Is there a Terminal command to turn on Spotlight previews on by default in Big Sur?

[usagora]

Something that's really disrupting my workflow in Big Sur is the stupid decision Apple made to take away the automatic file previews in Spotlight. Now you have to press TAB to make them show up. And there's no UI option such as "show file previews by default" under System Preferences > Spotlight. For the life of me, I can't understand why they do crap like this

Anyone know of a Terminal command fix for this?

 

[MacInWin]

Ummm, it's working the way you want it to for me. I search for a term and when I click on the results a panel opens with the preview in it. No pressing any key, just a click.

 

[MacInWin]

Here is a picture. I searched for "community" and found these results (among others). Highlighted one, got a preview.

 

[usagora]

Ummm, it's working the way you want it to for me. I search for a term and when I click on the results a panel opens with the preview in it. No pressing any key, just a click.

I didn't have to click before either. I would just hit CMD + Space to open Spotlight, type, and the first search result would immediately show in the preview window (and pressing the down arrow would scroll through each result with the preview of each showing)...no pressing TAB or clicking on the file to get it to show the preview. Also, if there's only one result of a given file type, single-clicking on it OPENS the file instead of previewing it.

I don't understand the rationale for adding a step to do something that happened automatically before, especially when there's no option to revert to the previous behavior. That would be like when you click on Finder, the sidebar is just gone and you now have to click a button or press a keyboard key to get it to appear - and there's no System Preference option to change that.

 

[MacInWin]

Another test. CMD-space, typed "community" and got the list. Down arrow moved down the list. I *did* have to hit the TAB key once to get the preview pane, but after that one touch, the preview stayed in place as I arrowed down. So, basically, its one extra key per search.

Did another test. CMD-space, typed "community" and then immediately after the "y" hit the TAB key. List opened with sidebar.

So is the issue you are having with some automated process or are you just trying to avoid the one key?

 

[usagora]

Another test. CMD-space, typed "community" and got the list. Down arrow moved down the list. I *did* have to hit the TAB key once to get the preview pane, but after that one touch, the preview stayed in place as I arrowed down. So, basically, its one extra key per search.

Did another test. CMD-space, typed "community" and then immediately after the "y" hit the TAB key. List opened with sidebar.

So is the issue you are having with some automated process or are you just trying to avoid the one key?

Yes, ALL I'm complaining about is the totally unnecessary addition of a click or keystroke to do what happened automatically before with no option to change this behavior. What's the point in going backwards in user-friendliness? If Apple wants the Spotlight preview off by default, fine, but for heaven's sake, give us a System Preferences option to change that or the ability to toggle it on/off and have Spotlight simply remember the last status of the preview pane (show or hide) when you use Spotlight later for another search just like Finder remembers the status of the sidebar or its own preview pane (show or hide) when you close and reopen a Finder window.

I've already submitted feedback to Apple. Just wondering if anyone knows of a way to change this with a Terminal command.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

There is no plist option to enable that functionality and thus no Terminal command.

 

[usagora]

There is no plist option to enable that functionality and thus no Terminal command.

I was afraid of that. Hopefully Apple will come to their senses and fix this in a future update.

 

[ferrarr]

I was afraid of that. Hopefully Apple will come to their senses and fix this in a future update.

That depends on how many users request it.

 

[usagora]

That depends on how many users request it.

I wonder how many users requested it be taken away? Something tells me very few if any.