Photoshop CS6 icons sometimes do not appear on Macintosh

[clinton_dyches]

Yes, this is a question.

I've been using my trial of Photoshop CS6 Extended for 10 days now. I have run into a peculiar problem - when saving a file Photoshop does not display any sort of icon. No thumbnail, no generic, nothing. It's not a huge problem, I can always open the image but not by double-clicking on the icon: it's just not there.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if there is a resolution to it - or is it just a bug? I didn't have this problem with the beta version and I've repaired all permissions on my hard drive to see if that was the problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Clinton

[trumpetmuse]

Hi all, I discovered a solution to the icon problem on my system which seems to work well so far. It may lead you to finding out why it is actually occuring and so I thought I would tell you what it is. I went to Photoshop preferences/File handling and on image previews changed the Image Previews from "Always" to "Ask when saving" and then restarted photoshop. I opened a PSD and changed and saved it and the icon appeared. I did this with svereal images and it worked each time. It may be that the "Always" setting is really "Never"!!!! Anyway, try it your self. I have a MA PRO 8 core system running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. and Photoshop Exteneded CS6. Perhaps this additional data will lead to a real fix.

[Was DYP]

Intersesting catch! But how long will it work.

Now what happens when you turn it back to "Always"

Now when it comes to CC creating custom icons is no longer an option. Well it is still an option but it does not create custom no matter what option you have set.

It is my understanding this is now a dead horse and creating custom icon from PS will no longer be supported.

[trumpetmuse]

Well, I tried taking it back to "Always" and it now works with that setting on both images saved with "Ask when saving" and images that did not have an icon preview when I opened them and do when I change a resave them. Interesting..

[Donald_Gudehus]

Dear Trumpemuse,

I have an idea why this works. When you use "Ask" rather than "Always"

the process of saving the file and icon takes a bit longer because you

have to respond to the prompts. Thus some as yet unknown part of the

software is given a chance to catch up, and therefore complete its job. I

have noticed in the past that when I edit a file created with PS6, and

"save as", if I step too quickly through the process, the icon isn't saved,

but taking my time and going really slow guarantees that the icon will be

saved. Interestingly, this effect also occurs on my PPC Mac using PS2 if

the file I am editing was created with PS6 on my Mac Pro.

Donald

[trumpetmuse]

Dear Donald,

     Sounds like a possibility there. What I do not understand is that after the first change I made and then went back to the original setting it still worked and continued making the icons visible on the desktop and is it still working 4 hours later while I work with the original setting I had before "fixing it". This seems strange. Possibly, the default setting of "always save" was toggled somehow by switching to "ask" and then back to"always save". In any case, I think it is probably possible to change this setting or the one you did earlier that worked to force it work until someone more skilled in programming than myself figures out the real cause.

[Robert_Ripps]

One thing I did, which is a pain, but if I save with no thumbnail boxes checked, I get a generic image thumb, then I open image in Preview (or Acrobat would work), select all, copy, close file, select file, do file info, and paste image into thumbnail icon- bingo, CS6 image with thumbnail.  Works faster on my Mac than typing this out.  But not what should have to do with "professional" grade software!

[Chris Cox]

We do not know the exact nature of the MacOS bug that sometimes causes icons to not show up.

We have talked to Apple about this, and done everything we can to comply with their guidelines and avoid their known issues (ie: not writing resource thumbnails at all in Photoshop CC).

There's not much else we can do about this MacOS bug.

[-_JM_-]

thanks Chris -

>(ie: not writing resource thumbnails at all in Photoshop CC).

is this the same as turning off "Icon" in CS6 prefs?

[station_two]

While never presuming to answer for Chris Cox, I believe he means not writing icons to the Resource Fork of a Macintosh file, not forgoing the generation of icons.

[Marshguy]

I've always been curious too about different machines displaying different results using exactly the same OS.  My 11" MacBook Air that I travel with never had any of the problems my MacPro 3.1 had.  Both running 10.8.4.  I sort of remember the problem being more acute when I was transferring files from one hard drive to the other.  Either the icon was just white showing only the name of the file or it was pixelated in such a way that you couldn't make out the image because the resolution was too low.  Used to frustrate the hell out of me. When I traveled to Asia with my MBA the problem never resurfaced until I got home and transferred the files back to the MBP 3.1.  Now that everything has been transferred and cleaned up, it's al pretty stable, I seldom see an icon problem. Matter of fact it's been weeks if not months since I've seen this issue.  When it does show up, a simple restart fixes the icons.  It's a mystery to me, but a problem that I've learned to live with since it seldom happens, but if I was dealing with images every day and had to constantly restart my machine, I'd be frustrated and upset.  The fact that a restart fixes the issue and the problem shows up differently on different CPU's, makes me think it some type of OS and firmware bug, not something with CS6.

[grampus45]

As a matter of interest, did anyone having the "invisible icon" problem notice that it started after they had created and saved a new document in Ps, as opposed to opening an existing image/file and saving it?

[enigma51564]

For me, it seems to happen when I open and save existing files, as opposed to newly created ones.

[Was DYP]

grampus45 wrote:

As a matter of interest, did anyone having the "invisible icon" problem notice that it started after they had created and saved a new document in Ps, as opposed to opening an existing image/file and saving it?

No it was pretty ramdom. You could never tell when having PS6 creating custom icons would start this problem.

And thanks for the info on reinstalling the OS. I didn't think that would help given that installing PS6 didn't change anything with the OS, and PS6 would still be causing this problem in the creation of custom icons.

[grampus45]

Was DYP wrote:

grampus45 wrote:

As a matter of interest, did anyone having the "invisible icon" problem notice that it started after they had created and saved a new document in Ps, as opposed to opening an existing image/file and saving it?

No it was pretty ramdom. You could never tell when having PS6 creating custom icons would start this problem.

Well, that blows that hypothesis.  Thanks for the quick feedback.

[Was DYP]

And there in lies the frustration, so many focus on the icons themselves when I have never seen the icons themselves cause this problem. I have only ever seen this problem created by the custom icon creation process of PS6, but it is so random that it is hard to pin down. If you read all of posts currently in this thread or happened to have read the hundred or so that have been deleted you would see all the things that have been tried. Some work for a while but ultimately if the custom icon creation process of PS6 is enabled this problem will return.

[Kurt Lang]

but ultimately if the custom icon creation process of PS6 is enabled this problem will return.

Definitely not trying to play devil's advocate here, but I once again have to disagree. Such comments state that PS CS6 is the cause, as long as you have its icon creation turned on in its preferences.

As I noted just a dozen or so posts ago, we have created thousands of images with PS CS6 with the custom icon creation on in both Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion. It works all the time, every time since reinstalling the OS. Doesn't matter if it starts out with an existing file, doing a Save As to a new file, or creating a new blank canvas from within PS.

To blame PS CS6 would indicate a repeatable bug pretty much everyone should be encountering. That's not happening. It is very frustrating for those who can't get the issue to go away, but I can't see how a blanket guilty charge towards CS6 is correct.

[Was DYP]

That's good that so far reinstalling the OS has worked for you. But reinstalling the OS does not work for everybody as in post 505.

Again I challenge you or anyone else to name one other piece of software that gets this started. For as long as this post has gone on know one has named another piece of software that starts this problem.

So that leaves PS CS6 and only PS CS6 as the starter of this problem whether it exposes a bug in the OS code or not, not one other software creating custom icons has been named as a starter of this problem.

As for the amount of people suffering from this. I am sure I have asked a least over 50 people, none of them said they post here, and I would say half have said they encountered this problem.

[Kurt Lang]

Again I challenge you or anyone else to name one other piece of software that gets this started.

Oh, it's causing something. Trouble is, no one knows what that is. Not us, Adobe, or Apple.

So that leaves PS CS6 and only PS CS6 as the starter of this problem whether it exposes a bug in the OS code or not, not one other software creating custom icons has been named as a starter of this problem.

Yes, but why? You may have already given this a look, but I installed the OS from scratch and applied all updates. Installed the CS6 Master Collection and its updates. Made a checksum log of the install. Reinstalled the OS and its updates and created a new checksum log, having the software compare the two states for changes. See this text file:

http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/changes.zip

Chris looked it over and had these comments:

Interesting that ColorSync is creating temporary profiles on your system: /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/CG243W-000015C3-0000-2090-0000-0 00070C82400.icc

Do you have a display calibrator that changes the profile all the time (like huey's in response to ambient light changes)?

I see an Apple updater writing a lot.

But Adobe's just writing GLSL temp files, and a few logs (/private/tmp/)

The updater or OS do update some cache files (/Library/Caches/com.apple.Components2.LocalCache.QuickTimeComponents , /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.Components2.SystemCache.QuickTimeComponents)

And the updater or OS reset a lot of plist files, and /var/db files that I don't know the purpose of.

What is interesting is /private/var/folders/CX/CXfEN29QGWq+RcH2FgSVik+++TI/-Caches-/com.appl e.QuickLook.thumbnailcache/

But is that from thumbnails being added, or the OS resetting the database?

I wonder if some of the thumbnail issues could be due to a corrupt SQLlite database for the thumbnails?

There's very little, if anything, to suggest the installation of the Adobe software is damaging the OS. It's not replacing or modifying any system files or folders. The closest we come to anything like that is the last two paragraphs by Chris. And is installing the Adobe software even responsible for that, or is the OS itself making those changes in the process of registering the new software and its hooks to the system? And in the process, damaging the data on its own?

I am sure I have asked a least over 50 people, none of them said they post here, and I would say half have said they encountered this problem.

That's a significant percentage, but I work with a lot of other prepress shops and advertising agencies. They all currently use CS6 and haven't run across a station they couldn't fix (usually be reinstalling the OS).

[Was DYP]

Have you tried finding out what changes take place in the OS after a reboot or logging out and then back in after PS6 saving customs icons starts this icons not showing problem in the finder. It seems that you should be able to find somethings that changes when this problem starts and then when you reboot or log out and back in. We know that, that will cause the icons to show back up every time after PS6 starts the problem with OS.

[Kurt Lang]

Have you tried finding out what changes take place in the OS after a reboot or logging out and then back in after PS6 saving customs icons starts this icons not showing problem in the finder.

It's been quite a while now since I've even had to think about dealing with this, so I have to guess a bit. I do remember rebooting to see what would happen. Strange stuff would happen, like images that had no icon now showing one, and others that did have an icon now blank.

Guessing it may have been a cache problem somewhere, I used OnyX to wipe out all cache files it allows you to remove. User, system, kernel, you name it. It would help briefly, but then would come back in less that a couple of hours. Pretty much the same thing other users have been reporting.

I still have no idea why reinstalling the OS works. I can only report it permanently fixed the problem for us on all stations.

[Door Zone]

Hi there to all.

Have not read the whole thread yet, but in a nutshell :

Old MacBook 10.4.11 and cs4 11.0.2 on its last leg but still good for transfering files over networks.

New MacBook 10.8.3 with ps6 13.0 working fine with finder icons that can be seen on it when ps6 has done work and saved.

Old MacBook cannot display finder icons from saved ps6 images.

Still can open them with cs4 and resave with finder icons now displaying properly.

If ps6 files are put on old G5 tower 10.4.8, finder cannot open folder and goes into some loop where I have to force restart...!

Hope this will trigger that stoke of genius in someone to find an 'easy' fix.

'cause I'm not a code guy.

J-L

[Donald_Gudehus]

I would update from Tiger 10.4.8 to 10.4.11.  On my G5 with 10.4.11 I can open folders with no problem.  Of course, the icons are not visible until I resave them with CS2. 

Donald

[Was DYP]

If you have bothered to read all the posts that are still (over 100 have been deleted) here you will see that Adobe has no interest in fixing this, even though PSCS6 is the only application that starts this problem. It will be interesting to see if they fix it in their creative capture of customers scheme.

[Kurt Lang]

Sort of yes, sort of no. CC no longer creates a resource fork for any images saved out of Photoshop, so there is no icns resource. Instead the icon is stored in the data fork along with the larger preview. In order to see icons at all from PS CC, you must have the desktop option on to show icons. To see any kind of icon for a .psd or .psb file, you must have Maximum Compatibilty on.

[scoop_hk]

Thanks Jean-Luc

Interesting - I am on a 17" early 2011 MacBook Pro running 10.8.3 with CS6 - so the answer, from what you have said, is for us all to purchase new computers?

Adobe : P