Preview window keeps refreshing

Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

Opening a file causes a preview window to load. And load. And load again (over and over). The preview window opens even for filetypes where it doesn’t make sense (e.g JSON).

Steps to Reproduce

It seems to happen not on the first file opened but any subsequent files opening trigger the behavior. Opening a file and note the preview window loading and reloading.

Expected Behavior

The selected file should load and the preview window should open only if appropriate and only once.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.3.7 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 5d56108ff2401c28f239aa2a527ef424ce7719a0
Date: 2025-07-31T04:04:12.156Z (16 hrs ago)
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Additional Information

Stock vscode doesn’t exhibit the behavior. The behavior is consistent across folders, and after reboot or deletion/reinstallation of the Cursor app.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

2

Hey, this is quite strange behavior. Could you check if you have any extensions installed for automatically opening file previews, like Auto-Open Markdown Preview?

2 Likes
3

That was it!

What’s especially wild is that I didn’t think to check markdown specifically because the behavior happened with other file types. And then I see an open issue on the (surprisingly old and unmanaged) extension repo that says “Don’t open other file types”. Thank you!

4

This has been plaguing me for ever!!! great recommendation @deanrie

1 Like