Still a problem...

Heh, it never did for me since the introduction of Bridge!
A solid solution I can advise is http://www.ardfry.com/psd-codec/ — it enables displaying of PSDs, AIs, EPSes, etc.

But sure it should be fixed!

Ever since the update, Windows explorer will not preview the Illustrator files in the preview pane. Please fix.

3 years, and this is STILL an issue.. Aarghh..

Are you using Extensis Suitcase for your font management? Just wondering, as I tried turning off the plugin and now any new file I make, it will preview. Any files I save with no fonts will also preview. However with the plugin turned on, if I save the file with a font the preview is gone again. I'm using Illustrator 26, and Suitcase 22.0.1

I was hoping to find a simple answer here to see the preview of files, we rely alot on seeing previews of files and doing searches daily, why would it just disappear with the update? Hope they resolve this simple feature.

My preview pane doesn't work with any type of files at all. HOW TO FIX THIS?

So, no advances here then :( It was so useful to have had preview icons and then they are removed, surely the techy people know the answer but no doubt will unravel another bigger problem...let's hope they can resolve this problem

Add to my earlier comment, just moments ago. Even some very simple documents will magically not save a PDF preview, but show only a white square both in Explorer and on Illustrator's own initial home-page.

See attached simple test document.

This seems to STILL be an issue i the latest Illustrator as of 5/1/2021.

Very simple illustrator files show a preview or display icons, but others do not.
Not only are there no previews in Explorer (despite files being saved with PDF preview checked), but even illustrator itself shows NO preview. (As in the home page, Recent files).
Files preview both inside illustrator and outside (in Explorer) as merely a white box. No actual content showing.

Strangely enough, if I add something simple, like a dummy text box, in background outside any the art board, then suddenly a preview shows everywhere, both inside and outside illustrator.
But it is a preview showing only that textbox, as if that is the only content in the file.

Not sure what has to be in a file to cause previews to disappear. I tried opening an older (more complex) document that WAS showing a preview, and resaving it with the latest Illustrator. Previews for that document still shows everywhere. Correctly, with a preview of it's 4 artboards in previews as before.

Extremely frustrating.

same here - - no longer see Illustrator previews in the preview pane when I am looking for a specific graphic. It seems like a few are visible, if they are small file size, and/or have the .ai suffix vs. .eps. If I restart my Mac, it works for a while, but then at some random point, just stops working again. Very frustrating when looking for a graphic in hundreds of files, when the graphics are all labeled by number.

Prior to updating to Illustrator 2021 (25.0), I was able to preview .ai files in Windows Explorer preview plane on Windows 10. Since the update, any .ai file I select says "no preview available." "Create PDF Compatible File" is turned on when saving out these files. PDFs still preview the same as before. Is there a new setting that needs to be changed to enable this, or is it just broken for now? Thanks.

When will this be restored? It was very useful to see the image and not to have to open many files which we are now forced to do, this is time wasting when there are many files that fall in the same category. I am using Catalina 10.15.6 and Illustrator 24.3

Still no fix for this??

Still having this problem on 1/6/20. After installing Illustrator 2020 my file explorer no longer shows previews for any Ai files.

I have this problem as well and it is .ai-files that do not show in preview.
If I File-open .eps-files the preview works.