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

[-_JM_-]

After a bit of research on the other redundant-ant PS forum, it appears that this line of thought was already addressed.

regardless... the icon problem is still a problem.

-

FROM: DonaldGudehus
Re: Missing icons from Photoshop CS6, Feb 20, 2013 2:49 PM

Here is what fixed the problem for me:

Go to Photoshop/Preferences/File Handling

Under "File Saving Options/Image Prefiews:"

Select: Always Save

Check ONLY on "Windows Thumbnail". Do NOT check "Icon".

The Adobe people may have unintentionally reversed the logic in their software.

comment

good answer!

• Chris Cox (Sr. Computer Scientist) 5 months agoNope - otherwise it would be broken for everyone.
  
  Also, thumbnails and icons are different things.
  Thumbnails are inside the file, icons are resources specific to MacOS.
  
  But that might indicate that the MacOS bug has something to do with their resource/icon handling.
• eric white 5 months agoyep - all I can say is that by turning OFF the icon checkbox fixed the problem on my Mac... and until the problem is officially resolved by Apple or whoever chooses to fix the issue, at least I have a work-around that works.

[Marshguy]

I went through my preferences today on my Mac CS6 PS to see what my settngs are for icons. Both the icon boxes are checked, the icon and Windows thumbnail.  Looking at preferences descriptions and set-ups on Adobe's site, it describes the differences between the 2.  It clearly states that the Window Thumbnail option is so your files are compatible with Window PC display.  The Icon box is so icon information is stored with the file. While the icons might still show should you choose not to check the icon box (most likely to to the OS saving the image). Moreover, Adobe states that if you choose to uncheck the box, any icon info will be lost should one copy a file over to another hard drive. Maybe why so many of my files were blank when I got back to he US as many were copied numerous times from drive to drive. Just the same, there is no logical expalnation for some of the problems I encountered, especially the low resolution pixelated icon images.

For the record, I have both boxes now checked and my icons are working fine.  Maybe unchecking the box works as a solution of for you or some others, but as Chris said,  it's not a problem for the vast majority of users, at least I can speak for myself. I'm leaving both boxes checked so I have maximum compatibility when transferring files or sending one to be opened on a Window machine.

It's been so long since the icon problem raised it's head,  I wonder when and if it'll show up again?

Just thought I'd point out the issue should others choose to uncheck the icon box on recommendation here.

Sorry to hear there are some still having problems.  I certainly did my fair share of "WTF's" when it happened. It was a real hassle, especially when trying to show portfolio images to clients and others. I suppose it will happen again at some point. LOL

Keeping my fingers crossed 🙂

[-_JM_-]

thanks MarshGuy

After a bit of messing around I too believe this is an OS thing and I appreciate Chris' patience!

I tossed a bunch of old apps, plists, removed a bunch of Cloud file sharing products we were testing, used Onyx to cleanse the soul of my Mac. And the problem has disappeared for the moment....  Sorry that I wasn't diligent to test on each change and report what works and what doesn't,  but I just needed to get this back up and running ASAP.

>Keeping my fingers crossed 🙂

me too!

best regards.

j

[Was DYP]

We have all been there and done that.

Don't worry it will be back.

[-_JM_-]

but for this brief moment in time, I am at peace with this computer.

[MoonRunner 1234]

Does anyone use DragThing?

Once CS6 no longer displays icons of saved files, I quit both CS6 and DragThing, start up CS6 and newly saved files will display icons again. No need to restart the computer, unfortunately it only works until DragThing is started again.

DragThing is a must-have utility for me and I cannot test the long term effect leaving Dragthing off permanently.

[MoonRunner 1234]

Actually I don’t even have to quit CS6, only DragThing. On the other hand, after a computer restart, when everything works both DragThing and Photoshop play nicely together for a while.

[Robert_Ripps]

My icons have been working for a while now, so I forgot about it, until this mornng after making a dozen jpegs with icons, the newest jpegs suddenly stopped having icons.  No logic, no Drop thing installed.  No clue.

Just tried to make a jpeg with Windows Thumbnail unchecked, and thumbnail was created.  Recheck box, no icon.  Uncheck box, now no icon.  Totally unpredictable.

[Pace52]

I have just used OnyX for the past year and find I have to use it every three or four days... and  I seem to work around the issue. It is a pain to do it, but I cannot stand losing the icons.  I simply do not understand why either Mac or Adobe cannot get together on this. I no longer recommend Photoshop because of it.  Onyx is the best for me.

[-_JM_-]

this problem is a bundle of joy. Anybody with the subscripion version (what do we call this?) have the same problem.

very random, and I'm just living with it.

It's still difficult to not shed a little blame on CS6 when I can save a file out of CS5 (same computer) and the thumbs work....  then resave the file with the working thumbnail in CS6 and the thumbnail disappears.

Can anyone else test saving files on both CS6 and CS5 for thumbnails?

Can I send Adobe TS the same file saved in CS6 and CS5 and somebody can compare. Have the file structures changed from CS5 > CS6 ?

[Was DYP]

You're wasting your time with Adobe on this one.

There has been hundreds of posts deleted on this thread pointing out the difference between CS5 and CS6 and what Apples posted guidelines are and how CS6 deviates from them.

I have given up on this a long long time ago and just set PS so that the OS creates the icon. And with CC that will be your only choice.

[-_JM_-]

Hi DYP

Are you confirming that CS5 did not have this problem? This problem only started for me when I moved to 10.8.x so I was buying into some blame on the OS side, because it wasn't occurring for me before the OS update.  thx

There has been hundreds of posts deleted on this thread pointing out the difference between CS5 and CS6 and what Apples posted guidelines are and how CS6 deviates from them.

[Was DYP]

This problem occurred long before 10.8 was released. Check the early posts on this thread, including mine #39.

I have never heard one person say that this was caused by CS5.

Remember that something in the icon writing process of CS6 causes this problem to appear. Once the problem appears you can have all kinds of strange icon behaviors for docs not saved by CS6.

After not having CS6 write icons for well over a year now I have not seen one instance of this problem. I have used CS5 many times with icon writing on since, because of another CS6 bug, the after selecting a tool freeze.

[-_JM_-]

thanks DYP.

Adobe -  why not have CS6 write thumbnails like CS5?  is there a reason why it was changed?

[Robert_Ripps]

This may have been mentioned somewhere in the thread, but I just made a bunch of jpegs, after setting CS6 not to make icons or windows thumbs- looking at those files in list view, I got generic icons as expected.  But, when I dragged them to a folder set to icon view, I have all 6 showing icons as if I had CS6 set to save icons.  It's all a roll of the dice here....

[Chris Cox]

Because Apple said to change it.

And the way the icons are written has nothing to do with the OS bug that sometimes causes icons/thumbnails to not appear.

[-_JM_-]

Chris Cox wrote:

Q. is there a reason why it was changed?

Because Apple said to change it. And the way the icons are written has nothing to do with the OS bug that sometimes causes icons/thumbnails to not appear.

Hi Chris

If the way that the icons are written has nothing to do with the OS icons/thumbnail bug, then why aren't there any complaints from people using CS5?

If the change in how icons are written is not the source of the problem then why do CS5 thumbs appear and CS6 don't?

thanks again,

j

[-_JM_-]

So here's a quick test (saving or exporting a jpg):

iPhoto'11 - thumbnail OK

LR4 - thumbnail OK

AI CS6 - thumbnail OK

HeliconFocus 4.2 - thumbnail OK

Picasa 3.9 - thumbnail OK

pixelmator - thumbnail OK

BridgeACR (opened JPG and exported JPG within ACR) - thumbnail OK

PS CS5 - thumbnail OK

PS CS6 SFW - thumbnail OK   (I assume this would be similar to turning off the writing of the Thumb/Icon)

PS CS6 - thumbnail not OK

It's really difficult not to point the finger at something with CS6...

ps- I added a couple more editors/tests, the point is that if I send a bug report to Apple that says that 9 applications work and PS/CS6 doesn't.... well you know what they would say.

[Chris Cox]

You'll have to ask Apple that - they know the details of the bugs in their code, and we do not.

And yes, with a complete lack of information you can point your finger at anything...

[-_JM_-]

Hi Chris

Do you agree that the changes that were made to saving files from CS5 to CS6 trigger the OS bug? Otherwise, why does CS5 work and CS6 doesn't.

Let's look at it this way... 9 jpgs are OK, 1 is not. What is different?  If the PS CS6 JPG is written exactly as Apple has asked, have all of the other 9 applications written the JPG incorrectly?

regards

[Chris Cox]

Again, we don't know what triggers the bug in Apple's code. We don't have access to Apple's code.

It could be something as trivial as the change of the application version number in the metadata...

Again, this is clearly Apple's bug.

And I don't know about all the other applications - I just know that we are doing what Apple says is correct, and that Apple has a problem with their thumbnail/metadata parsing or display in some circumstances that only they can define.

[-_JM_-]

>that Apple has a problem with their thumbnail/metadata parsing or display in some circumstances that only they can define.

Apple acknowledges some problems with thumbnails? I assumed that this was not a known bug and would continue to be because it effects a random sector of the users.

>We don't have access to Apple's code. It could be something as trivial as the change of the application version number in the metadata...

Any modern day tools that I could play with similar to "resedit" of the past?

[Chris Cox]

Apple rarely acknowledges their bugs to the public.

And no, I don't know of any useful replacements for resedit.

[-_JM_-]

hmmm... removing all metadata via ExifTool fixes the problem...

now what?

[Chris Cox]

That might (not conclusive since the bug is not repeatable) indicate that the Apple bug is in their metadata parsing, and not the thumbnails at all.

Or you might have just tickled it into working, and it'll work for a little while before failing again.