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In Mac OS X Lion when you bring up the Spotlight menu and start typing something, a large-ish hint bubble will pop up to give more info about the selected result. That's all well and good except that it occasionally gets stuck and I can't make it go away.

Is there a way to get rid of this window without resorting to logging out?

Alternatively, is there a way to just get rid of those popups altogether?

Screenshot of stuck Spotlight Pop-up

4
  • I like Byword too. :D
    – Bjorn
    Apr 16, 2012 at 8:29
  • Argh and it still happens in Mountain Lion.
    – alxp
    Jul 25, 2012 at 18:45
  • Yep - just confirmed that it still happens in OS X 10.9.2.
    – CS.
    Apr 30, 2014 at 16:27
  • Me too! just now. latest. Jun 1, 2014 at 4:19

3 Answers 3

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Kill the process named "Quick Look UI Helper" using the Activity Monitor application. Frustrating little bug, huh?

2
  • I ran into something similar with spotlight message preview and 10.8.2. A message preview was stuck in the middle of my screen. Killing QuickLookUIHelper fixed it.
    – mblakele
    Nov 27, 2012 at 19:06
  • Tried to upvote, but I already up voted in 2014. So, thanks again. Jul 2, 2016 at 18:49
12

Or type this in Terminal:

killall QuickLookUIHelper

For what's it worth, yes, this bug unfortunately still persists in Mac OS X 10.7.3 - just run into it.

1
  • Still there in 10.9, your solution did the trick nicely
    – Tim Kane
    Nov 18, 2013 at 9:44
0

Problem can be fixed by opening Activity Monitor, highlighting "QuickLook UI Helper" in the list of all the processes your Mac's running, then clicking "stop this process" button at the top.

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