Preview is very slow after Yosemite upgrade.

preview is totally unusable on my macbook pro 2010.

even a small PDF is soon slow. I can't navigate through the document

how can this be fixed?

Same issue here. I use the preview to sort out images of my 24MP camera (image size 15-17MB). Loading these images is extremely slow and when multiple images are selected the system performance goes down to a point where OS X almost hangs (sometimes it does).

One has to add that I have 16GB RAM installed. So 10-20 images of this size shouldn't be any problem for the previewer to handle.

I have an even worse issue:

a document scanned from my HP printer causes the entire Macbook to crash. No chances to kill preview locally. I need to hard reboot the machine.

PDF opens fine with adobe reader or on IOS

With 10.10.2 still the same problem… Argh, Apple is becoming the new Microsoft…

Anyway, here a few tips to speed up Preview at least a bit, so one can use it for work again:

tip1:

Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

Delete ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver*.plist

Shutdown OSX

Startup, immediately press and hold the P and R keys while holding down the option (⌥) and command (⌘) keys before the gray boot screen appears, which resets the PRAM

tip2: Turn off "Smooth Text and Line Art" in the Preferences. Of course, that's really sad, because PDFs then look terrible, but at least they are easier to work with.

tip3:

For just viewing, use QuickLook: in the Finder, select the PDF and hit [SPACE]. Strangely, QuickLook isn't affected by the bug.

Anyway, those workarounds helped me a bit (thanks to those who posted them), but of course it's no proper solution. Apple really has to get its act together…

Agreed that Preview is Very Slow with Yosemite 10.10.2.

I cannot speak personally for earlier versions of Yosemite, as I only upgraded from Mavericks last night, & 10.10.2 is the first version with which I've worked.

There was a suggestion to try Preview 7.0 with Yosemite. I tried this, but it has the same issues on Yosemite for me as Preview 8.0 does.

There was a suggestion to downgrade back to Mavericks. I do not think I backed up properly for this to be a viable option for me.

I found a workaround with which I'm satisfied.

1. launch Automator
2. drop in the subject PDF(s) (which will put them in a "Get Selected Finder Items" action box)
3. then use the PDFs Action "Set PDF Metadata" (which rewrites the entire PDF document in place)

Note: if you are using Filemaker Pro with external document storage, do not try this in the external folder itself. It is best to first export any the subject PDF(s) into a separate folder, then "Set PDF Metadata", and then import the PDF(s) back into the source database.

Same issues here. as soon as I try to zoom or scroll through any pdf i get spinning wheel of death -- this was never an issue with the same pdf files in Mavericks. This is happening on my 2014 rMBP and 11" Air. Still NO FIX in 10.10.2. I keep reporting to Apple but I'm afraid it's not widespread enough to get their attention.

I pulled Preview 7.0 off an old hard drive with mavericks installed. I put it in my documents folder and points all pdfs to open with it. I have no more problems. I can put a copy in box if anyone would like it.

Please do! Thank you 🙂

https://irickinspect.box.com/s/6ov22gf0xo8n8y3bcgn4thkfe24hoh86

I am also facing this problem -- but seems to have started recently -- did not notice it before.

I am using Preview ver 8 under Yosemite OSX 10.10.2. with 4GB ram on a MacBook Air -- late 2012 model.

Scrolling and zooming of a 1.5MB PDF file -- which has an image of a floor plan -- was excrutiatingly slow.

When the open the same file using Adobe Reader XI -- the scroll and zoom is very much better.

I am having the same slow scrolling with other documents file now -- which disappears when using Adobe -- so am switching over to Adobe reader till the apple sorts out the problem.

Looks like the problem is clearly with Preview 8 -- considering the post above that Preview 7 is working better.

I have a late 2011 iMac 27"/i7/16BG RAM/SSD and the problems described here just won't go away - I believe they never will. Chrome helps on the streaming and browsing side. It is faster than Safari 8 for sure. I watched a colleague working with a new Mac Pro on movie editing project with.....

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache

64GB (4 x 16GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC

1TB PCIe-based flash storage

Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

Sharp 32" PN-K321 - 4K Ultra HD LED Monitor

This monster cost us nearly £11,000!!! and Preview still preforms as badly under Yosemite on this box as anything else in the office. Apple is now a greed-driven, lifestyle toy company and they have forgotten the professionals whose support never erred in the pre-iPod days. 10.10 is rubbish as serious professional software and it's high time they stopped trying to shove silly watches down people's throats and got back to the core mission of producing the optimum in computer hardware and OS. It's not as if cash was a problem, is it.

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.

Feedback via Apple Developer

My Macbook Air 2014 seems to work OK with preview especially if I turn on reduce transparency. However preview notably slower on a 2014 MacBook Pro with retina display. I tried preview on the new 12" Retina Macbook for use with scientific PDFs (~5 MB files) and it is lagging so badly that I can't use it. I tried several machines at different stores and all scrolled at less than 10 frames per second and threw beach balls multiple times. My primary purpose for that machine would be to read scientific PDFs, but this renders it unusable. I asked one of the geniuses at the apple store regarding this issue. However, she said few people use preview so they weren't aware of the issue. I've also sent feedback to apple several times. What's surprising about all this, is that the PDF rendering engine in iOS is one of the best I've ever used. I have zero lag on modern iOS devices with weaker processors than on the Macbooks. I suppose Adobe reader may be the best solution.

PDF viewing is fixed in 10.11 El Capitan! Smooth as can be.