c4d thumbnail doesn't show on MacOS on a MBP

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi philosophy-chemical,

Thank you for your reply. I'm grateful for your post's professionalism in expressing what needs attention and change.

I can instantly sympathize with this kind of frustration, which might sound like a rubber stamp sentence, but doing that for so long, I had my fair share of those.

Since this is a forum to find out something works or creative solution, perhaps workarounds:

I typically try not to solve something with questions but rather post files suggesting an option.

I'm limited here, as I can't reproduce this, so perhaps tell me, can you manually set a preview? Does it survive the save and open process?

That would be an alternative, not a solution (at least not in the long run).

Can you see a preview in this file?
CV4_2025_drs_25_FIpr_01.c4d

Thank you for your time

Have a great weekend

[Tisi]

Hi everyone,

first of all thanks a lot Dr. Sassi, you're doing a great job here but it sometimes seems unfortunately you are the only one
I think I can clear things up a bit, but it only makes it seem worse considering the origin of this problem.
AFAIK – means I read it on the interwebs – Apple changed the way thumbnails (and quicklook) works going forward from Sequoia … check this website for details:

https://eclecticlight.co/2024/10/31/how-sequoia-has-changed-quicklook-and-its-thumbnails/

so if we take a look in the package of the most recent cinema4d update from april 25 (sic!) we find this fella here: "Cinema 4D.qlgenerator"
Let's quote the article again:

"...To check whether an app is still trying to use an old QuickLook Generator, look inside the app bundle in Contents/Library/QuickLook. If you see one or more .qlgenerator bundles there, then those no longer work in Sequoia."

So the root of the problem is that it's not a bug, it's simply Maxon failing to implement changes in macOS that have been announced years ago and now are live and breaking things in Cinema4D since October last year at least. That would be bad enough, but I alone already filed two support tickets in this time which have both been marked "solved" not even tackling the real problem, and I guess many others have done the same and/or are fighting with the problem. And Maxon recommends using the latest versions of macos since apple fixes gpu drivers all the time, so seriously what the hell is going on?
BTW Anchorpoint, a 3rd party tool somehow manages to display thumbnails for C4D on sequoia, maybe Maxon should ask Matthäus to come back and fix a few things in the code
I just got the email that my MaxonOne Sub is coming up for payment again, and I never felt so bad about spending the money for C4D since I started using R13 long long time ago.

Oh hey, the article sums it up pretty nicely btw:

"If the app you rely on to generate custom QuickLook Thumbnails and Previews doesn’t yet come with those App Extensions, contact their Support and ask them when they’re going to implement the changes brought five years ago in Catalina. Particularly if you’re paying them a subscription, it’s time they caught up. Until they do, I’m afraid those Thumbnails and Previews simply won’t work in Sequoia, and you’ll continue to see generic icons rather than Thumbnails."

Best, Matthias

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed the website already has been posted, which makes me feel even more disappointed now how little progress has been made.

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Matthias,

I sure get that, and as mentioned, based on using all kinds of software, even small items can get really in the way of staying in the flow during work.

As mentioned, this needs to go to tech support. This issue has a small number of tickets, and I can only add one voice to it.
Please tell me the two ticket numbers and I check with the Support Team how that could be checked as solved.

Please understand that I try to keep this forum here for learning and creative support. This will not turn into a bug update request forum; I hope that makes sense. It is also not how your time is well spent, as this is not a direct way to add to the data flow of bug management.
There are structures set up at Maxon and I can't place anything in it with the intention to set a higher priority to it. That is not how it works. Also, i'm not even supposed to do tech support here. I answer here as I uderstand how things can get annoying.

To say that Maxon needs help fixing code is not very kind. There are only a few tickets created for this problem, and as far as I can see, it is in the works, but as usual, the beta team needs to test this, besides other things. This is not an open-source-code festival doing a jam session while hoping everyone plays nice and doesn't put some bad codes into it

I hope it is fixed soon.

All the best

[Tisi]

Hey,
thanks for your answer, it's highly appreciated (you are a legend since the early days ) , and sorry for hijacking the thread –but one of the problems is that there is no other forum space (other than redshift specific) where this can be communicated. And there are things that a bug report / support ticketing system simply doesn't catch. Your C4D doesn't crash, there is no way of knowing what exactly has happened to your thumbnails, and so no bug report ever gets to the devs – just remember, this affects every mac that has been updated to Sequoia, and Sequoia has been out since mid september last year, making it 7 months if I'm counting it right. And like the article rightfully mentions, it means also 7 months of paid subscription. I'm usually the one who answers any C4D criticism with "it has to get worse before it gets better", and most of the time I think it's true and there are improvements like the revamped core, simulations and so on... But to be honest if Maxon charges a subscription fee and phases out permanent licenses people can and should expect more than to wait for basic stuff like thumbnails, even if there are only a few tickets for it.
Thanks for taking your time to check with support, here are the IDs for the original and follow-up ticket:

#757660 14 days ago
#744429 2 months ago

Hopefully this will be solved soon, thanks again for your understanding
Best, Matthias

[Dr. Sassi]

Thanks for the reply, Matthias.

Thank you as well for understanding.

I have forwarded your previous post to an official "channel". As mentioned, this is not the place, and doing this might encourage others to put the target of their problem here as well. Not my intention.

Thanks for the numbers. I will take a look at why they were closed as solved.

You wrote seven months of paid subscription; were they useless based on previews alone? This is how your argument comes across.

I will check now the tickets…

Cheers

[Dr. Sassi]

P.S.:

I looked into both tickets.

You got a reply from S. and were told by tech support that no clear date is provided by the developers for this; you rated the support. They did all they could and delivered the problem to the developers. tech support has no say in what developers do. This leads to a weird sitting between the chairs for tech support. Even weirder for you, I get that.

S. was clear, friendly, and shared as much as possible, putting all into the right channel.

It was clearly stated that it is in the pipeline. I can't say more about it.

I say thanks for your patience, and I mean it.

I have placed a new report into the system, not that it will have a huge impact. Developer and quality are aligned on certified processes. (no shortcuts.)

All the best

[philosophy-chemical]

Just wondering, has anyone looked into it?

For me, having updated to newest release of c4d still doesn't resolve this. I've given up hope for Maxon to solve this issue given they were initially notified of this about an year ago by various people and it appears their priorities lie elsewhere, I'm wondering at this point if someone in the community has a workaround solution to this problem

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi philosophy-chemical,

Please have a look here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255762577?sortBy=rank&page=1
Add your vote please.

In my private opinion, it seems like something Apple needs to address. Yes, there could be a workaround, but that might be eliminated when Apple fixes it. Meaning, all previews set up with an app based solution might miss the images then. This puts every non-Apple developer in a difficult position.

Yes, having no solution after so many months is annoying; I agree.

My best wishes.

[Tisi]

@philosophy-chemical Hi, yeah it's pretty sad this hasn't been fixed yet. Right now I need to search for some old Project files in my Archive, it's a joke because I have to open every file to check for it's contents. My workaround for now is to use Anchorpoint

, a great project tool in general which has the ability to generate C4D Thumbnails for its own file view. Try not roll your eyes while digesting the fact that you have to use a third party tool to get thumbnails of your C4D files. Let me know if this works for you, hope I could at least ease the pain a bit.

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi everyone,

Please note that any 3rd party app suggested here in the forum from members doesn't mean that we test the app for security.
This is at your own risk.

All the best