Tahoe 26.5 Preview issues: I have a MacBook Pro 2021 running an M1 chip. The last several updates of Tahoe have left Preview crippled. I can't select a highlight color and have it highlight more than 1 piece of text. I looked under previous posts and tried those remedies, e.g. shuttiing down and restarting, with no luck. I see the moderator closed the thread without any real resolution, which I realize may mean there isn't a current solution.
MacBook Pro 14″
Hi Kelly,
That's a known bug in Preview since Tahoe — the highlight tool lost the ability to keep multiple separate selections active, so it only holds the last one you made. No real fix yet on Apple's side. As a workaround, you can highlight one section, then use Cmd+F to search and manually re-select each other section one at a time — tedious, but it works. Worth submitting via Feedback Assistant since it's a regression, not user error.
Hi Kelly,
That's a known bug in Preview since Tahoe — the highlight tool lost the ability to keep multiple separate selections active, so it only holds the last one you made. No real fix yet on Apple's side. As a workaround, you can highlight one section, then use Cmd+F to search and manually re-select each other section one at a time — tedious, but it works. Worth submitting via Feedback Assistant since it's a regression, not user error.
The issue you are describing appears to be a problem with Preview in macOS Tahoe 26.5.2, affecting PDF highlighting on a 2021 MacBook Pro with an M1 chip.
The behaviour is different from the usual highlighting process because text can still be selected, but the selection does not remain long enough for a highlight annotation to be applied.
A light blue outline appears around the selected text and then disappears when the selection is completed. The normal highlight colour options do not appear, and no highlight is added.
The usual troubleshooting steps, such as restarting the Mac, have not resolved the issue.
Restart the computer in Safe Mode
Do the issues persist ?
Since the problem began after recent Tahoe updates and continues after updating to macOS 26.5.2, it may be related to a Preview regression rather than a problem with the Mac hardware or user settings.
It may be useful to confirm that the Preview Markup Toolbar is enabled by opening the PDF in Preview and selecting View > Show Markup Toolbar.
If the Highlight tool is available, selecting it before choosing text may help determine whether the problem is with the highlighting tool itself or with the annotation system.
Testing another PDF is also helpful because some PDF files have restrictions or unusual text layers that prevent annotation.
If highlighting fails with every PDF, including a simple text-based PDF, that would further suggest that the issue is within Preview or macOS.
Another possible troubleshooting step is to reset Preview preferences.
After quitting Preview, open Terminal and enter the following command:
defaults delete com.apple.Preview
Then reopen Preview and test PDF highlighting again.
This resets Preview preferences but does not remove PDF files.
If the issue continues, reporting it directly to Apple is recommended because Preview is part of macOS. Apple provides information about submitting feedback through the Feedback Assistant here:
Apple also provides general macOS support here:
For additional testing, you can compare the behaviour with another PDF application while waiting for a macOS update.
If Preview is confirmed to be the source of the problem, a future macOS update may be required to correct the issue.
We are aware of a Beta 26.6. update for Tahoe which is awaiting release once Apple decides it is ready for Commercial Release
As @VikingOSX states, select a highlight color then select the highlight text tool, select a highlight color then select text to highlight. You can select discontinuous text, change the highlight color, etc.
More info: Highlight, underline, and strike out text in a PDF using Preview on Mac - Apple Support
Side note – 'top rated' posts are selected by AI, and the Apple Discussions AI likes to select AI-generated answers even when they are typical AI slop thanks to the garbage in garbage out nature of LLMs.
If this is a scanned PDF that has not had Optical Character Recognition (OCR) applied to it, then you have a PDF wrapper around an image. Even if that image contains text, you cannot apply any PDF annotation (e.g. highlight) to it until after it has been OCR'd. Your PDF may also have user restrictions on it that prohibit you from applying annotations.
Let's check those user permissions. Open the same PDF and press cmd+i to open the Inspector, then select the following to view those annotation permissions. Green means permitted.
We have the same version of Preview and macOS. The process I described in my previous post was done on a non-scanned PDF and highlight annotation works just fine for me.
I can open a two paragraph PDF in Preview, select the highlight color, and then select the first text item, skip forward three words and and select another text item. The highlight color is applied to each selected text item.
If I wanted that second word in a different highlight color, I would select a new highlight color before selecting that word.
Is this not what you are attempting?
Apple does not list every bug that they fix, so keeping macOS Tahoe updated to the most recent version is advisable.
Tested: Preview 11.0, macOS Tahoe 26.5.2.
Unfortunately, since the update to 26.5.2, I'm not able to highlight anything. I select the text and an outline of a blue box appears, which immediately disappears when I finish selecting the text. i can't do anything to it.
Since I'm not an Apple developer, the system wouldn't let me use Feedback Assistant, but I did submit it through regular channels, probably like hundreds of other people.
Kelly Tuesday wrote:
Tahoe 26.5 Preview issues:
The current stable release of Tahoe including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 26.5.2 - I would start there and compare your results.
Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support
Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support
I have the computer set to automatic updates, so it is updated.
What you are describing sounds like the usual way to highlight, which is what is not working for me. Since the last update to 26.5.2, it won't let me highlight even once. I select the text and a box outlined in light blue surrounds it, then disappears when I am done with the control click. The usual color change does not appear.
Correcting myself: I am not using control click to select text; I'm just doing it the usual way.
Tahoe 26.5 Preview issues
