Preview has become very slow to load PDFs. This is for any PDF file. It still loads graphics quickly. This problem started a couple of weeks ago. I do not have "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" checked in the General pane of System Preferences. Any advice appreciated.
Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up a guest account” (without the quotes) in the search box.
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem(s)?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault in Mac OS X 10.7 or later, then you can’t enable the Guest account. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2.
Step 1
Setup Guest Account, logged in as Guest and Preview appeared to work OK. PDFs would load immediately.
Step 2
Shut down the MacBook Pro and re-booted into Safe Mode. Again, Preview would load PDFs normally.
Then I shut down and started the MBP normally and now Preview appears to be loading PDFs normally. As I watched this I realized that I initially failed to mention a very important bit of information. The slow PDFs were on the Mac Mini server at my office. I didn't realize that until now because working on the server is virtually transparent under most circumstances. I will try it again tomorrow when I'm back in the office. Sorry for the misdirection.
OK, back on track here. The problem I describe occurs with PDF files located on my work server, a Mac Mini running Snow Leopard Server.
I tested it today by opening the same PDF located on my server using Preview and PDFPenPro. I restarted my MBP between the two tests.
A PDF file took 35.2 seconds to load using Preview. The same file took 3.3 seconds to load using PDFPenPro.
Trying to open a JPG using Preview also takes about the same amount of time. Except that as soon as the JPG appears on the screen Preview closes. Then, when I open Preview the same JPG is then showing immediately.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Step 1
Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Post the messages from the time of the last crash, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot.
Step 2
Still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the process. The report name starts with the name of the crashed process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. For privacy’s sake, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
4/20/12 1:58:10.109 PM sandboxd: ([567]) Preview(567) deny system-fsctl
Preview(567) deny system-fsctl
Process: Preview [567]
Path: /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Load Address: 0x10510f000
Identifier: Preview
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [333]
Date/Time: 2012-04-20 13:58:09.327 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50)
Report Version: 7
Backtrace:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x0000000108973516 fsctl + 10
1 AppleShareClientCore 0x0000000114172f4a afp_getMountURL + 112
2 afp 0x0000000112655e03 AFP_GetMountInfo + 161
3 NetFS 0x000000010b1ce295 NetFSGetMountInfo + 147
4 NetFS 0x000000010b1d008f GetCompleteMountURL + 68
5 CoreServicesInternal 0x000000011260ae51 _ZL29addVolumeInfoForURLToBookmarkPK13__CFAllocatorR19BookmarkMutableDataPK7__C FURLmjPK9__CFArrayPP9__CFError + 1535
6 CoreServicesInternal 0x000000011260a2fb _ZL28createBookmarkWithURLAtDepthPK13__CFAllocatorPK7__CFURLmS4_PK9__CFArrayR19 BookmarkMutableDatajbPP9__CFError + 3230
7 CoreServicesInternal 0x000000011260b443 _CFURLCreateBookmarkData + 1309
8 CoreFoundation 0x0000000106ab4219 -[NSURL bookmarkDataWithOptions:includingResourceValuesForKeys:relativeToURL:error:] + 105
9 Foundation 0x0000000106d25fbf -[NSURL(NSURL) encodeWithCoder:] + 239
10 Foundation 0x0000000106ce14ed _encodeObject + 1120
11 Foundation 0x0000000106ce26de -[NSKeyedArchiver _encodeArrayOfObjects:forKey:] + 490
12 Foundation 0x0000000106ce2da6 -[NSArray(NSArray) encodeWithCoder:] + 563
13 Foundation 0x0000000106ce14ed _encodeObject + 1120
14 AppKit 0x0000000107483a00 -[NSPersistentUIRecord generateArchive:] + 177
15 AppKit 0x0000000107c3e03a keyedStatePlistableValueForKeyAndObject + 180
16 AppKit 0x0000000107c406f7 __-[NSPersistentUIManager addObjectForKeyedState:type:underKey:forIdentifier:inWindow:inBackground:]_bloc k_invoke_1 + 114
17 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010873e8ba _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 18
18 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010874010a _dispatch_queue_drain + 264
19 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010873ff66 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 54
20 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010873f760 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 198
21 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00000001088253da _pthread_wqthread + 316
22 libsystem_c.dylib 0x0000000108826b85 start_wqthread + 13
Binary Images:
0x106972000 - 0x106b46fff com.apple.CoreFoundation (6.7.1 - 635.19) <57B77925-9065-38C9-A05B-02F4F9ED007C> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
0x106c95000 - 0x106faeff7 com.apple.Foundation (6.7.1 - 833.24) <6D4E6F93-64EF-3D41-AE80-2BB10E2E6323> /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation
0x10741f000 - 0x108023fff com.apple.AppKit (6.7.3 - 1138.32) <A9EB81C6-C519-3F29-89F1-42C3E8930281> /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit
0x10873d000 - 0x10874bfff libdispatch.dylib (187.7.0 - compatibility 1.0.0) <712AAEAC-AD90-37F7-B71F-293FF8AE8723> /usr/lib/system/libdispatch.dylib
0x1087d5000 - 0x1088b2fef libsystem_c.dylib (763.12.0 - compatibility 1.0.0) <FF69F06E-0904-3C08-A5EF-536FAFFFDC22> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
0x10895c000 - 0x10897cfff libsystem_kernel.dylib (1699.24.23 - compatibility 1.0.0) <80927C55-D4D9-31B6-9CF3-6134FCF1E1CA> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
0x10b1cc000 - 0x10b1d3fff com.apple.NetFS (4.0 - 4.0) <433EEE54-E383-3505-9154-45B909FD3AF0> /System/Library/Frameworks/NetFS.framework/Versions/A/NetFS
0x112605000 - 0x112630ff7 com.apple.CoreServicesInternal (113.12 - 113.12) <C37DAC1A-35D2-30EC-9112-5EEECED5C461> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreServicesInternal.framework/CoreServicesIn ternal
0x112655000 - 0x11265cfff com.apple.URLMount.AFPPlugin (4.0 - 4.0) <91C71C5D-562D-37C4-9131-6E6F086288DE> /System/Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins/afp.bundle/Contents/MacOS/afp
0x114161000 - 0x1141adff7 com.apple.AppleShareClientCore (2.5 - 2.5) <CC62F28C-398E-35E2-B2C0-B85A02E57247> /System/Library/Frameworks/AppleShareClientCore.framework/Versions/A/AppleShare ClientCore
It's crashing in the AFP client code. Only with JPEG's? Not PDF's?
I can tell you that as a general rule, it's not a good idea to use Preview to open files directly on a server, because any changes that you make are immediately autosaved. Others have come to grief over that. It would be better to make a local copy of the file, open the copy, and then upload it if you made changes.
Are the results of steps 1 and 2 still what you said they were on April 18, or have they changed? You said then that Preview was loading PDF's normally after a reboot. Has that changed? When did it change?
Both PDFs and JPEGs load slowly from the server using Preview.
I don't understand the noted problem with using Preview to open files from the server. I don't recall ever having problems in the past.
I performed your Steps 1 and 2 based on my assumption that the problem was with using Preview with files on my MBP. Then I realized that the problem was in loading files from the server, not files on my MBP.
OK, and what about when you load files from the server? What are the results of steps 1 and 2 then?
I did not try Steps 1 and 2 with the server. I will do that and reply back.
Thanks for all your effort in this matter, by the way.
Step 1
Filtering for "Preview" in Console on the server provides no error reprots.
( Opening a PDF file residing on the server using Preview app on the server appears normal - fast response -no lag)
Step 2
Same as above, no Preview errors recorded.
The lag in response occurs when I use Preview on my MacBook Pro to open a file located on the server.
I have noted the following:
Once a PDF file residing on the server finally opens in Preview (app on my MBP) I can use FILE OPEN to open other PDF files on the server with a normal response time. Also, if I open Preview on my MBP first and then use FILE OPEN to access a PDF file on the server the response time appears normal. The lag occurs when I select a file on the server and then use OPEN (with Preview being the default OPEN app).
Clearly this is a network issue. I would look at what's between the server and the client: switches, routers, whatever.
I have the ethernet cable from our router going into a switch and then the server and my MBP are connected to the switch. I will look at changing this arrangement.
Again, thanks for all your time and effort in helping me.
Upgraded our Mac Mini Snow Leopard server to Lion Server. this appears to have "fixed" the delay in opening documents in Preview by double-clicking the file name on the server directory.
Glad it's all better now, but I'm still not sure what the problem was to begin with.
Preview loading of PDFs has become slow.
