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Forum Discussion
Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac
Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?
Likely because you're trying to preview a file that doesn't exist on your computer.
When you set a file to Online Only, the only thing that's left of that file on your computer is the necessary information to make it appear in the folder. Since there's no content in the file, your OS (nor any other program) is able to preview it.
Remember, when you set a file to Online Only, the file is removed from the computer leaving behind only a marker file. In order to access that file, whether it be to open and edit it or simply preview it, the file needs to be on the computer (Smart Sync doesn't allow you to open files directly from the Dropbox servers). When you open a file, it's synced back to your local drive and then opened as normal. When you're done with the file, if you want it to be online-only again, you need to mark it as such.
This site has several suggestions, from the already mentioned, Get Info, removing com.apple.finder.plist and including one involving DropBoxQL.qlgenerator in Library.
I still haven't found one that works, since I don't see this DropBoxQL.qlgenerator in QuickLook>Library but I thought I would share any info I can find. This is now affecting the animation and UI/UX teams at my work.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/182536/why-cant-i-see-thumbnails-in-the-finder
Hey jessee,
Thanks for posting that link up on here— I stumbled across that same one earlier in the day, and I'm sure there are others that will need it at some point. I think the DropBoxQL.qlgenerator is a depricated QL file from a previous version of DB—the last mention of it I could find was from 2016 with the same issue as we're talking about now?
It's just a shame that we have to homebrew our own temporary solutions to a problem that seems to have been persisting since 2016 or so.
Hoping for a more concrete fix that addresses the actual problem, as it looks like this is the biggest annoyance for creative teams.
If this issue ends up going to email for troubleshooting, I'll post the results here for others in hopes that it helps others.
NorahDropbox Staff
Hey Norah,
I've taken some extra time to try to isolate this issue and entertain the idea that it might be something else, but everything keeps pointing towards Dropbox.
After closing out of dropbox completely (and checking to make sure there are no DB background processes running in the background), it takes about a minute or two to catch up (possibly due to the cache catching up w/ processes?), but Quicklook goes back to functioning as usual.
Any ideas? It seems like this is a somewhat pervasive problem due to the other [very] similar responses in this thread. Any and all help is appreciated.
