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jenniferk47645559
jenniferk47645559
Participant
Feb 4, 2022 3:11 PM UTC
Answered

Unable to preview .eps files in Finder on macOS

After upgrading to Monterey on my Imac all of my .eps files stopped showing the preview in the finder. This is a huge problem, has this happened to anyone else? Any idea on a fix?

    miss-charlotteCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    Nov 9, 2022 9:05 PM UTC

    Updated to correct final file location:

     

    This in link below worked for me in Monterey/Ventura.

     

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

     

    (https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/qkkvbr/esp_file_preview_gone/)

     

     

    View reply

    89 replies

    francisfeng
    francisfeng
    Participant
    Apr 1, 2026 12:28 AM UTC

    If anyone is still looking for a solution on macOS, there’s an app does exactly this and plus thumbnails in Finder: https://anybox.ltd/eps-preview

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    MojoDesigner
    Participant
    Jun 9, 2026 2:40 PM UTC

    This works great! $7.99 in up to 5 computers! No brainer :-) Thanks so much

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    nooracox
    Participant
    Dec 19, 2024 4:12 PM UTC

    This link helped solve my issue entirely: https://droidwin.com/missing-icon-preview-for-eps-files-in-macos-monterey/

     

    Just using the solution of making edits to and copying  "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to Quicklook didn't fully solve the issue of EPS files not previewing for me. But once I used Fix #2, all of my EPS icons showed previews.

     

    Fix #2 steps are:

     

    1. Bring up the Finder menu and go to Preferences > Advanced.
    2. Then checkmark “Show all filename extensions”.
    3. On the other hand, uncheck “Show warning before changing an extension”.
    4. Now go to the folder where the EPS files are present, then select all EPS files.
    5. After that, perform a right-click and select “Rename…”
       
    6. Rename Finder Items menu will now appear, select Replace Text.
    7. Now under Find, type in EPS, and under Replace with, type in AI.
       
    8. Finally, hit the Rename button and wait for the process to complete.
    9. Once done, check if it fixes the missing icon preview for EPS files in macOS Monterey.
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    Juan Cano
    Juan Cano
    Inspiring
    Nov 14, 2025 7:00 PM UTC

    This solutions didn't work for me; so there is no permanent solve for future EPS? I donwload EPS from stock images all the time. No previews for years. Terrible.

     

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    HeathenHarper
    Known Participant
    Jul 25, 2024 11:44 PM UTC

    This may or may not help. FWIW, I have discovered that the .eps file thumbnails show up in Adobe Bridge.

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    ngarf
    Participant
    Dec 19, 2023 3:10 AM UTC

    miss-charlotte's fix was right. But then I did the recent update and it no longer works. Any new workarounds??? 🙏

     

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    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Dec 19, 2023 7:39 AM UTC
    quote

    miss-charlotte's fix was right. But then I did the recent update and it no longer works. Any new workarounds??? 🙏

     


    By @ngarf

     

    You updated the system? It doesn't support EPS anymore.

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    Miumiu1000
    Participant
    Nov 29, 2023 9:09 AM UTC

    It solved my problem! I did save and copy the illustrator.qlgenerator to my user library and restarted

    🙏💫

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    SECC
    SECC
    Participating Frequently
    Oct 31, 2023 2:07 PM UTC

    I try to do this with Sonoma, but it doesnt works on my unit. Any ideas how to fix it?

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    miss-charlotte
    Inspiring
    Oct 31, 2023 2:41 PM UTC

    I have the same issue now with Sonoma

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      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Oct 31, 2023 3:00 PM UTC

      Sonoma doesn't support EPS anymore. At all.

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      pkazmercyk
      Inspiring
      Jul 16, 2023 1:35 PM UTC

      I have had the same issue for a very long time. The "correct answer" below did not fix the problem for me. How is it possible that Adobe and Apple have let this problem go unsolved for so long? Gonna keep searching for a solution.

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      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Jul 16, 2023 2:12 PM UTC
      @pkazmercyk  schrieb:

      The "correct answer" below did not fix the problem for me. 

       

      That might happen when you do not follow the instructions exactly or maybe you don't have the necessary permissions to do it on your computer.

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      adamd61503058
      adamd61503058
      Participating Frequently
      May 19, 2023 9:22 AM UTC

      I really hope Aple can sort this out, I work across a network, so using Bridge isn't any use to me as I'd need to load everything into memory which is just not going to happen. And not seeing eps previews is very annoying.

       

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      Kate0101
      Participant
      Jun 13, 2023 12:16 AM UTC

      I get to the info.plist in the contents folder but cannot open it with any file.  I get a message that says the file has an error.  Any ideas are greatly appreciated! 

       

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        miss-charlotte
        Inspiring
        Jun 13, 2023 1:01 PM UTC

        I use Visual Studio Code, try downloading that. 

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        Eduard_Reznicek_osobni
        Participant
        Mar 17, 2023 2:48 PM UTC

        The answer is incorrect because it is not possible to copy the file to the quicklook folder. The user does not have rights to do this and it is not possible to get them.

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        j4m1eb
        j4m1eb
        Known Participant
        Mar 17, 2023 3:05 PM UTC

        it's correct and YOU CAN COPY into the correct folder - sorry if you can't make it work but it is correct. 

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        j4m1eb
        j4m1eb
        Known Participant
        Feb 28, 2023 8:30 AM UTC

        Just came back to this post after getting a new Mac Studio and relising that I needed to do this again. Just to say if you follow the instructions it works perfectly. The bit that's easy to get wrong is where you copy the edited file to. It's not the libary you got it from in "Macintosh HD/System/library" but the top level library in "Macintosh HD/library"

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