macOS Tahoe appears to have introduced a regression in Preview where PDFs saved via Print → Save as PDF no longer allow annotation if the original document has an owner password, breaking a long-standing workflow.
MacBook Air (M4, 2025)
When you use Print… PDF > Save as PDF, you have flattened the existing annotation layer into the PDF, and those annotations are no longer accessible, nor listed in the Preview Inspector. You can however, apply new annotations to that resulting PDF as I have just done.
Tested: Tahoe 26.2.1
Specifically Bank Statements. Before upgrade to Tahoe I would save bank statements. Reopen the document - then Print - Save as .pdf. I could then make my own markings, text, highlights, etc on version "2". After Tahoe update, permissions are NOT granted, even on version "2". Thank you for any assistance.
Thank you for your reply. I am not seeing what, specifically you did to allow markup. Could you kindly elaborate? Thank you.
Preview (macOS Tahoe): Cannot annotate saved password PDFs
