rjkampen

Q: Cannot change original document in Preview

Hello,

After upgrading to Sierra, I can no longer edit a document in Preview without it making a copy. When I open a pdf from Evernote in Preview, and modify, I get the message, "The original document can't be changed, so a duplicate with your changes has been created." I can't seem to figure out how to fix this. Any ideas, or is this a bug?

MacBook

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 1:18 PM

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Q: Cannot change original document in Preview

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  • by LuisVintheOC,

    LuisVintheOC LuisVintheOC Sep 28, 2016 3:17 PM in response to rjkampen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 3:17 PM in response to rjkampen

    I'm having an identical problem editing pdfs opened from Box.com. It also just began happening after the upgrade to MacOS Sierra. I tried Disk First Aid and repairs but that didn't have any effect.

  • by vdubya,

    vdubya vdubya Oct 6, 2016 7:40 AM in response to rjkampen
    Level 1 (46 points)
    Oct 6, 2016 7:40 AM in response to rjkampen

    I had a very similar issue with El Capitan, and am experiencing it again with Sierra. The difference with me is that it doesn't seem to be isolated to Evernote files. I do have trouble saving files from Skitch (owned by Evernote) that I am working on in Preview though, but I also have trouble with screenshots (.png files) that I open in Preview. During annotation I get a bubble message saying that the file could not be autosaved. If I try to save the file it won't save either.

     

    With me the files are (usually) located on the Desktop which I do have write permissions to. I can also open the same files in PDFpenPro and save them out as PDFs. The issue for me doesn't seem to be very consistent either. While editing this comment I went back and was able to open two PNG screenshots (which I got the error message on before) and was able to add an annotation to each and save out from Preview.

     

    Like I said, the problem for me was there when El Capitan came out also. I did all of the "voodoo-chicken-dance" things  like repair permissions and other maintenance things using Onyx. I think I deleted Preview's preferences file as well. Can't remember what fixed it which of course is driving me a little crazy now that I'm seeing the issue again.

     

    Just wanted to throw in my experience. Hope a fix is found soon.

  • by snruebes,

    snruebes snruebes Oct 9, 2016 12:17 PM in response to rjkampen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2016 12:17 PM in response to rjkampen

    This is definitely not a permission issue as it also happens when I try to edit an unencrypted normal pdf file without any protection and correct read and write protection stored on my desktop!!!

     

    Sometimes I really ask me what Apple smokes! They cannot simply change such a core functionality as it breaks a lot of workflows and tools - not only Evernote is affected - also the Document Management solution "DEVONthink" is broken as I cannot delete empty pages or copy/paste pages in pdf files from within the application anymore which were scanned and converted to searchable PDF files via OCR and automatically imported into DEVONthink via the scanner software (ScanSnap Manager) before as DEVONthink is using the Mac OS Preview app to implement this features.

     

    Besides I saw that even Box and a tool called Zotero is affected when I google for "mac os sierra the original document can't be changed".

     

    One poster in this thread

     

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/61014/macos-sierra-papers-protected

     

    speculates that this might be a change in response to a Dropbox hack but I hate Apples behaviour to make changes due to security risks regardless that it brakes a huge amount of great apps and affects a lot of Mac users in their day to day work. Either they don't care that it causes annoyance for their users or they even don't think about it. I don't know what is worse.

     

    This is not the first time - El Capitan was exactly the same when they introduced System Integrity Protection. It is simply the ignorance of an elephant and the last sign before the big fall. If user find better alternatives they will switch the OS.

     

    These kind of negative surprises cause a lot of frustration.

  • by snruebes,

    snruebes snruebes Oct 9, 2016 12:08 PM in response to rjkampen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2016 12:08 PM in response to rjkampen

    I bet that Apple will not fix this - they will simply ignore it.

  • by HansC,

    HansC HansC Oct 12, 2016 12:05 PM in response to rjkampen
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 12, 2016 12:05 PM in response to rjkampen

    Having exactly the same issue. Don't even have Evernote.

    Just this idiotic thing with Preview under Sierra that it keeps on wanting to save duplicate copies once I make changes (f.e. try adding a page) to the initial pdf. Didn't happen under El Capitan. Very annoying. People on this forum indicating it maybe a Permissions thing. Don't know. To the folders that the pdfs are in I have full read & write access.

    Any ideas??

  • by akb apple,

    akb apple akb apple Oct 13, 2016 8:24 AM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 13, 2016 8:24 AM in response to VikingOSX

    But previously I was able to edit and store the same edited content in I books.But now it is not possible

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