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Bug Report: There is a conceptual bug in the Preview application. If you open a document, edit it and then choose to export into another file, Preview will assume without asking you that you also wanted to save the change in the original file!!!

There is a conceptual bug in the Preview application. If you open a document, edit it and then choose to export into another file, Preview will assume without asking you that you also wanted to save the change in the original file!!!


You will thus find yourself with two copy of the modified file!!! (I've lost several months of work because of this conceptual bug!!!)

iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.5), 4 GB

Posted on Aug 27, 2013 1:30 PM

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Posted on Aug 27, 2013 1:34 PM

This is the way Preview has worked since 10.7 with autosave and versions.


The good thing is, you haven't lost anything. Preview maintains versions of the document. Go to the title bar of Preview, next to the name, and hover just to the right of it and you'll see a little triangle. Click the previous version and it will revert, and then you can save it.

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Aug 27, 2013 1:34 PM in response to NoBuddy

This is the way Preview has worked since 10.7 with autosave and versions.


The good thing is, you haven't lost anything. Preview maintains versions of the document. Go to the title bar of Preview, next to the name, and hover just to the right of it and you'll see a little triangle. Click the previous version and it will revert, and then you can save it.

Aug 27, 2013 1:43 PM in response to NoBuddy

Actually this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4761154 solves the problem.


Yet, why in the world would someone not turn this on by default!!!


That looks so much like MS Windows typical behavior: putting default values to options that interest no one and only create problems. I'm expecting for an apology from Apple for making this kind of behavioral changes that represent such a potential and concrete threat!!!


So disapointing!

Aug 27, 2013 6:39 PM in response to NoBuddy

I don't know what went through the mind of the developer or conceptor when he though about this behavior... They should at least ask for permission...

Probably the same thing that wen through my mind. Why doesn't the system just save everything I do and I can backtrack if needed?


With Autosave and Versions, I never manually save files until I finish working on them or I need a file for some reason. I never worry about losing what I'm working on.

Aug 28, 2013 8:02 AM in response to Barney-15E

Well, in that case I would say the implementation is wrong. There is a difference between "autosaving / versioning" and taking the decision to save in the original file changes I've specifically chosen to export to another file! That's a wrong assumption and it shows the limits of such "automatic" computer decision.


Besides, these kind of "features" exist on other OS / applications for a long time. I've always turned them off. Most of the time, it gets in my way directly (e.g. it hangs the application while autosaving) or indirectly (it keeps copies of my documents that I just don't want to keep for security reasons). In roughly 20 years of working with different computers and OS, I've never felt the need for such a feature. And I'm not saying “look how good I am”, I'm just saying that for me it's useless and worst than that it annoys me and gets in my way.


Now don’t use against me the typical argument that it only takes one time. I don’t give a ****. I mean, if the implementation would be clever enough (like not getting in the way, not making wrong assumption like the one above, not saving copy of files I don’t want to keep), I wouldn’t mind. But the implementation being what it is, I prefer to live with the risks. It’s like the trash thing that you need to delete files twice because someone think that most people don’t really know what they are doing when they are deleting. Well, some of us know and this delete twice trash behavior is getting in the way.


Same for this supposedly great feature of automatically reopening the applications that were opened when you turned off the computer. Seriously dude! I never, ever, ever need such a thing. Ever. Yet it gets in the way, since when the computer crash or you have a power down, this feature ignore the fact that you don’t want to reopen your applications by default and just does it. It assumes wrong again. It assumes that surely after this crash you obviously want to reopen the same applications. No I don’t! The applications I open need to be opened in a given order and stuff need to be controlled before proceeding forward otherwise it corrupts the collection of data. But mister genius the developer has assumed that everyone is on the same scale and everyone wants his applications be opened again after a crash. WRONG! Seriously, who comes up with these kinds of ideas that are not ideas, and who give them credit to enforce them into constraints rather then leaving it as options???


One last one, take for example this “feature” in Safari where you can reopen all windows from last session. Try this. Open Safari, go somewhere on the web and then select “Clear History” from the History’s menu. Then quit Safari. Reopen Safari and although you can’t access your history (it’s apparently gone) you can still reopen all windows from last session. That’s what I call a security issue, not a feature!!! When I say clear the history, it means clear the history, but for some developers or software architect, it means something else obviously. Some people are making the wrong assumptions. Enforcing new features on the assumption that most people will like it is never a good thing to do. Bottom line.

Aug 28, 2013 4:55 PM in response to NoBuddy

NoBuddy wrote:


Well, in that case I would say the implementation is wrong. There is a difference between "autosaving / versioning" and taking the decision to save in the original file changes I've specifically chosen to export to another file! That's a wrong assumption and it shows the limits of such "automatic" computer decision.

I'm not sure what that means, exactly. If you open a file and make changes, how is the OS supposed to know those changes were only supposed to change the future file it knows nothing about?


An easy way to let the OS know is to immediately duplicate the file, then make the changes on the duplicate.

A more convoluted way might be to tell it after you made all the changes and duplicated the file. You can do this by telling it to revert to last opened state.


Same for this supposedly great feature of automatically reopening the applications that were opened when you turned off the computer. Seriously dude! I never, ever, ever need such a thing.

Well, Dude, I always need such a thing because I never shut down my Mac. The only reason it shuts down is because of power failure or required by software update. I always want it to bring back what I was working on when I was interrupted.


Same for Safari. If the system gets shut down due to power failure, I want everything back the way it was. If I need Security when I'm web browsing (I think that is an oxymoron, but anyway), I would turn on Private Browsing.

Aug 29, 2013 6:22 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:


I'm not sure what that means, exactly. If you open a file and make changes, how is the OS supposed to know those changes were only supposed to change the future file it knows nothing about?


An easy way to let the OS know is to immediately duplicate the file, then make the changes on the duplicate.

A more convoluted way might be to tell it after you made all the changes and duplicated the file. You can do this by telling it to revert to last opened state.



Tell me you’re not a developer… You wonder how the application can know whether or not changes need to be saved into another file but not in the original one. Isn’t that obvious??? If the user selects “Export…” it obviously mean that he wants to save the change into another file.


But I must admit, that this used to be “Save As” but apparently the developer did not want us to have this liberty. In any cases, others application I’m using does understand “Export…” as saving the changes to another file but not necessarily to the original one.


Anyhow, the workarounds you are suggesting make no sense. I shouldn’t need a workaround if the implementation was not faulty from the beginning. It makes no sense to me to have to do something in several steps just because a developer or an architect has decided to limit our options.


I give you a very simple example. I’m working in a document. I do some changes and then I realize that I’m not so sure about these changes, so I would like to save them into another file and keep the original as it was before the changes so that I can look at both at the same time and visually compare them. If the application just let the user save it into another file, there would be no need for him to save the dacument and close the application, make a copy of the changed file, reopen the application with the changed file and then revert to the previous version. I call this madness!!! This implementation makes the life of the end user more complex. It is so obvious that one really need to be blind to not see it.



Barney-15E wrote:


Well, Dude, I always need such a thing because I never shut down my Mac. The only reason it shuts down is because of power failure or required by software update. I always want it to bring back what I was working on when I was interrupted.


Same for Safari. If the system gets shut down due to power failure, I want everything back the way it was. If I need Security when I'm web browsing (I think that is an oxymoron, but anyway), I would turn on Private Browsing.


I’m not playing at “which way of working is better” and “my father is stronger than yours”. I’m just stating that recent choices made in the Apple universe are enforcing behaviors that may please some people (like you, potentially the majority) but may displease others. I’m also saying that there are no reasons to enforce those choices. They should have been left optional (and some are, but the implementation is bad and it doesn’t always work). But obviously you are just a kid looking for a chat, so that ends our discussion… Fare well!

Aug 29, 2013 4:04 PM in response to NoBuddy

I give you a very simple example. I’m working in a document. I do some changes and then I realize that I’m not so sure about these changes, so I would like to save them into another file and keep the original as it was before the changes so that I can look at both at the same time and visually compare them. If the application just let the user save it into another file, there would be no need for him to save the dacument and close the application, make a copy of the changed file, reopen the application with the changed file and then revert to the previous version. I call this madness!!! This implementation makes the life of the end user more complex. It is so obvious that one really need to be blind to not see it.

Duplicate. Click on original. Revert to last Saved.


Even simpler, Title menu, Browse All Versions.

Aug 30, 2013 12:23 PM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:


Duplicate. Click on original. Revert to last Saved.


This seems to work... I still don't get why they've replaced "Save as" by "Duplicate" and why the "Ask to keep changes when closing documents" was not set by default (which is what introduced the confusion in the first place). From what I understand, these changes were introduced since 10.7, but since I seldomly use Aple native applications for editing, I haven't noticed them yet.


I wonder if it is possible to erase the previous versions stored locally (other then by doing duplicate and then erasing the original file). And where are these "previous" versions stored anyway? It reminds me of MS Word when it used to keep all changes in the orginal file, so the file kept getting bigger and bigger to the point that sometimes it would crash. I don't know, for me there is something unethical when an OS/application starts doing things you haven't ask it to do and there is no way you can stop it doing it...

Aug 30, 2013 2:17 PM in response to NoBuddy

The "chunks" are stored in a hidden directory on the root of the hard drive, .DocumentRevisions-V100. They are not stored with the files, themselves.


The Ask to keep changes checkbox was added in Mountain Lion so it would not AutoSave on closing. Since Auto-Save is the default behavior, it is unchecked.


The only ways I know to delete the versions is similar to what you surmised. You could also Export, or Save As.

Any file you send or move to a server will not retain the versions on that copy.


The info on Versions and Auto-Save was available on the Lion webpage when it was current. The only thing listed on Mountain Lion is the changes to Auto-Save. Both features were/are documented.

Apr 5, 2015 5:45 AM in response to Ellyenne

Ellyenne wrote:


Hi,

Deleting all versions DOES NOT WORK. The file retains it's large size, even if you reduce the image size. I'm trying to make downsized copies, and I can't. This means I will have to go back to using Adobe. Really not happy that this cannot be disabled with a single click.

Versions are not saved inside the file, therefor the versions aren't the reason the file is large.

If you are talking about PDFs, Preview isn't very efficient.

Apr 23, 2015 4:50 PM in response to Barney-15E

User uploaded file

Yes, but I've been doing this for years with prior releases of Preview, AND IT ALWAYS WORKED IN THE PAST.

Same file, twice the size. Don't tell me that the changes "are not kept in the file". It's pretty obvious that SOMETHING has been added to the file, and all I did was move the pages around.

I tried again with just removing pages - removing half the pages and the file ended up the SAME size it started.

There is a huge problem here.

And, I can't get any help fixing it.

Bug Report: There is a conceptual bug in the Preview application. If you open a document, edit it and then choose to export into another file, Preview will assume without asking you that you also wanted to save the change in the original file!!!

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