I figured out was you had to make sure the thumbnail was selected and not the actual image (which is what I was doing), when you press command+c. From there you could press command+v to paste it somewhere.

In High Sierra, that no longer works and you run into the problem you are seeing. I would say it's a bug.

You can either Save the file you want where you want or drag the thumbnail to where you want it.

That sounds like a bug. Not in a position right now to try to test and reproduce, but I'd use Feedback - macOS - Apple to let Apple know.

tt2

I'm somewhat confused. You shouldn't be able to paste an image from the clipboard directly into a folder. If I try that I don't get a dialog I just get a warning sound and nothing happens, which is as it should be.

What you should be doing is Saving the file. Or do you not mean Preview but Quick Look?

Try it with a different file in Preview.

Some files may contain multiple images such as animated GIF's or icons. I don't know why a jpeg would do that but perhaps it is malformed etc.

Here's my theory. The user is browsing photos using Quick Look, which if you Copy an image, it actually copies the file unlike Preview. Then when trying to Paste it, there can be a delay before the file shows up. Thinking the Paste didn't work, the user hits paste again, which would bring up the dialog box since the file is actually being written despite not being visible yet.

It's all I can come up with. One thing is certain, you cannot paste anything you copied in Preview to a folder or desktop.

What might also be relevant here is the source of the image before it is viewed in Preview. I've just tried opening a .jpg from Finder with Preview and I can save, duplicate, or export without running into your error. 😕

tt2

You’re welcome. 🙂

I’ll see I can replicate this myself later.

tt2

Got it now. In my case I get two images pasted, one with a trailing 2 in the filename.

I'll send some feedback of my own.

tt2