macOS Monterey can be accompanied on some Macs by a very annoying bug. The “Quick Look” preview, which allows you to preview a selected image or document by pressing the Space bar, may become unresponsive. However, it is very easy to put it back into service.
Installing a major update to an operating system is never without risk. If you have just given in to the sirens of macOS Monterey, you may have been the victim of a nasty bug for several days. The macOS Quick Look feature, which lets you open a preview of an image, video, or text document in a floating window, may in some cases not work at all. Instead, Quick Look displays a thumbnail of the image, but it cannot be viewed properly.
This function, however extremely practical, is one of the essential tools, even essential of macOS, especially if you have to frequently manipulate images or videos. With it, you can quickly access the contents of a file without having to launch the associated application.
If you are affected by this problem, fear not, you will not need to reinstall macOS at all. A very simple manipulation allows you to put Quick Look back on its feet: all you have to do is relaunch the Finder for everything to return to normal. Here’s how.
Also to discover in video:
1. Relaunch Finder from the dock
The first solution to making Quick Look functional again is to relaunch Finder, the macOS file explorer. To do this, hold down the Alt key on the keyboard, then right-click on the Finder icon in the macOS dock.
Then choose to Relaunch Finder. This manipulation should, in principle, be sufficient to put the Quick Look preview back on its feet.
2. Force close the QuickLook process
Another solution to fix this quick preview problem is to force quit the related process. To do this, use the ⌘ Space shortcut to open Spotlight, find Activity Monitor and launch it.
In the Activity Monitor window, go to the search field at the top right, and enter the term Quicklook. Then select the line QuickLookUIService and click on the button with a cross, displayed in the toolbar.
In the alert pop-up that appears, choose to Force Quit to force macOS Monterey to close the process.
Go back to the desktop or to a new Finder window, select an image or video, and press the Space bar on the keyboard.
If everything went as planned, the Quick Look preview should be functional again.