Column View Preview hogs RAM

I've posted in the past about my issues with the Finder crashing/relaunching and I never did find the likely cause....until this week.
I do a heavy amount of browsing audio files on my drives using the Finder, and I finally decided to run Activity Monitor and watch how much RAM the Finder is using. It turns out that if I browse using Column View, and the file Preview is toggled on, then every sound file that I select (whether I play it using Quick Look or not) chews up RAM and does not release it when I select a new audio file. If I select a 5mb file, then approx 5mb gets added to the Finder process in Activity Monitor..and it doesn't release the RAM until the computer is rebooted or Finder is Re-launched. Over a period of a few hours depending on my project workflow for the day, I have easily had the Finder chew up 2.5gb of RAM.
If I toggle the file Preview triangle to Off, then RAM seems to stay fairly unaffected.
My best guess is that the crash/relaunches I have been having are the result of the Finder reaching some maximum ram limit.
Any suggestions on an app or script that I can easily run throughout the day to re-launch the finder before it crashes on it's own? Or, maybe there utilities out there that could provide me with an alert when certain apps are approaching a Ram usage threshold, a threshold that I could manually choose?

Just tried that Carolyn, removing the QuickLookDaemon plist to the trash, emptying the trash and re-starting.
After the re-start, I've gone into Finder and column view, and no change. I've highlighted a jpg file and pressed the space bar - QuickLook opens, but no image there either.
I also tried removing the QuickLook and Finder plist files at the same time, and restarting - no dice, alas.
The QuickLook window opens to the right size for the underlying picture, but shows no image. So it seems to know the size, but can't find the data?

Similar Messages

Quicklook consumes a lot of memory on column view previewing large files

After upgrading to Mountain Lion, everytime I click on a large file (like a disk image, DMG, ISO) on finder's column view, it starts spinning the icon and quicklookd consumes a lot of memory even causing other apps to swap to disk. After the preview icon is done, the quicklookd memory is dealocated.
This do not happen on Lion.

Just found out that a plugin (QLStephen - http://whomwah.github.com/qlstephen/) was causing the problem.
Removed it from /Library/Quicklook, restarted quicklook (qlmanage -r) and the problem is gone.

No more audio or video preview in column view?

weird one... on my powerbook (g4) i suddenly have no ability to play/preview audio or video file in column view in the finder. works fine on my desktop machine with the same os and such...? highlighting a file just gives its name and dates and such, no ability to preview.
using 10.4.8 and QT 7.1.3. tried updating prebinding (and other normal quickfixes). think i might need to reinstall quicktime?

well, yes i tried all the basic quick fixes. (plus diskwarrior and applejack, etc.)
i thought i might find it in some of the preferences of finder or quicktime but no go.
the weirder thing is that if you highlight an audio or video file in the column view, while it gives no audio or video preview, if you click on the "get more info" button (or command-i) there will be the audio or video preview.
???

Finder "column" view no longer previews ".iff"s

Sorry if this is the wrong forum (is there no Shake forum????).... is Apple going to kill Shake?
So I upgraded from 10.3.6 to 10.4.2 ..... now the ".iff" files (when in column view) no longer show the image in the preview window... it is now an icon??? why is this... does Apple not support native Shake images in 10.4.2 (it did in 10.3.6)?

not me...
Patrick

Finder does not show EPS PICT or TIF previews in column view in 10.4

It seems in the upgrade between 10.3 and 10.4 they dropped the ability to see the low res PICT or TIF image that is stored in the EPS file. In other apps, InDesign, Quark I can see it in column view open dialogue box but no such luck with Finder windows.
I have seen the question on a few other forums but there has been no satisfactory answer to this question. I can't just use AI files and make them PDF compatible either, which is what I have been hearing as a common workaround. As of now I have been using EPSwizard:
http://www.jolauterbach.com
It used to be free but now it is a pay version. If anyone wants the older free app reply to me and I can give it to you. It is a decent solution until I can find someone who knows how to tweak the finder to see these again.
My best guess that Mac didn't want to show a low res image in their pretty OS so they deep 6'ed it in the 10.4 version. I am pretty sure that it is just not reading the resource/data fork where that image is contained. It would make my life so much more enjoyable if I didn't need to load an app everytime I want to see what an EPS file looks like inside.
If anyone can clue me in on a tutorial on how to change this let me know.
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.7)

These files are EPS files not image files. They have a TIF or PICT preview inside the file, I believe in the resource or data fork of the file. The file extension is EPS, and I cannot change that, just type the letters. The actual extension, the 4 digit one, that is invisible is the one that is important. In the case of EPS the actual extension is EPSF or EPSI.
Just to try the fix I changed the name and it did try to make a preview, but it came up with nothing. It was blank in column view. The OS still reads it as an EPS regardless of the change in file extension.
Anyone have some answer that involves a command line, I think that is really going to be the only thing that solves this one.
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)

In column view, the file item, ie .ai doenst preview?

The preview of items are no showing. So I have to open the file in order to see
what it is, which is very bad, b/c i work with a lot of illustrator files.

CocoaThumbX is a separate program that you will need to download. The developer's site is here:
http://www.stalkingwolf.net/software/cocothumbx/
When you run the program you can select a batch of files and drop them into the program and it will create thumbnails for many, perhaps even most of the ai files, but not all. I have not checked to find out why some of thumbnails are blank. Also, the thumbnails it creates appear to be only a tiny section of the original. There may be a better program for creating ai thumbs.
You can download the free QuickLook generator here:
http://hrmpf.com/wordpress/195/leopard-quick-look-for-illustrator-files
Download, unzip, and put the file here:
"/Library/QuickLook/illust.qlgenerator"
You'll need to restart or log out and back in. You will then be able to see a full thumbnail in the Finder in both the Preview column of a window in column view, and in Quicklook with any window view, just select the file and hit the Spacebar.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

10.4 style draggable timeline audio preview in Finder/column view?

For the love of Steve please tell me this vital workflow feature/tool has been re-instated in SL. For folks who work with hundreds of audio files the removal in Leopard of the ability to scroll through audio files in a Finder column view window was a real kick in the teeth. In Leopard the only way to access a scrollable preview of an audio file is to open QuickView, effectively disabling ANY OTHER FINDER ACTION during the preview. Sorry to shout here but this is just...a dreadful step backwards. Not only functionally but also an annoying percentage of files (that should and do play in QT etc) will not play in QuickView and fast-ish previewing through multiple files will often crash QuickView.
Please let it be fixed.

I fedback btw, thanks for that.
Overall Leopard is a fine beast. Basically all I would like is
a/ scrolling and not only play in window columns
b/ fix quickview so it plays all the files it should and
c/ also doesn't crash
If anyone else feels this way please let Apple know at OSX Feedback
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

No preview in column view

Until now I could see jpg-pictures and documents in column view in Finder, but seemingly without reason the preview column only shows the attributes but no more the preview. All three options (symbols, preview and preview column) in column view are 'on'.
In Symbol View and Cover Flow the jpg's and documents all show up as expected.
I removed the plist from the library and restarted the computer, but this didn't help.
How can I restore the view?

smithrj wrote:
Not according to another thread in which this discussion was settled. (Just joking) I know you were very adamant on the issue so I thought I would make a joke. Do not get angry. I am joking.
You mean this thread? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6484216
No worries... Its not like I know where you live or nothin... j/k.

Column View Play Preview

When in column view is there a key command to enable the quicktime preview to play. Clicking on every bar takes time.
Thanks

Hi,
I am having a similar problem, except I cannot play the clips at all. They appear as black and do not actually play when in iMovie, and even if I try open them from finder in QuickTime, they cannot play and then they produce an error report. (I was still using iMovie 4 when I loaded the clips, so they are still in the "media" folder. But cannot play them either from the "media" folder or within iMovie.
I had one big iMovie, which I tried splitting into two projects, and this is when the problem started. Only happened to about 6 or so clips, not all of them.
Any help would be appreciated as the ones that I cannot use anymore where the ones I really wanted (as luck would have it!!) and I have since recorded over the original media on my camcorder...

Preview in Columns view "spastic"

Yesterday I saved 3 Adobe Flash files off the web to a folder on my iMac using Firefox and DownloaderHelper. To my surprise when I looked at the saved files using Column view, the last one wasn't a generic VLC Media Player icon but a preview! And when I clicked the arrow in the last column, it began to play! Now all three files were downloaded the same way, have the same file extension, and the same default application (VLC Media Player v1.0.3).
1. Why is one and not the others "previewable"?
2. How can I make files "previewable" if I want to?
TIA.

Yea this is SUPER annoying for me too... it's the only thing I don't like about Leopard (so far!).
I used to use finder as my music player or just to skip through songs that get sent to me for previewing. I want this option back!!

Cmd key (etc) to disable Preview in column view?

Is there a cmd or option key (etc) to temporarily disable the Preview image in the Finder's column view?
I sometimes work with large pictures (e.g. 100 Mb plus) and really hate it when I double-click on a file to open it, and then it first has to haul in a preview image.

The image preview in "column view" comes with a
disclosure triangle so you could keep the preview
column enabled, but close the disclosure triangle
before clicking on your large image. You would have
to click on at least one file first though,
preferably one with a small preview.
Otherwise, you could use ⌘2 to switch to "list
view" temporarily (no previews), then ⌘3 to
switch back to column view after opening the file.
Good enough for government work...
Thanks.

Always enable preview in column view?

Is there a way to always enable the preview of a file in column view? I keep having to hit the arrow to have it face downwards to see the preview of files whenever I am in Finder.

I miss the timeline scroller. I used to have multiple windows in column view open and be able to compare a specific frame of different movie comps quickly and easily in the Finder. While Quicklook is neat, it doesn't fill the void for this issue, and the lack of a volume controller as mentioned.

Column view mode vs Preview

I have this picture - a jpeg from a camera phone which someone has drawn a black box on using some unknown graphics package. At least that's what it looks like in Preview and other applications.
However, when I select the file in the Finder in column view mode, in the preview column the black box isn't there and I can see the full original photograph.
Why is this and how can I get the orginal photograph?
iMac G4 17" flat panel Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Andrew
Sorry I misunderstood you.
I suggest you try opening that file with an application other than Preview, which really is a pretty basic file viewing tool and not much more.
Graphic Converter can open just about anything you throw at it, and there is a shareware version available at VersionTracker.com.
Or if you have Photoshop, that would open it too.

Sort-by-type for column view in open/save dialog boxes?

Hello all,
I've done a fairly good search both on Google and in these forums and can't seem to find this question addressed. When I go to open or save something (in Preview, for example) I prefer to use Column View in the dialog box, since it is easy to see and navigate the folder structure. However, Column View always shows up sorted by name, even if I specified in Finder that the folder be sorted by type. Because of this, I have to scroll down and hunt for subfolders rather than having them conveniently listed at the top.
My question is this: is there a way to get Column View to sort by type in the open/save dialog boxes? (The Command+J that works in regular Finder does nothing in these dialog boxes.)
Thanks!

No. Column view will only sort by name. If you wanted to put a space before each folder name, then they will sort to the top. Sorting by Kind will put folders above files, but it will also put anything else except files at the top. If there are only folders, however, that would put them first in the sort list.

FINDER NOT SHOWING DIMENSIONS WIDTH OR HEIGHT....IN COLUMN VIEW OR ICONVIEW

I have noticed for the last couple of weeks that my finder no longer shows the width and Height of images or anything. Dimensions has -- on all things. I have never encountered this issue before.
I hit "show item info" It looks like it moves when I check the box in thumbnail mode, but there is nothing there.
I have google'd around and have yet to find a solution.
Would be much appreciated if someone could point me in the right direction.

These files are EPS files not image files. They have a TIF or PICT preview inside the file, I believe in the resource or data fork of the file. The file extension is EPS, and I cannot change that, just type the letters. The actual extension, the 4 digit one, that is invisible is the one that is important. In the case of EPS the actual extension is EPSF or EPSI.
Just to try the fix I changed the name and it did try to make a preview, but it came up with nothing. It was blank in column view. The OS still reads it as an EPS regardless of the change in file extension.
Anyone have some answer that involves a command line, I think that is really going to be the only thing that solves this one.
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)
Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Column View Preview hogs RAM

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for