Spacebar-preview not working

For Photos Version 4.0, the Return key now opens a photo, or video thumbnail in the Viewer:

pressing the Return key again reverts to thumbnail view.

The Spacebar has been assigned to start playback for videos:

The Spacebar can play & pause a video in the the thumbnail view, or with a video open in the Viewer.

Go to preferences > keyboard > shortcuts > app shortcuts > Photos > and add a shortcut. For Menu Title enter "Open Viewer" and for the keyboard shortcut press the spacebar whilst holding the Fn key. Add another one for "Close Viewer". Problem solved

This will help until you close the application. Once I reopen Photos the same issue appears, the Space-bar will not work. In addition, now the Return-key will not show the photos either. If I remove the shotcut in System Preferences, the Return-key goes back to default.

Thanks so much for posting this, balsa2! I was nearly going out of my mind trying to get QuickLook to work as it used to in Photos after installing Mojave! I was about to post a question in this forum about this when I found this thread... Regards, Ian.

You and me (and millions of others when they update to Mojave) will just have to get used to using the Return key! What really bugs me is that Apple just doesn't inform you of changes like this...at least I can´t find anything about this by googling! Still, at least the space bar now works properly for playing and pausing videos, as balsa2 posted...🙂 Ian.

This kinda takes the left-hand fluidity out of the culling workflow now don't it??

So I have to take my hand off the mouse everytime I want to check out a pic?

APPLE come on! Remember the days when we could configure these beyond belief, and that's what set us apart from the Windoze people

On the other hand, glad to see the new iOS update allows for outright app closing swipe-up without holding down an app LOL win some lose some...

"Did you even think if matching the action of Finder?!"

Why are you asking me? Just to clarify: I don't work for Apple, nor am I a software developer or member of any design team. I'm just a user like you and all the others here. Nobody in any of the Apple Support Communities works for Apple!

I am very disappointed that Apple has made this strange decision. I will be hitting the space bar for a long time as it is still the system standard. I may even get frustrated enough to look for another Photo App. Maybe apple should put an option if you want to use the spacebar for Quicklook in Photos or the unfamiliar out of sync with the system return key.

Click below to let Apple know you're annoyed by the missing spacebar preview in Photos,

www.apple.com/feedback/photos

Have you tried the fix posted by eric and redefined the shortcut?

Changed keyboard shortcuts in Photos 4.0 on Mojave

Glad it's not just me!! Probably the worst decision in Photos history, and a complete waste of the spacebar, ho-hum!!

Apple QC and design team: how about allowing the spacebar when a photo is selected AND start/stop video when a video is selected?

Did you even think if matching the action of Finder?!

Spacebar preview in photos was something I used a lot.

They kept it for desktop previews so ***?

This is annoying.

Thanks very much.. So happy to have this shortcut back in service!!!

Thanks for the clarification. I'm enlightened and my life is complete.