File image (icons) won’t show preview. Only generic image.

[smoking monkey]

Mac OS Monterey 12.0.1. Up to date. Any new file I create won’t have a file image preview. Or once I open a file the computer then turns that files preview into a generic image. Highly frustrating as my job relies on going through hundreds of files a day and no image destroys workflow.

Any ideas? I’ve tried rebuilding spotlight to no affect. This is only happening on M1 max no migration. All set up as new. Not on my intel iMac or M1 MBA. I think 12.0.1 broke it but I could be wrong. Surely a software issue. As older files still unopened show a preview.

 

[fisherking]

is this everywhere? or on the desktop? if it's on the desktop, go the the view menu (finder-file-edit-VIEW), click on 'show view options', and uncheck/recheck 'show icon preview'... might help...

 

[smoking monkey]

is this everywhere? or on the desktop? if it's on the desktop, go the the view menu (finder-file-edit-VIEW), click on 'show view options', and uncheck/recheck 'show icon preview'... might help...

Yeah it's everywhere. Tried that. I guess I'll wait for an update to the OS and if it's still happening I'll call Apple.

 

[fisherking]

does quick look work? does icon view in folders show a preview, or does column view show the image in the next pane?

logic pro has this problem currently, showing a generic icon instead of the thumbnail preview. so... wondering what the common denominator is... or why others aren't reporting your issue.

in 'get info' for an image, does preview show as the default app to open? perhaps change that, then change it back to preview, and change for all same-type files.

just spitballing. hope you get it sorted.

 

[smoking monkey]

does quick look work? does icon view in folders show a preview, or does column view show the image in the next pane?

logic pro has this problem currently, showing a generic icon instead of the thumbnail preview. so... wondering what the common denominator is... or why others aren't reporting your issue.

in 'get info' for an image, does preview show as the default app to open? perhaps change that, then change it back to preview, and change for all same-type files.

just spitballing. hope you get it sorted.

Went through the spotlight reindexing step again (adding all the problem folders into the exclusion zone in spotlight prefs then immediately taking them out) and no dice. So I decided to call Apple, but before I did, I tried it one more time. And...
It worked.

How or why I have no idea as I'd done the identical thing several times to no avail. But this time it worked and it worked immediately after restarting the computer. All files now have file image icons again.

What a huge difference having file image icons again. It was doing my head in.

Thanks for the help FisherKing. Great flick as well.

 

[fisherking]

Went through the spotlight reindexing step again (adding all the problem folders into the exclusion zone in spotlight prefs then immediately taking them out) and no dice. So I decided to call Apple, but before I did, I tried it one more time. And...
It worked.

How or why I have no idea as I'd done the identical thing several times to no avail. But this time it worked and it worked immediately after restarting the computer. All files now have file image icons again.

What a huge difference having file image icons again. It was doing my head in.

Thanks for the help FisherKing. Great flick as well.

ah, the movie.. 👍. for the record, i fixed it for you... (seriously, glad you got it sorted!)

 

[smoking monkey]

Update:
This issue continued on and off after the short term fix. But was resolved totally with updating to Monterey. So if anybody is still suffering this issue. Just update to Monterey and the issue will vanish.