Preview app constantly crashing

Suggest the User start with Points 1 to 4 and then Test

Still having issues, move onto Steps 5 and 6 and Test Again

Still no resolve - move onto Step 7 and follow instructions therein 

1 - Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.

2 - Safe Mode will also eliminate Third Party Software, extensions and drivers from loading. It will only load the Minimum amount of Core Apple Processes to allow the the computer to function at a reduced Level of Performance 

3 - Does the issue present in this mode ?

4 - Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.

5 - If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

6 - If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.

7 - Download the Application Etrecheck directly from the Developer.

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.

It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer 

The application is free or paid from added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last ) <<<<

Hate to say this, but must agree with a previous suggestion regarding Starting Over from Scratch

A possible way to achieve this is as per below

Scorched Earth Method 

This method will WIPE ALL Data and there is No DATA Recovery - Period.

To perform this action will require booting from a Bootable Installer. 

The Bootable Installer can Only be performed on an Apple Computer 

This will have to be performed from a Qualifying Computer to run the version of macOS to be made on the Bootable Installer. Example : Bootable Installer of Ventura would have to be done on a computer that Qualifies to run Ventura.

1 - Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drive Except the newly created Bootable Installer.

2- Restart and immediately hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears and choose the USB Drive. 

3 - It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. 

4 - Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).

5 - The drive normally is called Apple Media or Apple SSD - that is the drive to Erase and format as APFS with the GUID Partition Map. This applies to macOS 10.14 Mojave and above. 

6 - Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS. 

7 - Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time. 

8 - Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the newer version of macOS.

FWIW, it works fine on my Macs running Ventura. Try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally. Sometimes that will fix anomalies.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Once an application crashes on macOS, a normal relaunch lets it load its last saved execution state, which may set you up for another crash. Additional to rebooting, I would once press and hold the shift key when launching Preview after the reboot to prevent it from loading its last execution state.

Welcome and thank you too.

There are items in the report dating back to 2011, 2015, 2026 and factor in the AV Software, sorry the combinations IMHO are Toxic

There are no known Windows-like Viruses in the wild that self replicate and affect macOS, because of the underling UNIX  Foundation and Permission Limitation. 

Additionally, in macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 13 Ventura. 

The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that can not be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.

The only Entity that can open and modify or alter this Volume is Apple.

That would occur when a update or UpGrade is performed.

The Only thing this Antivirus software is protecting is the Bank Account of the Developers and for zero return to the User aside from the problems this software creates.

AntiVirus Developers purposefully Market their product to create a “ Fear Factor “. In so doing, creating a False Need for their Product.

The The Built in Security  is all that is required to protect the computer.

FWIW, the first thing you need to do is uninstall Avast. AV programs are unnecessary and are known to cause problems.

I would mention your Mac is a mess. You must have been migrating over previous versions for a long time. You have software installed that hasn't worked for years.

If it were my Mac, I would do a clean install and only install apps you need.

I have filed over a dozen Preview crash reports with Apple over the last couple of months. Not sure what happened but Preview has become less reliable than the 1999 version of Windows ME.

Here is what I have observed:

First issue:

I have Screenshot set to send screen captures to Preview. Recently Preview started periodically opening the last screen capture along with the current screen capture.

Second issue:

When opening Preview a unrequested file will decide to open. Preview will then crash about ten seconds later.

Third Issue:

Capturing and sending a screen shot to Preview will often cause the Preview file open dialog box to appear. This is totally unnecessary. The image is coming from Screenshot not a file.

From what appears in the below Link from Apple - this can be done on PDF files

Though, I do not see reference to performing this same action on JPEG files

As experiment, I tried to perform this action on a PDF files and it worked

Tried on a JPEG file, as per your specific instructions, it would not work

Annotate an image in Preview on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

So this is happening to me too.

2018 Mac Mini

macOS Ventura 13.5

I open a screenshot in Preview. When I attempt to close the Preview window it crashes. Then when I reopen Preview it automatically reloads that old screenshot. So every time I open Preview it reopens old items that I cannot close due to it crashing. Ugh!!

P. Phillips wrote:

From what appears in the below Link from Apple - this can be done on PDF files

FWIW, what the OP described cannot be done on PDF files and has nothing to do with Annotations.