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12

.eps files not showing preview in finder

Community Beginner ,
Feb 04, 2022 Feb 04, 2022

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?

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Bug , Performance
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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Contributor , Nov 09, 2022 Nov 09, 2022

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>"
...
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Contributor ,
Jun 13, 2023 Jun 13, 2023

I use Visual Studio Code, try downloading that. 

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Participant ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

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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Community Expert ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

@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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Explorer ,
Oct 31, 2023 Oct 31, 2023

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

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Contributor ,
Oct 31, 2023 Oct 31, 2023

I have the same issue now with Sonoma

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Community Expert ,
Oct 31, 2023 Oct 31, 2023

Sonoma doesn't support EPS anymore. At all.

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Contributor ,
Oct 31, 2023 Oct 31, 2023

Thanks, I've begun batch converting my vector EPS files to AI.

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New Here ,
Nov 29, 2023 Nov 29, 2023

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

🙏🏼💫

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New Here ,
Dec 18, 2023 Dec 18, 2023

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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Community Expert ,
Dec 18, 2023 Dec 18, 2023
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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Community Beginner ,
Jul 25, 2024 Jul 25, 2024

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

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New Here ,
Dec 19, 2024 Dec 19, 2024

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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Contributor ,
Nov 14, 2025 Nov 14, 2025

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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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 21, 2025 Nov 21, 2025

Hello @Juan Cano,

 

I understand how annoying it can be to deal with EPS files when the previews simply won't display. I conducted a test on my end using Illustrator 30.0, and the previews are showing up correctly for me in Finder, so I would like to know what might be different in your configuration. Could you please confirm the exact version of Illustrator you are using, along with the macOS version on your system? It would also be helpful if you could provide a screenshot of the export settings you apply when saving the EPS file or, even better, a brief screen recording that captures your entire workflow from saving the file to viewing it in Finder. Once I have that information, I can investigate this further.

 

I look forward to your response.

Abhishek

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Contributor ,
Nov 21, 2025 Nov 21, 2025

Thank you; I'm on an MacBook M4 Max with Sequoia 15.6.1. Using Illustrator 30.0.

 

The EPS, I don't save files as EPS. I download EPS vector files from my Getty Images subscription. None of these have a thumbnail. (See screenshot).

Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 4.13.56 PM.png

 

Just for fun, I opened one of those EPS and saved as an Illustrator EPS with the settings that are in the screenhot. Still no preview.  See below.

Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 4.15.16 PM.pngScreenshot 2025-11-21 at 4.15.35 PM.png

 

I mean, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I've used Illustrator since it was literally invented. back when we only used EPS vs. AI files. The EPS thumbnail has been an issue for at least 2 years maybe longer. It's probably a MacOSX problem.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 21, 2025 Nov 21, 2025
LATEST

No solution from the Mac system. Apple stopped displaying EPS and supporting PostScript years ago.

Use Bridge for previewing EPS files, or even better, convert them to .ai or .pdf.

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