Jiahao Chen

Product

macOS Quicklook

Problem

When you have a csv file, Quicklook will try to generate a preview image (thumbnail) for it.

This is fine for small KB-sized files, but when you have a MB-sized csv dataset, Quicklook eats 100% of your CPU to generate the preview image — even though you never asked for it.

You might think you solve this by removing appropriate .qlgenerator file in /System/Library/QuickLook. Sorry, you can’t, due to System Integrity Protection.(It’s probably a bad idea to disable SIP.)

$ sudo rm -rf Office.qlgenerator

rm: Office.qlgenerator/: Operation not permitted

Proposed Solution

In Preview settings / Quicklook settings, allow user to exclude certain file extensions from generating thumbnails.

Status

Submitted to Apple (Oct 27, 2019)

Apple fixed this issue in macOS 10.15.2 beta