Preview app on Mac isn't functioning

Question

My Preview application is not opening any image or PDF files, as of yesterday. When I go to the Applications folder and try to open the Preview app from there, it loads. However, if I try to open a PDF or image file, the file does not open, and I get the "Problem Report for Preview" popup that shows the "Problem Details and System Configuration". Some times I&#x27;m asked if I want to reopen the PDF/image from last time. I&#x27;m given the choice of reopening it or not, but either way, it crashes. When it crashes, I&#x27;m given the "Problem Report for Preview" dialogue box.About My Mac: MacBook Air; OS X Yosemite, 10.10.5About Preview: 8.0Attempts at fixing this:1. Repairing permissions in Disk Utility.2. Deleted ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/ (as per a suggestion I read online).3. Other things I&#x27;ve read online seem to suggest that it could be a font issue (somehow) and I did recently install Office 2016 but I had the Preview app installed for ages (since I got my Mac) and it was working fine between the installation of the final version of 2016 and the start of this issue.4. Used Pacifist to extract Preview from the installation image.5. Re-downloaded the OS X Yosemite software.I&#x27;m all out of options now. Please help!

Király · Answer

Does Preview work properly if you are logged in to a different user account?

Shai H. · Answer

Yes!! (Didn&#x27;t know that; so got a little excited there.)What does this mean?

Linc Davis · Answer

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.☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.Step 1For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn&#x27;t, select          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messagesfrom the log list on the left. If you don&#x27;t see that list, select          View ▹ Show Log Listfrom the menu bar at the top of the screen.In the top right corner of the Console window, there&#x27;s a search box labeled Filter. Enter the name of the crashed application or process. For example, if Safari crashed, you would enter "Safari" (without the quotes.)Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.Please don&#x27;t indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.Please don&#x27;t post screenshots of log messages—post the text.Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.Step 2In the Console window, select          DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ User Diagnostic Reports(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You&#x27;ll see a list of crash reports. The name of each report starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report related to the process in question. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.If you don&#x27;t see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.In the interest of privacy, 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.)Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they&#x27;re very long and rarely helpful.When you post the log extract or the crash report, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That&#x27;s a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Király · Answer

A bad file in your user home folder is causing the problem.Try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist. Also look inside the ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder for any more Preview plist files and delete those. See if that fixes it up.

Shai H. · Answer

Didn&#x27;t work 😟

Shai H. · Answer

Step 19/30/15 8:55:24.597 PM Preview[357]: CoreText CopyFontsForRequest received mig IPC error (FFFFFFFFFFFFFECC) from font server9/30/15 8:55:24.849 PM Preview[357]: An uncaught exception was raised9/30/15 8:55:24.849 PM Preview[357]: *** -[__NSPlaceholderSet initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[0]9/30/15 8:55:24.849 PM Preview[357]: (  0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a65f03c __exceptionPreprocess + 172  1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff827f976e objc_exception_throw + 43  2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a514caf -[__NSPlaceholderSet initWithObjects:count:] + 399  3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a5911ff +[NSSet setWithObject:] + 47  4   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b68d7 -[AKAttributeController _updateStateOnSenderFromSelf:] + 503  5   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b593f -[AKAttributeController _updateStateOnSender:] + 135  6   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b22c1 -[AKAttributeController validateAttributeSender:] + 176  7   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b7095 -[AKActionController validateSender:] + 206  8   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c076e47 -[AKTextAttributesViewController validateUserInterfaceItems] + 116  9   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0f7af8 -[AKToolbarViewController_Mac revalidateItems] + 501  10  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b4677 -[AKAttributeController _syncAttributesFromSelectedAnnotationsToUI] + 82  11  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b2375 -[AKAttributeController setModelControllerToObserveForSelections:] + 143  12  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c085408 -[AKController observeValueForKeyPath:ofObject:change:context:] + 887  13  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e941c3 NSKeyValueNotifyObserver + 382  14  Foundation                          0x00007fff87ea0e38 NSKeyValueDidChange + 463  15  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e59a4d -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverNotification) didChangeValueForKey:] + 118  16  Preview                             0x000000010be15a24 Preview + 182820  17  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e941c3 NSKeyValueNotifyObserver + 382  18  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e93ddf -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) _addObserver:forProperty:options:context:] + 316  19  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e92c8a -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) addObserver:forKeyPath:options:context:] + 107  20  Preview                             0x000000010be18bef Preview + 195567  21  Preview                             0x000000010bdfdbbe Preview + 84926  22  Preview                             0x000000010bdfce44 Preview + 81476  23  Preview                             0x000000010bdf43f9 Preview + 46073  24  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb1e857 -[NSWindowController _windowDidLoad] + 586  25  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb06b83 -[NSWindowController window] + 110  26  Preview                             0x000000010bdf2416 Preview + 37910  27  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb18bd2 -[NSWindowController showWindow:] + 36  28  Preview                             0x000000010bdf389a Preview + 43162  29  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e81ef1 -[NSObject(NSThreadPerformAdditions) performSelector:onThread:withObject:waitUntilDone:modes:] + 954  30  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e81ab9 -[NSObject(NSThreadPerformAdditions) performSelectorOnMainThread:withObject:waitUntilDone:] + 131  31  Preview                             0x000000010bdf37c3 Preview + 42947  32  Preview                             0x000000010bdf25c0 Preview + 38336  33  Preview                             0x000000010bee707d Preview + 1040509  34  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b75f323 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12  35  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b75ac13 _dispatch_client_callout + 8  36  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b766cbf _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 861  37  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a5b23f9 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9  38  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a56d68f __CFRunLoopRun + 2159  39  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a56cbd8 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 296  40  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa756f RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 235  41  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa72ea ReceiveNextEventCommon + 431  42  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa712b _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 71  43  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9e38ab _DPSNextEvent + 978  44  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9e2e58 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 346  45  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9d8af3 -[NSApplication run] + 594  46  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f955244 NSApplicationMain + 1832  47  libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff84a5d5c9 start + 1)9/30/15 8:55:24.851 PM Preview[357]: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception &#x27;NSInvalidArgumentException&#x27;, reason: &#x27;*** -[__NSPlaceholderSet initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[0]&#x27;*** First throw call stack:(  0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a65f03c __exceptionPreprocess + 172  1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff827f976e objc_exception_throw + 43  2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a514caf -[__NSPlaceholderSet initWithObjects:count:] + 399  3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a5911ff +[NSSet setWithObject:] + 47  4   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b68d7 -[AKAttributeController _updateStateOnSenderFromSelf:] + 503  5   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b593f -[AKAttributeController _updateStateOnSender:] + 135  6   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b22c1 -[AKAttributeController validateAttributeSender:] + 176  7   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b7095 -[AKActionController validateSender:] + 206  8   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c076e47 -[AKTextAttributesViewController validateUserInterfaceItems] + 116  9   AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0f7af8 -[AKToolbarViewController_Mac revalidateItems] + 501  10  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b4677 -[AKAttributeController _syncAttributesFromSelectedAnnotationsToUI] + 82  11  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c0b2375 -[AKAttributeController setModelControllerToObserveForSelections:] + 143  12  AnnotationKit                       0x000000010c085408 -[AKController observeValueForKeyPath:ofObject:change:context:] + 887  13  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e941c3 NSKeyValueNotifyObserver + 382  14  Foundation                          0x00007fff87ea0e38 NSKeyValueDidChange + 463  15  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e59a4d -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverNotification) didChangeValueForKey:] + 118  16  Preview                             0x000000010be15a24 Preview + 182820  17  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e941c3 NSKeyValueNotifyObserver + 382  18  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e93ddf -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) _addObserver:forProperty:options:context:] + 316  19  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e92c8a -[NSObject(NSKeyValueObserverRegistration) addObserver:forKeyPath:options:context:] + 107  20  Preview                             0x000000010be18bef Preview + 195567  21  Preview                             0x000000010bdfdbbe Preview + 84926  22  Preview                             0x000000010bdfce44 Preview + 81476  23  Preview                             0x000000010bdf43f9 Preview + 46073  24  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb1e857 -[NSWindowController _windowDidLoad] + 586  25  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb06b83 -[NSWindowController window] + 110  26  Preview                             0x000000010bdf2416 Preview + 37910  27  AppKit                              0x00007fff8fb18bd2 -[NSWindowController showWindow:] + 36  28  Preview                             0x000000010bdf389a Preview + 43162  29  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e81ef1 -[NSObject(NSThreadPerformAdditions) performSelector:onThread:withObject:waitUntilDone:modes:] + 954  30  Foundation                          0x00007fff87e81ab9 -[NSObject(NSThreadPerformAdditions) performSelectorOnMainThread:withObject:waitUntilDone:] + 131  31  Preview                             0x000000010bdf37c3 Preview + 42947  32  Preview                             0x000000010bdf25c0 Preview + 38336  33  Preview                             0x000000010bee707d Preview + 1040509  34  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b75f323 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12  35  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b75ac13 _dispatch_client_callout + 8  36  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8b766cbf _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 861  37  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a5b23f9 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9  38  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a56d68f __CFRunLoopRun + 2159  39  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8a56cbd8 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 296  40  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa756f RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 235  41  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa72ea ReceiveNextEventCommon + 431  42  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8eaa712b _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 71  43  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9e38ab _DPSNextEvent + 978  44  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9e2e58 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 346  45  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f9d8af3 -[NSApplication run] + 594  46  AppKit                              0x00007fff8f955244 NSApplicationMain + 1832  47  libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff84a5d5c9 start + 1)9/30/15 8:55:26.261 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpc.launchd.oneshot.0x10000002.Preview[357]) Service exited due to signal: Abort trap: 69/30/15 8:55:26.328 PM ReportCrash[362]: Saved crash report for Preview[357] version 8.0 (859.21) to /Users/*/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Preview_2015-09-30-205526_*s-MacBook-Ai r.crashStep 2Process:               Preview [2206]Path:                  /Users/USER/*/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/PreviewIdentifier:            com.apple.PreviewBuild Info:            Preview-859021000000000~1Responsible:           Preview [2206]16  Preview                             0x000000010bcdca24 Preview + 18282020  Preview                             0x000000010bcdfbef Preview + 19556721  Preview                             0x000000010bcc4bbe Preview + 8492622  Preview                             0x000000010bcc3e44 Preview + 8147623  Preview                             0x000000010bcbb3f9 Preview + 4607326  Preview                             0x000000010bcb9416 Preview + 3791028  Preview                             0x000000010bcba89a Preview + 4316231  Preview                             0x000000010bcba7c3 Preview + 4294732  Preview                             0x000000010bcb95c0 Preview + 3833633  Preview                             0x000000010bdae07d Preview + 1040509       0x10bcb0000 -        0x10be72fe7  com.apple.Preview (8.0 - 859.21) &lt;9054F13F-6533-303C-8854-C37DDEE165CC&gt; /Users/USER/*/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/PreviewHope I did this correctly :/Thanks for your help!

Linc Davis · Answer

You&#x27;ve copied the Preview app to your home folder. Please delete the copy and use the one in the Applications folder. Never move or copy built-in apps.If it still crashes, see below.Please take each of the following steps that you haven&#x27;t already tried, testing after each one. Stop when the problem is resolved. Back up all data before proceeding.Step 1Launch the Font Book application and validate all fonts. You must select the fonts in order to validate them. See the built-in help and this support article for instructions. If Font Book finds any issues, resolve them.Start up in safe mode to rebuild the font caches. Restart as usual and test.Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t start in safe mode. In that case, ask for instructions.Step 2Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following items, if they exist:          Containers/com.apple.Preview          Containers/com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper          Group Containers/com.apple.Preview          Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist          Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist          Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedStateLog out and log back in.Step 3Launch the Keychain Access 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. ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.Use the search box in the toolbar of the Keychain Access window to search for items with either of these names:          Preview Signature Privacy          Signature Annotation PrivacyDelete any you find.Step 4Launch the Font Book application again, then from the menu bar, select          File ▹ Restore Standard Fonts...You&#x27;ll be prompted to confirm, and then to enter your administrator login password.

Shai H. · Answer

It worked after Step 2!Thank you so much!!!