Lion Preview high CPU behavior with PDFs

Question

Level 1

41 points

Lion Preview high CPU behavior with PDFs

Hello everybody,

I really love the new Mac OS X Lion OS!

In adjusting and getting used to the new features and interface, I seem to have found some odd behavior with PDF files - namely one very large PDF that I have that is about 500M in size.

Whenever I open it in preview, my Macbook Pro's CPUs spike to 100% and stay that way for over an hour until I finally quit Preview. I can't even browse the PDF for the CPU spikeage. Luckily I use PDFpen and can open the PDF in that applicaiton, but I do love using Preview to read PDF files with and the full screen view.

I am thinking that the CPU spikeage is the PDF being indexed and in some way, the PDF is causing spotlight to spike all of my CPUs.

If I am patient, will it eventually finish? I really dislike keeping my Macbook Pro in the heavy CPU spikeage state. Maybe if I go into spotlight preferences and tell it not to index that file it will stop? Or maybe it has something to do with resume and version-saving?

Anyhow, if anyone can shed some light, that would be great!

Thanks for any responses.

Mark

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 4:16 AM

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Answer 1

Ankhanu

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2011 5:30 AM in response to gooober

I've been having issues with Preview going out of control too (2011 15" MBP i7 2.2GHz 4GB RAM), but it's not limited to PDFs, it also went through the roof with a small jpg open yesterday (taken on my iPhone, so it wasn't exactly a big file).

Preview has been my preferred PDF viewer since I got my first MacBook in 2007; it's been great... but this sort of performance is a killer; it caused my CPU to jump 28 degrees in a rather short period.

Hope this gets resolved quickly in an upcoming update!

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Answer 2

hansonml

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2011 12:22 PM in response to gooober

I've noticed the same thing. In addition, Preview no longer opens files from the bookmark menu. Instead I get a message saying I don't have permission to view the file and that it's locked even though I'm the one who created it. when I go to "get info" it tells me I have full permission to work with the document and that it's unlocked. Because of this I'm changing to Skim pdf reader.

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Answer 3

Aug 1, 2011 12:47 PM in response to gooober

Since Lion, Preview is slow, bulky, and hardly useable! Help!

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Answer 4

Aug 1, 2011 1:51 PM in response to tomhdreyer

I've experienced the same. My CPU overloads, roasts and everything locks up whenever Preview is running. We need an update ASAP.

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Answer 5

gooober Author

Level 1

41 points

Aug 1, 2011 3:29 PM in response to archerwebsolutions

I am still not sure why it hikes my CPU up when I read one specific PDF, so I just don't open that particular one anymore in Preview.

I can read others just fine. No issues. Very strange indeed!

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Answer 6

Aug 1, 2011 3:52 PM in response to gooober

Heck, I can't even get Preview to launch.

Constantly crashes. Hopefully the wait won't be too long before a fix on this.

Bye,

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Answer 7

DavyGig

Level 1

5 points

Aug 5, 2011 4:53 PM in response to gooober

Adobe Reader works like a charm with the pdfs.

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Answer 8

gooober Author

Level 1

41 points

Aug 5, 2011 9:43 PM in response to DavyGig

Not to be rude DavyGig, but I hate Adobe Reader. I have my reasons. 🙂

Glad you are finding it useful,

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Answer 9

DavyGig

Level 1

5 points

Aug 5, 2011 9:52 PM in response to gooober

Yeah, I hate it too. BUT I needed to get a job out and Preview was not cutting it for me. Since my last post, I rolled back to Snowy fer awhile till Lion (or my Macbook) grows up. Would love to stay on the Mac side of things but my business needs a program that only Windows can run. Oh well, BootCamp works well.

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Answer 10

Aug 6, 2011 2:11 AM in response to gooober

I can't open PDF files at all after upgrading my Macbook to Lion !

This bug is really annoying...I tried anything to fix it:

deleting Preview.plist

manually reinstalling Preview.app

NO-WAY*

Hope a bugfix release comes asap...in the meantime http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/

have a nice day everybody !

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Answer 11

gooober Author

Level 1

41 points

Aug 6, 2011 9:04 AM in response to sunkawakan

Hello Sunkawakan,

Is that any PDF file or just ones that are purchased and maybe have DRM? I'm curious if there is a trend or something.

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Answer 12

Aug 6, 2011 10:06 AM in response to gooober

Hi Goober,

no DRM...just my old PDF files made with Word or Illustrator...

totally open.

I could normally use Preview to see them with OSX 10.6.8.

One thing to notice is I have Adobe CS5 suite and several CS6 prerelease for testing.

In console I see this:

06/08/11 16:13:37,279 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: ([0x0-0x1c01c].com.apple.Preview[215]) Exited: Killed: 9

Hope these hints can help track it down !

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Answer 13

Aug 6, 2011 10:33 AM in response to sunkawakan

Sorry..please ignore the console message...

it was just me killing the program after not opening the pdf :-D

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Answer 14

vittogs

Level 1

5 points

Aug 9, 2011 6:25 AM in response to gooober

I am having exactly the same problem here. And the files are not that big (5 Mb to 50 Mb pdf's).

It is impossible to view or work with pdfs anymore with Preview! I loved the fullscreen mode, with the two pages panes.

I am using Safari instead of Preview now, until a fix is issued. It uses the fullscreen too and allows for a two pages panel.

Hope that helps!

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Answer 15

Aug 12, 2011 12:28 PM in response to gooober

Yes, me too. One twist, after I close Preview with control Q, it just keeps running for minutes and I have to kill the process to stop it. Hope this gets resolved. Using Lion on a Mac Air.

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