Quick Actions Create PDF Not Working

This was resolved with the latest Apple MacOS update; clearly there was a bug in the previous version that caused this problem. With MacOS 13.3.1, I no longer have this issue.

Hey belairadam,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. Does this happen with the same files or all files that you try to create a PDF with or drag and drop to create a new file? If this happens with only certain files, there could be a problem with the file. In that case, we'd recommend obtaining new copies of the files that have this issue.

If this is happening with all files, let's help to narrow this down some by testing in safe mode and a new user account. Safe mode tells us if the issue could be related to a third-party process or app. Here's a guide about using safe mode, how to start there, and steps to take to test the issue. Be sure to note the different start up methods for a Mac with Apple silicon or intel-based: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

If the behavior continues after going through the steps in safe mode, test to see what happens in a new user account. This will tell us if the behavior is system-wide or only within your user account. After creating the new user account, be sure to log out of your current account before signing in to the new account to test. Here's a guide on creating that account, just in case: Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Keep us posted on the results.

Take care!

The Create PDF Quick Action is trying to create the PDF in the same location as the first selected image, and if those .heic wallpaper images are still on the read-only System partition, it will fail. Same drill if they are on a read-only mounted volume or mounted NTFS drive.

Same here exactly with pdfs in any location (Mac HD, other cloud locations). It worked in newly created user account but not in my primary user account, either in regular mode or safe mode.

The images with which I am working (normally jpeg or png) are typically on the desktop or in my download folder, neither of which is read-only. The exact same images can be combined into a pdf file using quick action on my newly created guest account with standard settings.

If booting into Safe Mode doesn't fix the problem try creating a new Quick Action and see if that will work for you. I'm having no problem with that service on a iMac18,3 on Ventra.

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Some related problems-another thing in Quick Actions doesn't work, converting image types-jpg to png or png to jpg or heic to jpg. Also, pasting jpg images into an existing pdf file does work properly in Preview-the images are not centered on the resultant page. Finally, a question–is this problem present only with MacOS 13.2.1?

What used to be inconsequential with older systems are not necessarily so with the newer systems. And it just robbing you of system resources.

The only software updates on the system in the right timeframe are MacOS 13.2.1, 21 Feb 2023, and XprotectPayloads (Apple), 16 March 2023. The latter is just about the time the problem started.

RESOLVED! YAY

hi there. How did you resolve this issue. I have the same problem - began less than a month ago

The issue is back in Mac OS 14.5.

I just set up a guest user account with default settings, and was able to create a pdf from a set of jpeg files using the quick action process–select the jpeg files in sequence and control-click to pull up the menu with quick action. Going back to my regular user account, with the exact same set of jpeg files, and the same process, I couldn't do it and got the error message as noted. In both cases, the set of jpeg files was on the desktop.