ON my laptop, the finder preview image on right side vanished, why have no idea, and how get back have no idea. Poked around for 1/2 hour. Not too intuitive and can't even guess the name of the feature.

In Finder, try ⌘-J > Show icon preview.

I think it's what you want.

No, has nothing to do with the simple question.

Sorry, my mistake. That was too specific...affected your Desktop folder only.

Try ⌘-J > Show Preview Column with a vanilla, i.e. nothing selected, Finder window open. You should see "Your Name/Your Computer" at the top of the ⌘-J window and get this.

If anything is selected in the window, the pref will affect the selected folder only.

For command J. which i use often, all time, nother Laptop or Desktop, has the "show preview column" offered. ( catalina)

https://imgur.com/GUvfKpZ

Your screenshot displays the same mistake I made on my first try.

Hitting ⌘-J in a Finder window with a specific folder open, iCloud Drive in your case, displays the pane you posted, which affects ONLY the selected folder.

If you do it in a VANILLA, as I said, Finder window, i.e. one with with NOTHING selected, it shows the pane I posted which offers "Show Preview Column." (The pane will say something along the lines of "kevs's MacBook Pro" at the top as in my screenshot, nothing like the "iCloud Drive" in yours.)

More: Another look at the screenshot you posted suggests that checking "Show icon preview" and hitting "Use as Defaults" will apply the options selected in that pane to all Finder windows.

ok but how to get show preview pane, if not offered yet? ANd isn't it weird not always offered or there?

I'm not sure this answers your question, but the pane your looking for comes up if you ⌘-J in a Finder window that looks like this...NOTHING BLUE.

It's not at all weird that the option isn't always there, because that gives you the option to make your prefs local rather than universal.

The Preview column is ONLY available in the COLUMN view and in your example you are in LIST view. Change the Finder window view to column and the Preview column will be available.

Rats! I missed that and compounded the miss by confusing myself looking at desktop options. Thanks for catching it.

JOe actually it is available in list view. I use only list view 95% time; Thumbnails view 5/ %, and never use Column view. . Found the solution: You go to menu, list view, and it's there. Hide or show preview . Though should also be in preview options but is not for some reason.

I use column view roughly 99.95% of the time, so I was unlikely to catch either situation if you hadn't brought it up in the first place 😜

Thanks for posting that, but I"m unable to duplicate it.

For future reference, would you please post a screenshot of the menu to which you're referring.

Thanks.

I've searched everywhere imaginable, both on and off my MBP, and the only preview pref I've been able to find for list view is "icon preview."

If you've, indeed, found a pref for "preview column" in list view, I and everyone who's been watching this thread from the sidelines would like to know where it is, not just for our own purposes, but for future reference should someone else post the same question you posted.

Thanks.

With a Finder window open in list view, go to the View menu and scroll down to Show Preview. For you keyboard-centric types, it's shift-command-P. At least that's how it is in High Sierra...

Well, I'll be!

Wonder why the option doesn't appear in a command-J pane? And additionally confusing is the fact that the option offered is merely "Preview," which suggests that it's the same as the command-J icon preview option.

Never, ever would've found that one.

Thanks!

(Looking back at kevs's post, he actually told it as it is, but I didn't follow it.)