QuickLook for LaTeX (and other?) text files stopped working (macOS 13?)
10
votes
2
answers
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Some time recently (possibly with the Ventura upgrade; I'm not sure) quicklook behaviour got worse.
In particular, *.tex (TeX/LaTeX) files stopped previewing entirely; instead they show a message
> The extension com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuicklook-macOS does not implement file previews
which seems to be weirdly trying to assign the quicklook to something related to "Tips".
I note
*
~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.apple.tips.TipsAppQuicklook-macOS
exists, but it is an empty folder.
* mdls -name kMDItemContentType
gives kMDItemContentType = "org.tug.tex"
* I *think* the previews used to be handled by TextMate which also showed full syntax-highlighted previews. TextMate still has an org.tex.tug
entry in its Info.plist.
* Preview icons are still shown correctly.
* Most other text file types seem to work, albeit without syntax highlighting, with an "Open with _some app_" button on the top of the preview window, pointing to TextEdit, Xcode, Textmate, or even Emacs depending on the file type. (Emacs files seem to get syntax highlighting?!)
* org.tug.tex
does not appear in qlmanage -m plugins
, although org.tug.tex.bibtex
and org.tug.tex.dvi
do.
* There is no ~/Library/QuickLook
directory.
* I have tried qlmanage -r
, qlmanage -r cache
and a restart, to no avail.
Other people have similar problems, as seen on [tex.SE](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/663924/quicklook-on-macos-ventura-not-working-anymore-for-tex-files)
**Update**: This [Apple support forum thread](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254334388) seems to have some more information. It implies that Apple has deprecated old quick look generators, but I don't think that this can be the whole problem, since it seems to work -- including via TextMate -- for some types.
**Update 2**: not fixed in 13.1, alas.
**Update 3**: [This app](https://github.com/sbarex/SourceCodeSyntaxHighlight#install-with-homebrew-cask) seems to work as a quicklook previewer for a wide variety of file types, including TeX and CSS. (Thanks to [this answer on the related thread](https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/667435/72039).)
Any ideas?
Asked by Andrew Jaffe
(478 rep)
Nov 10, 2022, 01:47 PM
Last activity: Feb 20, 2024, 02:14 PM
Last activity: Feb 20, 2024, 02:14 PM