How do I make the Spotlight menu hint bubble go away in OS X Lion?

Question

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

Argh and it still happens in Mountain Lion. – alxp Jul 25 '12 at 18:45 — alxp, Jul 25 '12 at 18:45
Yep - just confirmed that it still happens in OS X 10.9.2. – CS. Apr 30 '14 at 16:27 — CS., Apr 30 '14 at 16:27
Me too! just now. latest. – david van brink Jun 01 '14 at 04:19 — david van brink, Jun 01 '14 at 04:19

score 25 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 08 '11 at 04:56

25

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

answered Aug 08 '11 at 04:56

Kyle Krafka

366

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 '12 at 19:06
Tried to upvote, but I already up voted in 2014. So, thanks again. – david van brink Jul 02 '16 at 18:49

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 26 '12 at 19:26

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.

answered Apr 26 '12 at 19:26

Attila Szegedi

221

Still there in 10.9, your solution did the trick nicely – Tim Kane Nov 18 '13 at 09:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 09 '13 at 10:02

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.

edited Mar 09 '13 at 10:02

Indrek

24,424

answered Mar 03 '13 at 05:49

user203767

1

How do I make the Spotlight menu hint bubble go away in OS X Lion?

3 Answers3