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FrancescaSF
Inspiring
April 23, 2025
Question

Big problem with .psd thumbnails in Sequoia 15.4.1

  • April 23, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 1466 views

I'm having a big problem with some .psd thumbnails displaying weirdly now that I've installed Sequoia. I'm on a MacBook Pro 14-inch 2021 M1 running Sequoia 15.4.1. The thumbnails look very strange.  Many have white grid overlays that don't exist in the document, others are plain white, others show every single layer in the document in a mishmash. Some are OK, however, I think it may be file-size linked or maybe linked to the number of layers? My old file thumbnails look fine but the moment I open or use a file some of the thumbnails regenerate and look terrible. In case it means anything, I also can't use the spacebar preview to see what's in those files or compare them as of Sequoia 15.4.1. This is so bad for my workflow as a graphic artist that I may downgrade my Mac OS (already tried downgrading Photoshop and that didn't help even when resaving files.)

There's always been a problem with .psd display for files with channel masks (I wish there was a way to specify I didn't want channel masks whited out in the thumbnail.) But this is different as many of these files don't have channel masks. Help please!!

6 replies

Dave the 1st
Dave the 1st
Participant
November 10, 2025

Yeah i'm having a similar issue since upgrading to Sequoia 15.7.1 on MBP 16" M4 PRO. Not always, but most of the time I just get the generic PSD icon, instead of theumbnail preview.

    Anshul_Saini
    Community Manager
    Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 12, 2025

    Hi @FrancescaSF,

     

    I’m genuinely sorry. I intended to reply via DM, but accidentally posted the response and the thumbnail publicly. I have removed the thumbnails from my previous response. That was my mistake, and I completely understand your concern. Thank you for flagging it.

     

    Since the files display correctly in the new user account, the issue seems tied to your main user profile’s environment. I’d recommend doing a clean reinstall of Photoshop using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool:  https://adobe.ly/4jTQLOL

    Also, be sure to manually back up your preferences before doing so, just in case: https://adobe.ly/3F4PEfU

     

    Let me know how that goes.

     

    Best,
    Anshul Saini

    F
    FrancescaSFAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 11, 2025

    Huh. And my last visible reply resulted when I clicked on "Reply to this message" in my email, which did not specify that it would be posted publically in the forum either, so things are a little confused there overall. I think I've now PMed you correctly, but I can't seem to delete the earlier message. Ah well.

    F
    FrancescaSFAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 29, 2025

    Yeah, not sure why it's giving me this trouble but it's continuing to do so with the files I've worked in today so it's an ongoing issue. I've never had trouble with QuickLook before FWIW even with giant files and I regularly work in giant Adobe files.

      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      April 30, 2025

      Clearly, this issue is impacting your efficiency and confidence when navigating your work, and I’m sorry you’re facing this issue. While I’m not seeing the same thumbnail behavior on my test machine with the files provided, I absolutely believe your experience, especially since this also persists with newly created files.

       

      If you could share one of the files that exactly matches the behavior in your screenshots, that would be incredibly helpful for us to reproduce the issue more precisely and escalate it if needed.
      Also, can you create a new admin user account (https://adobe.ly/4jV584H) and install fresh Phtooshop there to check if this issue is not specific to your user profile.

       

      Thanks again for your persistence and clarity.

       

      Best,

      Anshul Saini

      F
      FrancescaSFAuthor
      Inspiring
      May 11, 2025
      Hi Anshul -- I'm happy to give you more files to track down the
      problem but I believe I mentioned those files were confidential and
      you posted the thumbnails in an open forum, which makes me reluctant
      to send you further files. Please remove the images from those posts.
      I did set up a new user account and the files display fine there.
      What's the process to track down what's wrong in the other account?
      Francesca
      F
      FrancescaSFAuthor
      Inspiring
      April 24, 2025

      I've PMed you with files, thank you

      F
      FrancescaSFAuthor
      Inspiring
      April 28, 2025
      Just checking in to see if you've had a chance to look at the files.
      Almost everything I save that has layers is currently saving terribly
      and I'm realizing how much I rely on those thumbnails to pick which
      files I'm going into and even to assess and compare compositions at
      small sizes. VERY difficult to know which version to open with no
      visual cues. This has been a problem with a long time for .psb files
      and I reported that a long time ago (and they acknowledged it was a
      bug) but now with .psd files displaying incorrectly I'm in real
      trouble.
      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      April 28, 2025

      Thanks so much for checking back! I’m also testing this on an M1 MacBook, and just to share, the thumbnails on my end look fine for the sample files you sent over. That said, the files you shared are a little different from the ones shown in your screenshots earlier, so I can’t 100% confirm the exact same behavior yet.

       

      As for the spacebar quick preview issue, it does seem to stand, and could very likely be related to file size or the complexity of the layers inside. Larger or more complex PSDs sometimes trip up macOS’s Quick Look.

       

      Thanks again for your patience.

       

      Best,

      Anshul Saini

      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      April 23, 2025

      Hi Francesca,

       

      Thanks for sharing the details. This behavior has been noticed before, and based on earlier findings, it may be related to how macOS handles PSD thumbnails and previews. That said, I’d be happy to recheck and confirm with the product team.

       

      If you’re comfortable with it, could you share a sample file that shows the thumbnail issue? You can upload it via Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, or a similar service, and either post the link here or send it to me via DM if it’s confidential. This would help us look into it more closely and raise it with Apple if needed.

       

      I appreciate you reaching out. Once I raise this, I will be happy to keep you posted with any updates from the product team.

       

      Best,
      Anshul Saini

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