How to get quicklook working for Microsoft Office files

Question

On macOS 10.14.6 and MS Office 16.32 (latest version), quicklook previews only show the icon for .doc and .docx files.

I have checked qlmanage, and cleared its cache:

~ qlmanage -r cache
qlmanage: call reset on cache
~ qlmanage -r
qlmanage: resetting quicklookd
~ qlmanage -m | grep microsoft
  com.microsoft.powerpoint.pot -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (39 - loaded)
  com.microsoft.word.doc -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (39 - loaded)
  com.microsoft.word.dot -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (39 - loaded)
  ...

But still no joy. Most of the files are created by someone else on a PC (also running latest version of MS Office), and shared over Google Suite. Will that stop this feature from working? Are there any work-arounds?

Answer 1

I've been having this problem on a clean install of Big Sur too. I tried running qlmanage -p mydoc.docx where mydoc.docx was a random file I picked from the downloads folder. After this it started working for all of my docs.

I got some weird errors though:

% qlmanage -p /Users/myuser/Downloads/mydoc.docx
Testing Quick Look preview with files:
    /Users/myuser/Downloads/mydoc.docx
2021-11-02 12:41:07.981 qlmanage[13980:677277] *** CFMessagePort: bootstrap_register(): failed 1100 (0x44c) 'Permission denied', port = 0x14903, name = 'com.apple.coredrag'
See /usr/include/servers/bootstrap_defs.h for the error codes.
2021-11-02 12:41:08.023 qlmanage[13980:677277] *** CFMessagePort: bootstrap_register(): failed 1100 (0x44c) 'Permission denied', port = 0xc34b, name = 'com.apple.tsm.portname'
See /usr/include/servers/bootstrap_defs.h for the error codes.

Answer 2

You should also have the QL generators in the Office apps, as well as the System ones:

  com.microsoft.excel.xls -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.powerpoint.ppt -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.powerpoint.pps -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.word.doc -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.powerpoint.pot -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.word.stationery -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.excel.xlt -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)
  com.microsoft.word.dot -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (46)

I'd suggest re-installing Office.