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Warning re: annotations in Preview

O

oakrrl

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 1, 2006
85
46
I spent an hour yesterday doing some complex annotations on a PDF in Preview. When I went to save, it crashed - and destroyed the not only original file, but the file Time Machine had saved its last backup an hour previously. Tried lots of things to rescue the file (other PDF programs, StellarRepair and other repair programs) - no luck.

I did a search and have found many postings going back several years saying, basically: don't try to annotate in Preview, known issues with how Apple deals with PDFs. This is quite awful.

I'm passing this along so others don't wind up in the same boat -
 
I've not had any issues with annotations in Preview either. But it doesn't surprise me to hear that others do. Apple never has given a whole lot of love to Preview – which is a shame because it's quite a nice little utility.
 
oakrrl said:
I spent an hour yesterday doing some complex annotations on a PDF in Preview. When I went to save, it crashed - and destroyed the not only original file, but the file Time Machine had saved its last backup an hour previously. Tried lots of things to rescue the file (other PDF programs, StellarRepair and other repair programs) - no luck.

I did a search and have found many postings going back several years saying, basically: don't try to annotate in Preview, known issues with how Apple deals with PDFs. This is quite awful.

I'm passing this along so others don't wind up in the same boat -
Click to expand...
Maybe you can share what macOS version you're using. I believe there are older versions of macOS where Preview was just janky. Seems okay on Mojave onward.
 
ian87w said:
Maybe you can share what macOS version you're using. I believe there are older versions of macOS where Preview was just janky. Seems okay on Mojave onward.
Click to expand...
Sadly, on Big Sur (MacBook Air, 2015/2017), it has problems too, especially when combining PDFs.
 
oakrrl said:
I spent an hour yesterday doing some complex annotations on a PDF in Preview. When I went to save, it crashed - and destroyed the not only original file, but the file Time Machine had saved its last backup an hour previously. Tried lots of things to rescue the file (other PDF programs, StellarRepair and other repair programs) - no luck.

I did a search and have found many postings going back several years saying, basically: don't try to annotate in Preview, known issues with how Apple deals with PDFs. This is quite awful.

I'm passing this along so others don't wind up in the same boat -
Click to expand...
If this continues to be a tragic issue, I might suggest opening a copy of the PDF in the Notes app. I'd kinda hate to revert to the old Sierra games mindset of save early, save often (and pray your floppy disk remains intact). 😬
 
oakrrl said:
I spent an hour yesterday doing some complex annotations on a PDF in Preview. When I went to save, it crashed - and destroyed the not only original file, but the file Time Machine had saved its last backup an hour previously. Tried lots of things to rescue the file (other PDF programs, StellarRepair and other repair programs) - no luck.

I did a search and have found many postings going back several years saying, basically: don't try to annotate in Preview, known issues with how Apple deals with PDFs. This is quite awful.

I'm passing this along so others don't wind up in the same boat -
Click to expand...
I've had the same problem. Annotating PDF house plans, which has created biggish files after a while and seems to perhaps be at least part of the problem. Also if I am zoomed in and annotating then try to zoom out, this all seems to screw up Preview mode. It then wheel of deaths. Preview then won't work at all.
 
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