Photos, screenshoths etc. not showing on desktop

[terra1000]

Hi everyone,

Photos,screenshots etc. arent showing on my desktop, I just get a jpeg, png etc icon but not the actual photo.

I am using a macbook mid 2009 and el capitan 10.11.6

Thank you for your time and effort!

 

[MacInWin]

I'm confused. On your Desktop, what you should see is an icon for the image, not the full image itself. What happens if you click on the icon and then press the space bar to bring up Quick View? (The result should be whatever is in the file, in a form you can see if it's a photo or image. Or you can open Preview and then open the file on the Desktop to view the image.

Maybe a screenshot of the issue might help us understand what you are seeing?

 

[pm-r]

Photos,screenshots etc. arent showing on my desktop,

What do you see or get when you follow what Jake suggested you try???

Did this problem just suddenly start??? You've got mail

Have you done any recent updates or upgrades lately???

What is different from what you used to get???



- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

I'm still confused, but try this. Right click on the desktop anywhere, not on an icon. In the resulting pane that opens, click "Show View Options," then "Show Icon Preview" should be checked.

 

[pm-r]

In the resulting pane that opens, click "Show View Options," then "Show Icon Preview" should be checked.

I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't solve the OP's problem Jake, but if it does, I wonder what might have changed the view option's setting???


- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

Patrick, accidental click, aggressive "cleaning" software, resetting to "default" somewhere, install/reinstall of something... who knows, could be any of a dozen or more things. And, the OP didn't say it just started, so it could have been this way for a long time.

 

[pm-r]

And don't forget... the cat, and then there are those gremlins... ?


- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

Yep!

 

[terra1000]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my late reply, this is what the problem looks like.

 

[MacInWin]

Did you do what I suggested in Post #4? That should fix it.

 

[pm-r]

Did you do what I suggested in Post #4? That should fix it.

And maybe add "arrange or sort by" date, or name etc. which could make them easier to see and separate etc


- Patrick
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[terra1000]

The space bar tip works but I want the pics to show like they used to, strangely enougfh some do,most dont...

 

[terra1000]

btw icon preview was checked, no improvment...

 

[terra1000]

Newsflash: I clicked and unclicked icon preview a few times and all the pics are back!

Thanks MacInwin and all !

 

[pm-r]

I wonder if any of these suggested hints would work and fix your problem...???

el capitan 10.11.6 "Show Icon Preview" not working - Google Search

- Patrick
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[pm-r]

Newsflash: I clicked and unclicked icon preview a few times and all the pics are back!

Good news. I'm glad that little trick to update your preference view actually worked.


- Patrick
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[IWT]

In the resulting pane that opens, click "Show View Options," then "Show Icon Preview" should be checked.

Very interesting, Jake. I just checked and the box is unchecked - and yet, I get perfect results with Quick View.

Having done that, I looked at the same settings on my older iMac running macOS High Sierra - also unchecked, but working properly.

I don't plan to change something that's working well

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

@ian, Quick View is entirely different. What the OP wanted was for the little icon to be a preview of what is in the file. Otherwise the icon simply says "jpg" or "pdf," etc. Quick View works by clicking once on a file, then pressing the spacebar to open up a view of what is inside, if it can be shown. Two different operations, separate from one another.

 

[IWT]

@Jake

I learn every day. I mistakenly thought you were referring to the Quick View function. Anyway, even errors like this prompt one to check settings that we probably never thought of before.

Thank you.

Ian