Highlighted text not saved on pdf

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Level 1

5 points

Highlighted text not saved on pdf

I lost 2hours of work because highlighted text hasn't been saved on a pdf file.

I saved the file and reopened it just after, but almost all highlighted text (the majority of it, that's strange) hasn't been saved.

To highlight I used the touch bar highlight tool provided by the Preview app (and it is not that intuitive when you want to use different colors to highlights because menu close up when you select a different one).

I looked into all the checkpoint versions made by Preview of the document, but none saved all the highlights made, just the few ones I still got saved.

Morover the saved highlights are sparse, and since I highlighted the text sequentially it seems just too strange.

Maybe I used the touch bar wrongly for this use, but when highlighting everything looks good, the problem apparently raised when closing the document afeter saving it.

If anyone can help out recovering or pointing out the problem would be appreciated.

My pc is MacBook Pro M1, with Ventura 13.1

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.1

Posted on May 26, 2023 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,595 points

Sep 12, 2023 9:38 AM in response to He_man04

If you're having so much problems with Preview why not try one of the other PDF markup apps: Skim (free) or Adobe Acrobat Reader (free). I use Skim and it's an excellent app.

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

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following;

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

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Answer 2

May 26, 2023 11:33 AM in response to sangio01

Don’t know if this applies to your situation …

I regularly use “annotate” on pdfs with an Intel MBP from within Preview and have found that I must explicitly “Save” for any changes to “stick.”

Inafvertantly “closing” Preview doesn’t prompt for a “Save”, and it seems to remove any annotations since the last previous “Save.”

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,595 points

May 26, 2023 11:24 AM in response to sangio01

The latest update, 13.4, was released a short time ago and fixed a lot of issues. Update to that and give Preview another try at highlighting. I'm running 13.4 and highlighting is saving for me.

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Answer 4

He_man04

Level 1

8 points

Sep 11, 2023 11:09 PM in response to sangio01

It’s 12 September 2023. I am college student and usually face this problem while working on my iPad and iPhone. I lost my data on multiple occasions and now I’m so scared that I take screenshot of important notes I have written. Why apply with so much of R&D has not been able to rectify this major problem.

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Answer 5

May 26, 2023 11:12 AM in response to sangio01

Not really a solution to Preview but I might suggest that you try out Adobe Reader which is free. I use it and it always remembers my saved highlights.

https://get.adobe.com/reader/

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Highlighted text not saved on pdf

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