Macbook....lost "Preview Window".

[Dave in Wales]

When I click the Preview icon I used to get.....Preview File Edit etc at the top of the screen and below it a window (blank area) ready to accept my chosen files.

I have lost the window and just get Preview File Edit etc at the top.

I can find no way to reinstate the window.

When files are selected the window appears.

TIA

[BDennis]

Do you mean in the Mac Finder?

On Sonoma I just get a preview like this if I enabled it in the Finder. I had to right click the grey area at the top, customize then add that preview icon on the left. Maybe take a screen shot of what you have and post it here - CMD-SHIFT-4 and it saves the screenshot in the desktop folder. If I hit space on a selected file it shows a separate Preview window that pops up - I think this is called "Quick Look" in Apple speak....

I have stuff that disappears all the time because I accidentally typed some combination of keys!

Bill

[Dave in Wales]

This is what I get when I click the Preview icon at the bottom.

No Window or pane I believe its called.

[Dave in Wales]

It used to look like this, but blank.

[BDennis]

Ah I think I see what you're doing. So it looks like you have the Preview Application in the bottom Dock bar and when you click to open Preview to launch the app it doesn't show a file dialog to choose a file?

I'm not sure if it tries to open in the last folder you opened a file in and somehow can't find it so shows nothing. It might happen if the last file opened was on a no longer connected drive or SD card.

You could try open a file in a photos folder or something then quit the application and try it again and see if it shows the panel to try and get it out of its quirky mode of not showing anything.

Otherwise you could try reseting the preferences in the Preview App - I found this that might be the same issue:

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-fix-for-Mac-OS-Preview-file-opening-window-not-showing-on-opening-the-application

"Reset Preview's Preferences: If the above step doesn't work, you can try resetting Preview's preferences. Close Preview, then hold down the Option and Command keys while relaunching the application. This will reset the preferences to their default settings"

Bill

[Dave in Wales]

Many thanks Bill for your efforts.

I have reverted to my old work-around....

Locate relevant shots in finder > right click > open in preview > bingo

[blackfox]

If ? Summat goes wrong on my Mac I ask my lad to sort it out ,but haven’t got a clue what he does