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Photoshop CS6 icons sometimes do not appear on Macintosh

Community Beginner ,
May 21, 2012 May 21, 2012

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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

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

May 25, 2012 May 25, 2012

The thumbnails in the open dialog are provided by the OS (as is most of the open/save dialog).  So there is still a problem with the OS creating or displaying thumbnails.

It's not a matter of blaming Apple without reason, just that Apple has an awful lot of bugs in the OS that don't get fixed very quickly.

Here we know that the OS is responsible for the thumbnails, that clearing the OS cache of thumbnail and metadata fixes it for some people, and that even after that the OS can't always draw the t

...

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Adobe
replies 664 Replies 664
New Here ,
Sep 22, 2012 Sep 22, 2012

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Wow - haven't used Onyx in many generations of my OS. That fixed it for me - and yes it only happens with Photoshop CS6 - and yes it is probably something Adobe has to look into - just as they claimed no responsibilty for the Illustrators inabilty to copy for more than ten minutes straight - until they fixed it on an update.

OS10.8.1, Early 2011 MacBook Pro.

Thank you sooo much - guessing about opening the right file was a real time-waster.

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Explorer ,
Aug 02, 2012 Aug 02, 2012

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Clinton,

I am grateful you brought it up - "I am not alone" is always helpful.

As posted earlier, I'll reaffirm that - for ME - the solution was to use Onyx (or similar) to delete all .DS_Store files. The problem still sporadically re-occurs, and yes, only Photoshop CS6 files, but the .DS_Store solution alleviates it.

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New Here ,
Aug 30, 2012 Aug 30, 2012

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Being not a very good techie, I called supprt as I could not figure this problem out. In my case( Mountain Lion and CS6) my thumbnails showed in my picture folder, BUT, when I tried to upload a photo to something like facebook, when the picture folder opened, the thumnail was NOT there...just the file name.

What support eventually did with me was to create a new user and open up CS^ inthat. Then, they had me open up CS^ on my own account, holding down the shift key and it worked. Then, they had me reboot and open CS6 the normal way and it worked.

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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Being not a very good techie, I called supprt as I could not figure this problem out. In my case( Mountain Lion and CS6) my thumbnails showed in my picture folder, BUT, when I tried to upload a photo to something like facebook, when the picture folder opened, the thumnail was NOT there...just the file name.

What support eventually did with me was to create a new user and open up CS^ inthat. Then, they had me open up CS^ on my own account, holding down the shift key and it worked. Then, they had me reboot and open CS6 the normal way and it worked.

This didn't help me....  I'm desperately trying to find a cure for this strange CS6 preview problem.  Funny how I can create a file in PS CS 6 and not see the preview, but if I open that same file in PS CS 5.5 and save it to the same folder, the preview icon magically appears ????

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Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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The icons Photoshop CS6 is saving are exactly what Apple asked us to save.

Whether their developer communications are the same as their documentation is another matter.

The icons work perfectly for most users, but somehow MacOS is failing to draw or update icons on some systems.  As far as has been determined, this is due to some problem with MacOS itself (since Photoshop always writes the same icon data).

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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all I can say is that I first called apple about this. They explanined hat since it was no problem in cs5, and since they have no changes to the system, it is obviously a problem at adobe's end. Just reporting.

Then I called adobe and after an hour of working with the rep, making a new user, then going back to old user and starting with the shift key down(not giving all the details as  I do not remember them, it was solved. I can provide the case # if interested. Itis clearly an adobe problem.

I would suggest that adobe get in touch with apple and work it out...we really do not care whose problem it is butit should be resolved without having to do what I did.

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Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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>> all I can say is that I first called apple about this.

And there is no way you talked to a developer, so you got Apple's usual "it's everyone else's fault" story from their support line.

The icons work just fine for most people.

They even work fine in some directories, and fail in a few directories for some users.

They work after users clear the OS thumbnail cache.

It is highly unlikely that this is an Adobe problem.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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Chris, you have said numerous times that you are only following Apple's request that you make completely inadequate icons for Retina displays or any other displays in preparation for Retina displays. I believe you! I believe you received certain instructions and have implemented them.

However, common sense screams that here was a communication breakdown or error regarding the icons. Have you or any colleague actually queried Apple about the completely illogical request which runs counter to their software development guidelines? Would you jump of a cliff if someone from Apple requested it, or would you query the request?

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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this seems like a lawsuit between a contractor and an architecht when all the customer wants is the issue solved......the two of you HAVE to get together and resolve it...period.This is a no brainer

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2012 Nov 27, 2012

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The same problem has been bugging me for months. After reading one of the suggestions above I ran Cocktail app and the proplem is fixed for new files.

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 28, 2012 Nov 28, 2012

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As long as you have PSCS6 creating icons the problem will return. I been there, tried that.

The only thing that I can find that keeps the icons in the finder from becomes not visible is to set PSCS6 to not create icons.

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Aug 31, 2012 Aug 31, 2012

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>> Have you or any colleague actually queried Apple about the completely illogical request which runs counter to their software development guidelines?

Yes, we checked with Apple, more than a few times.  Apple documentation is not always up to date (or complete, or accurate).

But since we can't reproduce any problem with icons/thumbnails - we can't test whether changing the code would help or not.  We don't know what is different about the systems of the users having problems.  But logically it isn't Photoshop causing the problem, but something about the OS and the thumb/icon cache.

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New Here ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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For those interested...I just did the CS6 update and lo and behold my problem with the icons re appeared(after it have veen solved).

So......I closed CS6 and opened it again with the shift key held down, and lo and behold it solved the problem again.

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Explorer ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Captain 1944, I have just done an update on my CS6 and, if I read you right, all I need to do to get my thumbnails back is to reopen CS6 with the shift key down? Is it that simple? What does that actually do and can it cause any harm? Sorry for all the questions but this problem is driving me nuts!

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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rixie1 wrote:

... reopen CS6 with the shift key down? Is it that simple? What does that actually do ...

Holding down Shift key when launching Photoshop will raise a prompt where you can tell Photoshop whether to load optional and third-party plug-ins.

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Explorer ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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I have recently upgrarde to CS6 Master Collection. I am having the same problem with missing thumbnails

If I re-open the file in my old CS5, I can save and get the thumbnail back. What has changed?

P.S. I haven't changed or upgraded anything on my Mac

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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rixie1 wrote:

I have recently upgrarde to CS6 Master Collection. I am having the same problem with missing thumbnails

If I re-open the file in my old CS5, I can save and get the thumbnail back. What has changed?

P.S. I haven't changed or upgraded anything on my Mac

By the way, just in case, do ensure that you have icon generation enabled in CS6 Preferences:Screen shot 2012-09-01 at 17.36.35.png

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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What's that "Windows Thumbnail" setting say if you hover over it, Conroy?  That setting does not exist on the PC version. 

I looked it up in the Help documentation, and the description of the setting is less descriptive than the name of the setting.

Assuming it's a Windows compatibility setting (for what? saving on a Windows server? saving in a Windows VM?), given the current evolution of Windows thumbnail handling, that setting doesn't seems to make much sense.

Or am I completely misinterpreting the use of the word "Windows" here?

FilePrefs.jpg

-Noel

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

What's that "Windows Thumbnail" setting say if you hover over it, Conroy?  That setting does not exist on the PC version. 

Screen shot 2012-09-01 at 19.09.05.png

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Assuming that's adding an entry to a hidden Thumbs.db file, that's pretty much only meaningful in XP.   The newer versions do it an entirely different way, with a central database.  And plenty of Windows users claim there are no thumbnails for PSD files, so I guess it's not working.

Why would only a Mac offer the option to save a Windows thumbnail? 

-Noel

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Why would only a Mac offer the option to save a Windows thumbnail? 

The Mac version of Ps can attach two independant icon/thumbnails to a file - a Mac icon and Windows thumbnail. Hence the two checkboxes which are absent from the Windows version.

The Windows version can attach a Windows thumbnail only, so it needs only the Image Previews control which you have set to "Never Save".

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Yes, I set Image Previews to Never Save because even if it did anything useful (which I doubt) it would be redundant for me, as I have codecs installed that generate proper, modern thumbnails and previews.  Before I got the codec pack I never saw PSD thumbnails, and I didn't always have my Photoshop settings as you see them.

A Windows thumbnail cannot be "attached to a file".  It just doesn't work that way.  A thumbnail can be generated (by a codec) into a central database, and it is associated with the file by Windows Explorer in Windows Explorer windows and File Open/Save dialogs.

What scenario can we envision in which a "Windows thumbnails attached to a file" by a Mac Photoshop user would ever be used/useful?  Maybe I'm just being particularly dense today, but I'd suggest you could likely save some miniscule resources/time by turning that particular setting off.

-Noel

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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I didn't know how or where Windows stores file thumbnails, but my point was that the Windows version of Ps cannot create a Mac icon so it has no need for the additional checkboxes of the Mac version.

I have been keeping the Windows thumbnail box checked with the naive assumption that a thumbnail would be created which will be visible if a file is transferred to a Windows system in future. If it's not resulting in Windows thumbnails while I'm using Apple HFS+ file system then I don't think it will matter whether the box is checked or cleared. If the procedures that create Windows thumbnails are not being run, anyway, then I can't see that enabled checkbox resulting in much waste of time and resources.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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conroy2009 wrote:


I have been keeping the Windows thumbnail box checked with the naive assumption that a thumbnail would be created which will be visible if a file is transferred to a Windows system in future.

No Windows system is going to read specific data from the PSD file and generate an Explorer thumbnail, not XP, not Vista, 7, or 8.  Further, as far as I know it never worked that way.  And anything put into the mysterious Mac "resource forks" is unavailable to Windows as far as I know.

The Image Preview thumbnail that showed up at the bottom of File - Open dialogs when using Photoshop CS5 and earlier presumably could have been read from within the PSD file somewhere (for quicker display?), but that feature's gone now in Photoshop CS6, and computers are hugely quick nowadays... 

As an experiment I just saved a file from Photoshop CS6 with the "Never Save" setting as shown above then did File - Open in Photoshop CS5.  It generated a thumbnail preview at the bottom of the File - Open dialog instantly.

PreviewShowing.jpg

Could there be some Bridge interaction I'm not thinking about here? I do know it keeps its previews in a cache, but maybe it tries to pull thumbnails from within PSD files for quicker display?  I don't use Bridge except for occasional experiments to support my participation here on the forum.

Forgive me for continuing to wonder what that setting could possibly be useful for.

-Noel

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LEGEND ,
Sep 01, 2012 Sep 01, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

conroy2009 wrote:


I have been keeping the Windows thumbnail box checked with the naive assumption that a thumbnail would be created which will be visible if a file is transferred to a Windows system in future.

No Windows system is going to read specific data from the PSD file and generate an Explorer thumbnail, not XP, not Vista, 7, or 8.  Further, as far as I know it never worked that way.

I never thought that it would. My naive assumption was that Windows thumbnails are attached to files at the time of Photoshop saving a file, in a similar way to Mac icons being attached in a resource fork or extended attribute of a file.

Forgive me for continuing to wonder what that setting could possibly be useful for.

-Noel

A little look in Wikipedia enlightened me to Thumbs.db.

A Mac user could sometimes be saving some files to Windows formatted volumes, say FAT32, and some to Mac formatted volumes, say HFS+, and have separate requirements for each with regard to icons/thumbnails. They may want to attach icons to files in the HFS+ volume but not want to create Thumbs.db files in directories of the FAT32 volume.

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