Illustrator Thumbnail Preview Not Showing Images

[jhgraphicdesign]

I REALLY need someone's help. I bought a new MacBook pro a couple of weeks ago and have had nothing but issues with my Illustrator since. I was running the 2019 version when I switched laptops but have had to downgrade back down to the 2018 version because the 2019 version was so laggy. I'm still having lag issues but it's not as bad. But now I have a new problem. If I search files, whether its in Illustrator or just a finder folder, I used to be able to highlight a file and hit the space bar to see a preview of my artwork, so I could then scroll through the files and open the one I want. Now, I can't see anything other than the Ai logo box. HOW DO I FIX THIS? This is literally costing me so much time as I often need to refer to other jobs for a logo or text.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. [email removed]

[kkthompson]

I was having the same issue as everyone else, but only on one machine, so I did some digging. I found that years ago I’d installed a Quicklook extension in ~/Library/QuickLook called EPSQLPlugin.generator (from back when the Adobe suite didn’t natively support QuickLook). Once I removed that, all was back to normal.

[theohawkins]

Thanks for the info. I tried that option but could not find (in any search or through the thread) the EPSQLPlugin.generator. I am glad it worked for you and thanks for sharing your experience. It does give me clues though--am continuing the quest:)

[kkthompson]

You can also try:

qlmanage -m

in the command line to see what the QuickLook server knows about, and what it's using to generate the previews.

[theohawkins]

Thanks so much:) Forgive my ignorance...What am I looking (or not looking) for? I see only 2 com.adobe generators for ai:

com.adobe.illustrator.ait-template -> /Library/QuickLook/SneakPeek Pro.qlgenerator (1.6.1 (v71))

com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image -> /Users/Theo/Library/QuickLook/DropboxQL.qlgenerator (5)

[kkthompson]

Yeah, you'd be looking for anything that might affect the rendering of the Illustrator icons and previews. It's interesting that Dropbox has one. And I've never heard of SneakPeek Pro.qlgenerator before. In fact, googling for it, this page shows up at the second result. You could always try moving those generators out of their respective Quicklook folders, type:

qlmanage -r

to restart Quicklook and see if things are any better. You can move them back into their  folders if it doesn't help.

[theohawkins]

Surprisingly, removing 2 qlgenerators (including SneakPeek Pro.qlgenerator) seemed to kickstart the ai preview (not icon preview) but am super happy that the preview now works....going to save me a ton of time and not have to switch to Bridge.

Thanks for your useful suggestions. really appreciated.

[threadandbutter]

This worked for me. it was sneakpeekpro causing the issues!

[kyrstenbrooke]

I never got updates - so glad I checked back. Removing sneakpeekpro worked for me as well! Thank you so much for the info!!! 

[bstokes]

I completely forgot about that QuickLook extension. All good now, thanks.

[times.of.grace]

THANK YOU! I've been trying to resolve this issue for ages and this was exactly the solution, and i never would have thought of it had you not mentioned it! Thank you so much.

[Luxury Arrow]

Thank you for this! It fixed it for me.

Make sure you look in the root library (and not like me, the user library)

[shaneb49661340]

My problem was the DropboxQL.qlgenerator. Go to "Go" in finder bar. Press option button to give you the Library option. Go to Library/Quicklook folder and remove DropboxQL.qlgenerator. That fixed it for me. Thanks to those that directed me to this folder. Big time save for me!

[mattclarkradio]

Fixed for me, thank you!

[Guest]

this is the correct answer

[Diego_Disc]

CocothumbX is an app that generates custom icons based on the contents.

Too bad is only for 32bit : (

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17460/cocothumbx

[CumminsLabel]

I had several QuickLook generator files in my Library in the Quicklook folder. I threw them all away and then shut down and restarted my iMac. Gallery view now works as it should. Running Mac OS Catalina and the latest Illy.

[Diego_Disc]

Oh, that's great news.

Please take a look below at the quicklook files I currently have...Maybe you could shine a light on this.

(Without derailing this thread)... There was a time when I also tried to fix quicklook so I could preview Quicktime Animation formatted movies but I could never get that working either.

Thanks,

 

 

 

 

[CumminsLabel]

I would move all of them into a new folder on your desktop. Then quit all apps and restart the Mac. See if Illy now shows the prevew in Gallery mode. If other apps start to give you trouble, move the QL generator files back into the folder they came out of one at a time and restart. That should find the ones you need to move to the trash. IIRC, I only had three in my QL folder, one of which was sneakpeek. I see someone else in this thread got rid of that one and it did the trick.

[johnr74194624]

Oh, wow. I finally just (compressed and) got rid of all the old files in my /Library/QuickLook folder and now suddenly the AI previews word, as does QuickLook (via pressing the spacebar) -- wonderful to have all this back -- hope this helps a few others of you!!

[sniff1812]

Simply place the file containing the Ai images into Adobe Bridge and you can view them in Bridge.

[NewtonUY]

After many months of trying different methods, I finally solved it by deleting old versions of Illustrator.

[100pk]

I found this thread for the same reason: no prevoews on .ai files.

After updateing to Illustrator 2023 and InDesign 2023 I found that InDesign has thumbnails again at last. But Illustrator still not. After I found the solution in thius thread: deleting the Illustrator.ql.generator (With the also mentioned alterations I did before) from User > Library > Quicklook. A wish I have left is thumbnails on Illustrator.eps files!

[Anubhav M]

Hello @100pk,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind using Adobe Bridge to preview and manage your files and check if it helps?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[yffoto]

I have the same problem after updating to 2023. I cannot use bridge with box.com files - where box lives on the mac is not accessible via bridge. What is a real fix for this? Seems an Adobe issue with the 2023 update .. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @yffoto,

Sorry to hear about this experience. Would you mind trying to make the files available offline by following the steps shared in this article (https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043697574-Making-Content-Available-Offline) and enabling Full Disk Access for Adobe Bridge check if it helps?

Also, I would request you try to save files on a location on the internal drive and back them up manually to avoid problems. You may learn more about this here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html.

Kindly update this thread if you need further assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Anubhav