[UBER Update: Dropbox now officially supports preview icons in OS X!]

[Update: Unfortunately, after a few days running this modification, I have random files getting the green checkbox again. I hope this may serve as a good starting point for others to figure out how to get around the issue though.]

I completely love Dropbox. It has literally changed how I work and manage my project files between my computers. There has been a thorn in the side of this system for a while though, at least in OS X. The icons Dropbox overlays on your file thumbnails to let you know which files are syncing, synced, and excluded from syncing are useful, but they rob the system of the ability to give you preview thumbnails. For instance, take the graphic below of a folder of JPEGs in Dropbox. Instead of a preview of each graphic, you get a blank document icon with a green checkbox. I’ve been making extensive use of “Quick Look” (one of my favorite features brought to the table by Leopard) and the Coverflow folder view to get around this. Unfortunately, it’s still added clicks and keystrokes that just add friction to my workflow. So I’d really like to get rid of these icons and get my previews back. Sure, you lose the ability to see which individual files are syncing, but you can still watch the menu bar icon for Dropbox to see when things are done syncing. If you have Growl notifications enabled, that will be another indication. I think it’s very possible to live without the status icons on each file. Continue reading ‘Regain Preview Icons with Dropbox in OS X’