Quicklookd Thumbnail Time Out Results in "Connection Failed" Dialog (10.5.0)

When quicklookd/Finder attempts to generate previews for some audio files, I get this type of entry into the Console log:

10/27/07 10:44:13 AM quicklookd[473] [QL ERROR] 'Creating thumbnail' timed out for '<QLThumbnailRequest /Users/kohlmannj/Desktop/To Henshin/20071001_28.mp3>'

Finder gives me a "Connection Failed" message:


However, afterword the preview displays just fine.

Obviously this is a local file I'm trying to preview. It doesn't time out with movies or images or text documents/PDFs. "quicklookd" is not an actual process, so I don't know what I could attempt force-restart (aside from Finder, which does nothing). Any suggestions? Anyone else get this problem?

And...Answer

Well, I found the answer:

It turns out that QuickLook queries the iTunes Cover Art database/folder for artwork that matches the metadata of the audio or video file in the current preview. This is fine and dandy until Mac OS X discovers that your iTunes Cover Art Database isn't on your local disk, which was the case with my iTunes library on an external disk connected via an AirPort Extreme (802.11n) base station. Any time when I was not connected to my AirPort Extreme, Mac OS X's attempts to mount my AirDisk to fetch artwork for the QuickLook preview of an audio or video file would fail, resulting in the "Connection Failed" dialog windows.

I was able to resolve this issue by moving the "iTunes" folder, the folder containing the iTunes database files as well as the Cover Art database, onto my local disk at ~/Music.

Note that this solution of moving the iTunes database folder presents the additional complication of having to manually ensure that the disk containing the actual files in your iTunes library is mounted. Otherwise, iTunes will report the files as missing (denoted by a small exclamation mark icon). With the iTunes database itself on the separate disk, iTunes normally attempts to mount the disk automatically.