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[ROUGH GUIDE] Fix for Finder Preview not working on Mojave 10.14.1+

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There is not board ID in the SMBIOS screen of Clover Configurator? What then?
config_plist.jpg
 
There is not board ID in the SMBIOS screen of Clover Configurator? What then? View attachment 384487

See those arrows on the bottom right? They will give you many options for a Mac model.

However, this will work to give you a model but if you open it up in xCode you will notice an underlying macbook1.1 ID. It will have 40 something entries in the symbios tab. Basically, 2 IDs.

It’s best to open up Clover Con app alone without right clicking the config.plist and creating a new plist then save to documents. Then replace the original created by clover or Unibeast.

Once the new plist is created and loaded into clover folder you can right click on it and edit as needed. For some reason the plist created by clover or Uni gets corrupted if you edit it with CC app.
 
See those arrows on the bottom right? They will give you many options for a Mac model.

However, this will work to give you a model but if you open it up in xCode you will notice an underlying macbook1.1 ID. It will have 40 something entries in the symbios tab. Basically, 2 IDs.

It’s best to open up Clover Con app alone without right clicking the config.plist and creating a new plist then save to documents. Then replace the original created by clover or Unibeast.

Once the new plist is created and loaded into clover folder you can right click on it and edit as needed. For some reason the plist created by clover or Uni gets corrupted if you edit it with CC app.

Thanks! I was actually able to resolve the issue by changing the Product Model to MacPro 6,1
 
HELLO THERE, I Follow your instructions, I found the Mac Board id in config.plist. but I don't find the same board id in the Info.plist file..

What I can do?
 
HELLO THERE, I Follow your instructions, I found the Mac Board id in config.plist. but I don't find the same board id in the Info.plist file..
What I can do?
Not having more information than that, I can only guess. If your Mac Board ID is not in the file, in theory (if everything else is correct) you shouldn't even be affected - but presumably you are since you're posting here. So I surmise your Board ID is somehow a custom board ID, and that leads me to conclude that either
  • your board ID "falls through" and the OS assumes you are using some default board it counts your computer as using. Try to follow that lead, for instance by looking at "about this mac" -> Overview - the top line should show the mac model your OS assumes it is. Try deleting the board entry for that. OR
  • you have other graphics card problems that trigger this error (which might be the case particularly in high-end graphics cards conflicting with on-board graphics). In that case somebody else might help? (I'm really not an expert).
 
Hi all,

after updating to Mojave with my trusted Gigabyte Z77 UP5TH (onboard Intel HD 4000) with NVIDIA GTX670, I found that Preview was no longer working. Tapping the space bar on any item on the desktop or in the finder would no longer yield the expected preview image, but only the spinning circle: Preview was stuck. So I dove deep on this forum, and found various solutions. If you, like me, cannot afford to waste days of figuring out how this works to find the right plugin etc, this might help.
NOTE: Canny Vulgo has found a way to do this permanently via a Lilu plugin -- see here (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/preview-not-working-in-osx-mojave-10-14.263027/#post-1833405).

If you don't want to go Vulgo's way for whatever reason, here is the "quick and easy" fix. It involves changing a setting inside one of Apple's private frameworks, but it worked perfectly for me. I tried all other fixes (except Vulgo's) and they failed for me.

Downsides of this solution:
  • If Apple should choose to update that file, you would have to do it again. You would notice by preview not working anymore... but probably know where to look. I therefore consider this an inelegant but time saving solution.
  • You need a text editor that is NOT from the Apple Store, as Apple's Text Editors from there do not get permission to edit this file. I tried it with the official TextWrangler version from the Apple Store but it can't. Get BBEDit from the same software company directly off their website, and it will do the job.
So here is what the problem is and what you do to solve it:
Mojave installed an internal list of which Mac model can use hardware de-/encoding for images and other files.
This makes some Mac SMBIOS definitions (e.g. the vanilla iMac 14,2 definition I use) incapable of showing images in Preview, as your hardware might not actually support hardware encoding/decoding but the Finder assumes it will because of this new setting.

To change this, we have to remove the entry that tells the Finder it should use hardware image processing for your SMBIOS definition. So that's all - removing an entry from a plist file. Follow these steps:

1. In the Finder, press Command-Shift-G and enter this to go to find the file:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleVPA.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Info.plist

2. Copy this file and save it somewhere for restoration purposes later if needed.

3. Open the original file in its original location with eg TextWrangler or BBEDit.

(NOTE: the AppStore version of TextWrangler will not allow this, see above).

4. In that file, find your used Mac Board ID. If you do not know it, here's how to do that:
  • start Clover Configurator (available above under Downloads->Community Software),
  • mount your EFI Partition under Tools - Mount EFI (probably something like EFI on APFS Container),
  • then choose "Open..." and pick the config.plist in the EFI/CLOVER/ folder,
  • choose SMBIOS and look at the "Board-ID" entry.
    (In the case of the 14,2 definition it's Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61).
5. Once you have found that entry in the Info.plist file, (in my case it was in line 76) it will look like this:
<key>Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61</key>
<dict>
<key>forceOfflineRenderer</key>
<true/>
<key>jpeg</key>
<true/>
</dict>

6. DELETE this section.
7. SAVE.
8. Restart.


Your Preview should now work again (it did for me).
Thanks to Vulgo and others for making this information available.
Hello there,

Im working on new build with some friends, we have the same motherboard,¡ Z77 UP5 TH with an i7 3770K but we cannot have onboard acceleration working properly. We tried everything and nothing works. How did you make it? Could you share your config.plist with us, please?
By the way, we installed Mojave 10.14.3

Thanks!
 
Different Issue.

I found the board ID just fine... but the entry I have in my config.plist doesn't look the same as the one you posted. This is the only entry with the matching board ID. Do I delete this entry?


<key>Mac-BE088AF8C5EB4FA2</key>
<dict>
<key>jpeg</key>
<true/>
</dict>

Thanks in advance!
 

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Yep, you would. Keep in mind that if you delete the board ID that is not yours it shouldn't be a problem, as your system will not identify as having that board, so it would have no effect.

Different Issue.

I found the board ID just fine... but the entry I have in my config.plist doesn't look the same as the one you posted. This is the only entry with the matching board ID. Do I delete this entry?


<key>Mac-BE088AF8C5EB4FA2</key>
<dict>
<key>jpeg</key>
<true/>
</dict>

Thanks in advance!
 
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