diff --git a/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable.rb b/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..70755896e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#
+#  see https://fizzy.37signals.com/5986089/collections/7/cards/1302
+#
+#  Large previewable uploads may take longer than the "pin reads" interval. So we pick a small-ish
+#  number and turn off previews for anything larger, at least until we can come up with a permanent
+#  solution.
+#
+module ActiveStorageBlobPreviewable
+  MAX_PREVIEWABLE_SIZE = 16.megabytes # this is pretty arbitrary, feel free to adjust
+
+  def previewable?
+    super && self.byte_size <= MAX_PREVIEWABLE_SIZE
+  end
+end
+
+ActiveSupport.on_load :active_storage_blob do
+  prepend ::ActiveStorageBlobPreviewable
+end
diff --git a/test/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable_test.rb b/test/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..290cc3cf9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/lib/rails_ext/active_storage_blob_previewable_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+require "test_helper"
+
+class ActiveStorageBlobPreviewableTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
+  test "small files are previewable" do
+    blob = ActiveStorage::Blob.new(filename: "test.mp4", content_type: "video/mp4", byte_size: 1024 * 1024, key: "test", checksum: "abc")
+    assert blob.previewable?
+  end
+
+  test "large files are not previewable" do
+    blob = ActiveStorage::Blob.new(filename: "test.mp4", content_type: "video/mp4", byte_size: ActiveStorageBlobPreviewable::MAX_PREVIEWABLE_SIZE + 1, key: "test", checksum: "abc")
+    assert_not blob.previewable?
+  end
+end