VW 2024 SP7 SMB "file is in a read-only state" issue persists in VW 2025 Update0

[Arliss Renwick]

Looks like the issue w. Macs running Sonoma/Sequoia accessing files from SMB shares is present in VW 2025 Update0 (even for those running VW 2024 SP 6.) I've uninstalled 2025, asked users to reboot, and this seems to solve that issue. (My guess -it might something to do with VW's QLThumbnailExtension, I see it running after VW 2025 has been quit. The same issue exists in VW 2024 SP7, as well as VW drawing icons in the Finder taking on thumbnails, not the standard "VW icon". Again, deleting those apps, and rebooting fixes these issues.)

 

[Tismacfan.]

This happens when you are in column view on a Mac, and a preview of the file content is displayed. There are two workflows to resolve this issue. Either change the view in your Finder to list view instead of column view, or go to the Applications folder, right-click on the program Vctorworks, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Open the folder Contents > Plug-ins and compress the QLPreviewExtension.appex application.

[Tismacfan.]

YYes, you can go ahead and delete this. If Apple or Inc. then provides a solution, you can decompress it again, and you’ll be able to see the thumbnail of your Vectorworks files once more.

[Dylan]

For what it's worth myself and a few others in our office were having the same issue on certain files only. We're all on Mac and have a Synology server. Turning off the previews worked but I didn't like that all preview were off as I've gotten use to using them. I tried @Tismacfan.'s solution and it's working well for me with the previews back on. Deploying across the office will take time but at least it's working. 

 

Interestingly, I had been working on these files off of the Vectorworks Cloud and the issue only came about when I copied them onto the server. I tried drag and dropping the files over, "Save as a copy" to the server and many other things. As long as the file name was the same, it gave us trouble. If I added "Copy" to the end of the file it worked no problem. I also "Save as a copy" to my desktop and that worked fine, no trouble at all but once moving the .vwx to the server, same issues arose. Our IT person looked into it and it stumped them as well. We also checked for the .ick files and none were present.

 

Hopefully the Vectorworks team and Apple can get this sorted, it feels weird to change files in the program so that it will work...

 

I'm running VW 2024 SP7 on Sequoia 15.1.1

 

Have a great day folks.

[Tismacfan.]

Which apps must be removed?

[VWscape]

We have the same problem and would love a better solution than uninstall/reinstall as this is time consuming across multiple machines!

 

Also, we have multiple users on our Macs. We have to install VW to the admin user first (installing to non-admin fails - VW should just ask for admin password like any other application would), make installed application available to all users, then non-admin users can open VW via the Applications folder. This has worked ok for VW2022-24. For VW2025 the issue we are having is the library catalogue update, which is prompted for EACH USER re-launching VW2025 (also frustrating) fails, presumably because of similar write permission issues. This is despite installing the catalogue for the admin user initially. Is there a solution or patch available for both these issues?

[Pat Stanford]

On 10/4/2024 at 5:11 AM, Tismacfan. said:

Which apps must be removed?

There is probably a file in the same folder as the VWX file with the same name and an extension of .lck

 

That is the Lock file that tells other users the VWX file is already in use. If you are certain that the file is not open anywhere else, you can delete the LCK file and it should clear the lock.

[seamus]

Also having this problem on 2025. And had it on 2024 update 7.

No same name or .Ick files in the folder...

[seamus]

3 hours ago, Tismacfan. said:

This happens when you are in column view on a Mac, and a preview of the file content is displayed. There are two workflows to resolve this issue. Either change the view in your Finder to list view instead of column view, or go to the Applications folder, right-click on the program Vctorworks, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Open the folder Contents > Plug-ins and compress the QLPreviewExtension.appex application.

 

Thanks Tismacfan. This works !

[JuanP]

Following our investigation, we believe Apple’s new large file preview feature is causing files to remain locked after the preview is generated. We are working closely with Apple to resolve this. In the meantime, switching to a grid or list view in Finder, as mentioned earlier, can prevent files from locking. We will keep you updated on any progress or changes.

[StefanoT]

Thanks @JuanP, it's good news to know you're aware of the issue and you're working on it.
Meanwhile deactivating macOS file preview (shortcut SHIFT * CMD + P)  in macOS Finder options is also a workaround, as suggested by @zoomer in a different post on the same issue.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 18 by StefanoT

[HHFurr]

I have been having this problem in my firm too.

We at first all thought we were being gaslighted.

Constantly asking each other if they were in the file we wanted to work on. We cleared that idea up.

Then I reset all the permissions on the server, and check login credentials for everyone, no luck.

Then I thought it might be a hard drive going bad and ran the Disk Utility several times, no luck.

 

Thank you @JuanP for explaining the issue and thank you @StefanoT for posting the work around while we wait for the fix (it did the trick)

 

@JuanP I would like to give Vectorworks permission to send an email alerts that you are aware of an issue and are working on it

vs.

Untold, un-billable, work hours expended by many people across many different firms trying to figure out what is wrong, when you already know and could just tell us.

Edited October 22 by HHFurr

[Arliss Renwick]

FYI, the proposed fixes/workarounds don't work unless someone is willing to: 1. run Vectorworks 2025 at least once 2. then remove/compress the QT plugin files. And if you're in a work environment like mine where everyone's a non-admin user, this means that job would fall to an admin (aka, me) on each workstation, manually. I tried scripting disabling the plugins post-install, but macOS detects the app has been tampered with before it's had a chance to run and blocks it. I guess I could also remind every user that it's up to them to disable the preview option in Finder (not going to happen, either.) I'm waiting for this to (hopefully) get resolved in a future Vectorworks update (as we're not having this issue with any other app)

Edited October 25 by Arliss Renwick

[Peter Telleman]

@Tismacfan.

Hi Tismacfan,

 

Trying to solve this for a colleague. When I compress the QLPreviewExtension, the original remains in the folder, do I delete the original file then?

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

[Peter Telleman]

thanks a lot, i'll try that, and hopefully that solves the issue.

[Mr.Kombucha]

Do we have any updates regarding this issue ?

The solution proposed by Tismacfan. works but is obviously not ideal.

 

It also does not seem to impact every mac / model, we have plenty of recent macbooks, macminis, even studios on the same OS version, some Intel some Apple M(x) and only one had this "preview" issue so far (macmini M2 Pro, macOS 14.7.1 , Vectorworks 2024 Update 7, files on SMB server).

 

Do you have any new information to share with us ?