nsparnell

Q: Preview is very slow after Yosemite upgrade.

I just upgraded to Yosemite (OS X 10.10) and now my Preview app is so slow it's almost unusable. It loads fine, but scrolling PDFs is frustratingly choppy and slow. There are no outstanding software updates and I've tried turning down the RAM usage of Yosemite and graphics by using less translucence, turning off Dashboard, etc. Anyone have a fix?

 

Late 2012 13" MacBook Pro Retina

8GB RAM

2.5 GHz Core i5

Approx 20GB free on my SSD.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10), 2.5GHz Core i5, 8GB RAM

Posted on Oct 20, 2014 5:37 PM

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Q: Preview is very slow after Yosemite upgrade.

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  • by Marcelo NS,

    Marcelo NS Marcelo NS Jan 22, 2015 9:14 AM in response to magiaros
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Jan 22, 2015 9:14 AM in response to magiaros

    I have downgraded to Mavericks also. 3 Months since the issue was reported and acknowledged by the developer team and still no fix for the UNIVERSAL PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT!. Unbelievable  I have paid 4.000 USD for a computer in which I can't view pdf files.

  • by suisse2k,

    suisse2k suisse2k Jan 24, 2015 3:18 AM in response to Marcelo NS
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 24, 2015 3:18 AM in response to Marcelo NS

    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?

  • by mwille64,

    mwille64 mwille64 Jan 24, 2015 3:41 AM in response to nsparnell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 24, 2015 3:41 AM in response to nsparnell

    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.

  • by suisse2k,

    suisse2k suisse2k Jan 24, 2015 3:43 AM in response to mwille64
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 24, 2015 3:43 AM in response to mwille64

    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

  • by lemon-kun,

    lemon-kun lemon-kun Jan 28, 2015 12:40 AM in response to nsparnell
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 28, 2015 12:40 AM in response to nsparnell

    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…

  • by ice cat,

    ice cat ice cat Jan 28, 2015 5:42 AM in response to lemon-kun
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2015 5:42 AM in response to lemon-kun

    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.

  • by ice cat,

    ice cat ice cat Jan 28, 2015 8:53 AM in response to ice cat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2015 8:53 AM in response to ice cat

    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.

  • by iBarrett,

    iBarrett iBarrett Feb 1, 2015 7:55 AM in response to ice cat
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Feb 1, 2015 7:55 AM in response to ice cat

    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.

  • by bigred12m,

    bigred12m bigred12m Mar 3, 2015 11:13 PM in response to nsparnell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 3, 2015 11:13 PM in response to nsparnell

    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.

  • by miguel.pinr,

    miguel.pinr miguel.pinr Mar 4, 2015 4:22 AM in response to bigred12m
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2015 4:22 AM in response to bigred12m

    Please do! Thank you

  • by bigred12m,

    bigred12m bigred12m Mar 4, 2015 7:55 AM in response to miguel.pinr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2015 7:55 AM in response to miguel.pinr
  • by Gobi Triv,

    Gobi Triv Gobi Triv Apr 5, 2015 11:50 PM in response to nsparnell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 5, 2015 11:50 PM in response to nsparnell

    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.

  • by seanboy1946,

    seanboy1946 seanboy1946 Apr 18, 2015 7:40 AM in response to Gobi Triv
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 18, 2015 7:40 AM in response to Gobi Triv

    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.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Apr 18, 2015 11:26 AM in response to nsparnell
    Level 9 (72,874 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 18, 2015 11:26 AM in response to nsparnell

    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

  • by Scott98981,

    Scott98981 Scott98981 Apr 26, 2015 1:39 PM in response to nsparnell
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Apr 26, 2015 1:39 PM in response to nsparnell

    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. 

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