Why is my Preview app Sidebar not refreshing?

I use the Preview app a lot to open files of multiple images, click on the thumbnails in the sidebar to view them at large size, then right click on the thumbnail and Move to Bin for those I want to delete.

Since I updated to Sequoia, Preview has got flaky - when I Move To Bin, the actual image file is moved from its folder to the bin, but its thumbnail in Preview doesn't always delete, which is making things confusing.

(I have to close and reopen the sidebar for it to refresh correctly, which is long-winded and frustrating with a large file of images to check).

I have tried deleting the preference file, but it's still not working as it should/used to.

Any ideas, please?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iMac (M1, 2021)

Posted on May 10, 2025 03:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

BlueberryiMac Author

Level 1

54 points

Posted on May 27, 2025 02:10 AM

I have exactly the same workflow and exactly the same problem.

manuschwendener.ch wrote:

• Describing my workflow, in the hope that it will help to get this fixed.

I'm out taking pictures

• I copy them from the memory card to a folder on my Mac desktop

• I open the folder, select all photos, open them in Preview

• In the sidebar I see the thumbnails, next to it the bigger version of the photo my cursor is on in the thumbnail column

The photos I don't want to keep I a) delete in the sidebar, which b)• also deletes the image from the folder

• My cursor automatically lands on the next thumbnail, and the next image displays

What is broken now is a)

The image gets deleted, but the thumbnail doesn't. My cursor is now on the thumbnail of the deleted image, the image displayed in big is the next image.

This alone would be wrong, but I wouldn't mind just moving my cursor one image down.

But: moving the cursor to the next thumbnail also loads the next image = the thumbnail is not the same as the image.

So I can't go on with my routine of deleting the superfluous images in Preview.

I have to close Preview and start again from the third point in the bullet list.

Which wouldn't be so bad if there was an alternative with the same basic function – but I haven't found one yet.

View in context

Why is my Preview app Sidebar not refreshing?

Similar questions