Getting Started

Installation

• Download the .dmg file of the latest release (requires macOS 14 "Sonoma" or later).
• Older versions:
  • macOS 12 "Monterey" and later on a late-2013 or newer Mac: Download the .dmg file of Release 2.23.
  • macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" - macOS 12 "Monterey": Download the .dmg file of Release 1.991.
• Open it.
• Copy the QuickLook Video app to your Applications folder (or Applications → Utilities if you prefer).
• Run the app from where you copied it.

Alternatively, if you have Homebrew installed:

• Install with:

  brew install --cask qlvideo
  

• Run the QuickLook Video app in your Applications folder.

After installation you may experience higher than normal CPU and disk usage for a few minutes while Spotlight re-indexes all of your "non-native" audio and video files.

Usage

Thumbnails

Press the Refresh button to clear QuickLook's thumbnail cache and restart Finder to make it refresh its thumbnail cache.

You don't need to keep this app open - Finder will automatically generate thumbnails for video files from now on.

Cover Art

Thumbnails show cover art if the video file contains cover art. Use the File → Cover Art menu item to add, replace or remove cover art from .mkv, .webm, .mp4, and unencrypted .m4v files.

Please check that the new video file plays well before deleting the original.

Snapshot

If the video file doesn't have cover art, the thumbnail shows a snapshot taken from the video.

• For thumbnails supplied by this app you can adjust the Snapshot setting to change the approximate moment in the video at which a snapshot is taken. Press the Refresh button to generate thumbnails with the new setting. Irrespective of this setting, the snapshot will never be taken more than half way through the video. You will need to relaunch Finder or log out and back in again for Finder to start displaying thumbnails with the snapshot taken at the new time.
• For .mp4 and .m4v files macOS always takes the snapshot at 10 seconds into the video.

Previews

Previews in Finder's Get Info and Inspector windows and Column and Gallery views are shown starting at the beginning of the video. Lots of movies start with a black screen, so for these files unfortunately that's all you'll see until you start playing the preview.

Quick Look

In Finder, use the Space bar or File → Quick Look to preview audio and video files.

Subtitles, chapter markers and switching audio tracks aren't supported. For these features please use a dedicated media player app e.g. VLC or IINA. Some files can also be opened in Quicktime Player, but these features aren't supported in Quicktime Player either.

Metadata

In Finder, the File → Get Info dialog shows dimensions, durations, codecs etc for non-native media as for natively-supported media.

It will take Spotlight a few minutes to generate this info. During this time you may experience higher than normal CPU and disk usage.