PDFs won't open since Catalina

Having resolved the same issue by allowing Dropbox to access my computer a few weeks ago, today the problem suddenly started reoccurring.

Sod it, I have now deleted Dropbox from my system.

Problem resolved.

This shouldn't be the way to resolve an issue but in my case I wasn't using Dropbox anyway.

Thank you! I did both Terminal commands, and a cold boot (shut down and manualy start the computer).

It solved few other issues too (slow desktop display after logging in, opening Finder window with the Jump to folder, etc)

Thanks again your tipps.

I also had this problem. My solution was to right click the pdf file and select Get Info. There is a small section named "Open with:", which showed Preview as the default already. I simply clicked the dropdown button and reselected Preview as the preferred option.

The button "Change All.." then became available to select, which I did select and also then confirmed the dialog box to update to use preview for all similar docs.

Worked after that. Good luck!

Absolutely have the same problem.

It occurred after the Catalina update.

All the other PDF apps (Acrobat Reader, PDF Expert) can open the PDFs that Preview chokes on.

Can preview the files in Finder with no problem. It's only Preview that has the issue.

Have reset permissions via Finder + diskutility, restarted and it makes no difference whatsoever.

Just tried

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

and restarted. Preview now works!

Badmin wrote:

Absolutely have the same problem.

It occurred after the Catalina update.

All the other PDF apps (Acrobat Reader, PDF Expert) can open the PDFs that Preview chokes on.

Can preview the files in Finder with no problem. It's only Preview that has the issue.

Have reset permissions via Finder + diskutility, restarted and it makes no difference whatsoever.

It was the

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

that did it for me after a reset. Tried everything else to no avail.

garycmartin wrote:

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

I've had this issue three times now. The first time, Apple support tried many different things to no avail, and then took a few days to get back with the working suggestion. That suggestion was sort of an atomic bomb to kill a fly, as it involved deleting and re-creating my user id. The second time, I didn't have time to wait for Apple, so I did the user id thing myself.

The third time I found this thread. It was

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

that did the trick for me.

"...That suggestion was sort of an atomic bomb to kill a fly, as it involved deleting and re-creating my user id..."

I suspect you mean they wanted to create another Mac user account and try it there? If so, that is standard analysis technique yo isolate your user library as a source of corrupt files.

When I upgraded to the most recent version of Catalina (10.15.2) I was warned that my existing version of Adobe Acrobat Pro would no longer work. Once upgraded, I could open PDFs in Preview. Then I installed Acrobat DC, hoping to have similar viewing and editing abilities to Acrobat Pro. When first trying to open PDFs in Acrobat DC, it either took a long time, asked me to get a subscription (which I already have), or froze. I had to restart my computer and then downloaded it again. This time I downloaded Acrobat DC from the Creative Cloud via my web browser instead of my desktop app, which prompted the download of an installer for Acrobat DC instead of just hitting the "Install" button in the CC app. This worked for me.

Yes, one of the early steps was to create another user account and try opening PDFs there. Worked perfectly. Back in my real account, nothing worked. Eventually they had be go to a different administrative account. Delete my real account *retaining* the files (I keep pretty good Time Machine backups, but still nerve wracking). Then create a new account with the same name and the same user directory. A number of settings were reset to “factory defaults”; the one I remember is that bash was replaced by the new default zsh.

So, yes, they had me delete and recreate my real user account!

It is one of the reasons I requested a "Reset Library" or "Reset Mail" function as a feature request, but what you did is the eqivalent.

After many years of upgrades I think sometimes it is an idea to create a new user account with the same Apple ID (or restore the MAc as new) and move everthing except User Library there.

The User Account is just a handle and not directly connected with your Apple ID so there was no technical need to have one the same name as before, just so long as it is Admin privileged.

Another thing to do is occasionally boot into Safe Boot.

Third thing to do occasionally is to clone the disk to external disk, then clone back. Clears out the cobwebs.

Neither of the above is really necessary unless, like me, a user is a stickler for a "Sparkly Clean" Mac.

Preview will open documents on my MacBook Pro about 10% of the time. Usually, I can click on a pdf, use Preview's "open" function in the drop down menu, or drag the icon on Preview. None of these works. I could use Adobe, but I really don't like that app.

I have had the problem of PDFs not opening since a few weeks after upgrading to Catalina, and I can report that garycmartin's second suggestion works as a temporary workaround. Note: my PDFs have always been set to open in Preview, which is the default (not Affinity Photo, Adobe Acrobat or anything else), so that is not the problem.

Specifically, if I double-click any PDF file (or open Preview and then File...Open...), then I would expect a new window to open up with the PDF file showing, but instead I get nothing. Preview opens, as is clear from the menu bar, but there is no window, and the PDF is not rendered. Interestingly, the file does show in Finder under "Quick Look," just not under Preview.

To workaround this problem, open Terminal (it is an app in the Applications/Utilities folder), type the following command line, and hit return:

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

Then restart your computer. This will fix Preview for a month or two, after which the problem will recur. I have had to apply the fix about half a dozen times since Catalina.

I hope that someone at Apple is reading this forum and will find this workaround helpful to debug the problem, which has persisted for an inexcusable duration!

Just as back on page 1, it would be good to work out what is different about your Mac because mine and many many others have never failed to open pdfs on Preview.

Which is presumably why no "fix" is forthcoming,

There is still a difference between your mbp and mine, but I didnt say you made the difference.

I will quote Luis Sequera1

"Well, as I said before this is not affecting all users, so we need to try and figure out what is different.

You may want to run Etrecheck and post its report here. "