Why won't preview open pdf files anymore?

Still not working.

I attached a picture of the Preview app when started from the Applications folder. This is the prompt to choose a file. As you can see, jpg and png are ok, the pdf over them is greyed out.

On my MacBook air, the pdf function is still working, despite having nearly all the same applications installed. Software version of every Mac is 10.10.5.

Quick Look is not working for pdf files, but works for every other file type like txt, jpg, supported video formats, php and even xlsm and xlsx, ai and everything that always worked. Why pdf support is gone stays a mystery.

Was exactly my situation (your image).

Have you updated some apps recently (Mac App Store)? If yes which ones?

Yes, last updated were:

• Canon Inkjet Printer Software Update
• iTunes
• Shine: Illuminate Photos (uninstalled now)
• Evernote

But:

My Macbook Air has the same applications and also updated these today, but the pdf functionality seems to work just fine.

The only real difference on all my macs is that my MacBook Air has Microsoft Word 2011 installed, while the other 2 have Microsoft Word 2016 installed. But no updates to these have been done.

I also had that "Shine..." update, but I'm still waiting with iTunes... No Canon, no Evernote.

I don't use Word at all, so this couldn't have been the reason here.

I just tried to open a PDF and guess what... it didn't work!

Again I used Terminal with:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.fram ework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

... and it's working again. It's like (temporary) magic!

Did you wait long enough until the prompt returned before closing Terminal? Took about 2 minutes on my Mac.

I think we both need a solution which lasts longer!

The Terminal command doesn't work for me. Also, it only takes about 10 seconds before showing a new prompt, so I guess it is finished. I have a SSD installed, maybe that's why it's so fast.

Booting in safe mode does not work either.

But:

On my Macbook Pro, I created a new user and then it works again! But only for the new user.

I could now copy everything to the new user and delete the old one. This would be a long and difficult task on my Mac Pro, so I will wait for either a solution or wait for the El Capitan update, either upgrading my rig or just doing a reinstall then.

Another seriously strange behaviour is when I open the "Get Info" window and want to change the "Open with" -> "Other", Finder goes up to 80% CPU and I see the spinning ball of death for about 30 seconds.

I attached some Screenshots of the "Open With" option and the "Get Info" window.

You can see that "Preview" is not selectable when "Recommended Applications" is selected.

Last screenshot is of iStat Menus when it is loading the "Recommended Applications".

I'd run OnyX and let it delete the Launch Services database.

There are a few files involved, with long and not always the same names, so letting this utility clear them up is better than guessing the files to delete and maybe forget some of them.

Happened again, and I did nothing unusual.

It really makes no sense to repair it, when the reason for the problem can't be found.

BTW before the damage icons look like this:

Damaged it looks like this:

Has someone reported this to Apple...?

Using Onyx worked on my Macbook Pro! Thanks!

Strangely, it didn't work on my Mac Pro. Still the same problem with "Preview" not opening pdf files.

Somehow, my SSD shows a lot of "hard link" errors when Onyx requested to repair the disk. Also, they don't seem to disappear, as everytime I reboot, Onxy shows these errors and asks me to reboot to recovery and repair my disk.

I hope the SSD is not defective. SMART shows verified and TRIM is enabled, so all should be well.

In order to repair the startup disk, we need to start up from a different volume.

The natural choice is to use the Recovery Partition, if it is installed.

To do that, start holding down the option key and choose the recovery partition. Then choose Disk Utility from the list of options and there you can repair the disk.

That's exactly what I did. Boot from the recovery partition and choose Disk Utility.

However, when I reboot after the disk has been repaired, I get the same error from Onyx and when I reboot to recovery, the disk has the same errors as before and happily repairs them.

But I don't worry too much as everything else works fine and I have a Backup in case the SSD dies.

The main problem of preview not opening pdf files persists.

I had the same problem with Preview not opening PDF's, and it turned out to be the recent Shine update. There's another update from Shine in the app store today that fixed the problem for me.

Yes, the new Shine: Illuminate Photos update solved the problem on my Mac Pro!

Thanks everyone for the support!

Thanks.

I always thought such problems can't happen when buying apps via Mac App Store since these apps are checked by Apple regarding sandboxing...!?

My name is Sam Rowlands and I'm one of the developers behind Shine; yesterday we discovered that Shine was in fact causing this corruption.

I would like to publicly apologize for any inconvenience caused by this mistake, and I would like to publicly thank the "App Store Review Team" for handling this situation with such grace and such speed, pushing out the fix for this issue in just one day.

I have also provided all the information to Apple Developer Tech Support, in the hopes that should someone else make this very same mistake, that it will no longer cause such corruption.

Sam Rowlands.

http://www.ohanaware.com/

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

<Edited by Host>

Here's the first beta of "Preview Reset", which should help track down any other applications on your machine that are messing with Apple's Preview. When the reset button is clicked, it moves them to the trash, resets Apple's Preview and then rebuilds the Launch Services database.

In our tests, once the apps have been moved to the trash, there isn't even the need to restart the machine.

http://www.ohanaware.com/previewreset/previewReset.zip

<This is a Direct Download Link>