Folder Preview Pro 3.1 Mac

Folder Preview Pro is a Quick Look extension that lets you peek inside any folder from Finder without opening it. Select a folder, tap the spacebar, and the app shows you file names, sizes, and types in a clean preview panel. Version 3.1 refines that panel with a toolbar redesign and a few navigation tricks worth knowing on day one.

• Check folder size in the toolbar. As of version 3.1, the folder’s total size sits under the folder name in the toolbar, not in the status bar. It updates immediately when you preview a different folder.
• Browse level by level. Right-click any folder inside the preview and choose the new Contents item. The panel drills into that folder without opening a Finder window, so you can move through nested directories with a couple of clicks.
• Drag files straight out. From the list or icon views, grab any file and drag it to the desktop, a Finder window, or a chat window. The preview acts like a lightweight file browser.
• Switch to Dual Columns view. The new layout splits the panel so you see the folder tree on the left and file contents on the right. It helps when you are comparing folders or copying items between nearby locations.
• Customize visible columns. Right-click any column header—Name, Size, Kind—and toggle the columns you need. Hide what clutters the view; keep what you actually reference.

The app also peeks inside archives. ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7Z, and RAR files preview like ordinary folders, with new 5 GB and 10 GB size limits in version 3.1 for larger archives. The extension works on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 13 or later, and the interface speaks more than two dozen languages from Arabic to Vietnamese.

Sizing up a project folder before archiving: a quick workflow

Suppose you need to ship a client project by the end of the morning. The working folder holds loose design files, screenshots, a few old ZIPs, and a couple of subfolders named after revision dates. You want to know what is actually in there before you dump it into a TAR and fire it off. Here is one way to move through that with Folder Preview Pro.

Select the project folder in Finder and press the spacebar. The preview panel opens to a list view showing every item at the top level. Right-click the Name column header and make sure Size and Kind are both visible so you can spot a stray 800 MB Photoshop file at a glance. The toolbar tells you the folder weighs 1.4 GB in total—too heavy for the client’s incoming mail limit. You will need to split the delivery.

Below the toolbar you see the subfolders by date. Right-click the one labelled 2025-03-screenshots and choose Contents. The panel drills in. Only three PNGs and a forgotten MP4 screen recording. You drag the MP4 straight out of the preview onto the desktop so it does not bloat the archive. Hit Escape twice to step back to the project root.

Now switch to Dual Columns view. The left pane shows the folder tree; the right pane shows the files inside whichever branch you click. Walk through each revision subfolder on the left, watch the right pane update, and drag anything non-essential out to a temporary “cleanup” folder on the desktop. When the right pane shows only the finals, select everything, right-click the archive tool of your choice, and compress. The whole audit took less than two minutes from spacebar to archive.

When Quick Look shows a Finder icon instead of the preview

Quick Look shows the Finder icon instead of the preview. This usually means the extension has not registered with the system yet. Make sure you launched the app once from Launchpad after dragging it to Applications. If you skipped that step, macOS does not know the extension exists. Launch it, then try the spacebar again on any folder. If the problem persists, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security > Extensions, find Quick Look, and confirm the toggle for Folder Preview Pro is on.

The preview panel is blank for a large archive. Version 3.1 introduced size limit options of 5 GB and 10 GB. Open the app’s preferences from its dock menu and check which limit is selected. If the archive exceeds that threshold, the preview will not populate. Choose a higher limit or extract the archive in Finder and preview the resulting folder instead.

Right-clicking a column header does nothing. This action needs a click directly on the header text, not on the column row below it. Move the pointer to the very top of the Name, Size, or Kind label and right-click there. The context menu with show and hide options appears immediately.

Drag-and-drop from the preview fails intermittently. The feature works from both list and icon views as of version 3.1, but some third-party apps block drag operations from extensions. If a file refuses to land in a specific application, drag it to the desktop first, then into the target window. That two-step move sidesteps app-specific restrictions without breaking the workflow.

Training yourself to hit the spacebar instead of double-clicking

Teach your muscle memory to trust the preview instead of double-clicking. For the first three days, whenever you feel the urge to open a folder just to check a single file name or date, hit the spacebar instead. You will save a dozen Finder window openings per hour and keep your desktop uncluttered.

Right-click your most-visited folders and pick Contents right away. Folders like Downloads, a media cache, or a daily screenshots directory benefit from this. You stay inside the preview, drill to the file you need, drag it out, and close. No Finder tab ever opens.

Set the column layout once and use it everywhere. Right-click the headers on any preview, toggle off columns you rarely reference, and the layout sticks across sessions. If you only ever care about Name and Size, drop Kind and Date Modified. Less visual noise means faster scanning.

Lean on the Dual Columns view when you are cleaning house. Put the source folder on the left and drag items to categorized folders open in Finder windows on the right. Because the preview stays open even when Finder loses focus, you can drag, drop, and keep moving without losing your place in the tree.

Test archive preview early with a known file. Grab a small ZIP you created yourself and preview it with the spacebar. Confirm the file count and sizes match what you expect. That one-minute check reveals whether your archive format, size limits, and extension permissions are all aligned before you rely on the feature under a deadline.

Version 3.1 adds a Dual Columns view, splitting the preview into a folder tree and a file pane. A new Contents item in the context menu lets you browse folders level by level without leaving the preview. Files can now be dragged directly out of list and icon views, and folder size information moved from the status bar to the toolbar under the folder name.

• macOS 13 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac