How To Stop And Turn Off The MacOS Quick Look Cache

The MacOS Quick Look feature is a convenient tool that allows users to preview files without having to open them in their respective applications. The Quick Look feature is activated when files are selected and the space bar is pressed.

While the Quick Look feature is undoubtedly helpful, it can also be a source of frustration for some users. One of the most common issues with Quick Look is that it caches previews for files, which can lead to issues with the system’s performance and storage space. In this article, we will provide a guide on how to stop and turn off the MacOS Quick Look cache.

Table of Contents

1. What is Quick Look Cache?

Quick Look Cache is a feature in MacOS that makes it possible to store previews of frequently accessed files.
When a new file is selected, Quick Look checks if a preview has already been created for that file.
If it has, the cached preview is displayed, saving the system from having to generate a new one.

This feature is meant to speed up the file preview process.

2. The Quick Look Cache Issues.

However, the Quick Look Cache feature can cause some issues.
One of the most common issues with Quick Look is that it caches previews for files, which can lead to issues with the system’s performance and storage space.

If the cache becomes too large, it can take up considerable storage space on your Mac and slow down the system’s performance.
Additionally, if a new version of a file is created, Quick Look may still display the older version that is cached, leading to inconsistencies.

3. How To Stop And Turn Off Quick Look Cache.

This is where qlmanage comes in, a utility designed to help you manage the Quick Look cache on your Mac.

In the following, we will provide a guide on how to use MacOS Quick Look qlmanage to manage Quick Look cache.

3.1 What is qlmanage?

qlmanage is a macOS command-line utility that can be used to manage the Quick Look cache.
The utility can create and delete Quick Look previews, control the size of the cache, and more.

3.2 How to use qlmanage to manage Quick Look cache?

To access qlmanage, you will need to open the Terminal application on your Mac.
To do this, press command + spacebar to open Spotlight, type “Terminal” and press enter.
The above command will open the terminal window in macOS.

You can type the command qlmanage -h to show the help data for the qlmanage command.
But in the above help information, you may find some option arguments has been deprecated, so you can run the command man qlmanage to get usable command options.
To delete all Quick Look Cache, use the command qlmanage -r cache, this will remove all files in the Quick Look cache.
```
% qlmanage -r cache
qlmanage: call reset on cache
```

3.3 Verify your changes.

After you have used qlmanage commands, you can verify the changes by selecting a file and triggering Quick Look.
If the cache has been deleted, creating a new preview may take longer than before.