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I noticed an issue with Ventura and wondered whether this is due to my software or a more general problem. The recent update has decreased coverage of Finder's file preview function (hit Space in Finder on any file). For instance, I noticed this behaviour for .tex and .md files - see attached screenshots.

This would really be a shame since this was an amazing feature. Any ideas? I played around with the default programs that open these files, didn't help so far.

Issue with markdown file

Issue with tex file

All good for pdf file

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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MacOS has never created formatted QuickLook previews for Markdown files without a third-party QL plug-in. On my Mac running Ventura, markdown files are previewed as raw text.

It's possible that you were using an old QL plug-in that no longer works - it's curious that Finder seems to think that com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuickLook-macOS should be the responsible plug-in.

You might want to check the contents of the QuickLook sub-folder of /Library and ~/Library, or list all the Quicklook plug-ins and associatedd filte types with qlmanage -m.

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  • The "com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuickLook-macOS" is more than curious. Misconfiguration somewhere.
    – Gilby
    Nov 1, 2022 at 21:35
  • I do not think that I ever installed any QL plug-in. The two folders are empty, unfortunately. Should I add the output of qlmanage -m to my question?
    – hildebrandecon
    Nov 3, 2022 at 13:24
  • @hildebrandecon The output will be quite lengthy. Maybe search it for lines about md, and post those, if any. I presume you've restarted?
    – benwiggy
    Nov 3, 2022 at 14:43
  • yes, restarted and also reset via qlmanage -r. But yeah, in fact, there is nothing about markdown in the plugins list.
    – hildebrandecon
    Nov 3, 2022 at 16:35
  • Same here. I used to get a plain-text preview of markdown files before Ventura; now there's only the note about "com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuickLook-macOS". There are no entries concerning .md under qlmanage -r. Let's hope it gets fixed in a future update - Ventura has been quite buggy for me in general.
    – dufei
    Nov 4, 2022 at 13:56
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macOS' QuickLook preview function has consistently deprecated older filetypes and extensions with each successive release of the operating system.

For example, macOS Monterey 12.3 recently removed support for .EPS (encapsulated postscript) in QuickLook.

Several text editors include QuickLook plug-ins, such as BBEdit. You might also have some success with this QL plug-in for Markdown.

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  • QLMarkdown works for me. Thanks for the link.
    – Gilby
    Nov 1, 2022 at 21:37
  • Has it "consistently" removed support for filetypes? QL has mostly dealt with images, web, and text documents that OS has always been able to process.
    – benwiggy
    Nov 1, 2022 at 21:52
  • As far as I understand, on previous macOS versions, I never downloaded any of these plug-ins and still QuickLook was able to show previews for markdown or tex documents, just not rendered. Even though I'm not even sure whether it was unrendered for markdown. Do you have any idea why it worked before and doesn't anymore?
    – hildebrandecon
    Nov 3, 2022 at 13:32
  • Apple decided it wasn't being used enough to continue supporting it.
    – da4
    Nov 3, 2022 at 15:48
  • yet it seems to work for others while I have this weird "com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuickLook-macOS" stuff going on. Seems not to be a general issue but rather something that went wrong with my software?
    – hildebrandecon
    Nov 3, 2022 at 16:36

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