Preview is very slow to reload PDFs in El Capitan

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Preview is very slow to reload PDFs in El Capitan

Dear Experts,

I am writing my thesis in LaTeX, and when I recompile the document after changes, Preview is very slow to load pages with PDF pictures imbedded. This seems to be a new issue for me in El Capitan.

Some background information: I use the same Makefile which talks to pdflatex directly (TeXLive 2015 distribution). It is really just a shorthand for

pdflatex main.tex bibtex main.tex pdflatex main.tex pdflatex main.tex

then from the terminal, I simply say

open main.pdf

I used before upgrading from Mavericks, where I had no problem there. I have an early 2013 MBP retina.

I've attached two screen shots to illustrate my problem. The time between loading and being able to view adequately is ~20-25 seconds.

Has anyone had this problem before?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), MBP early 2013 15 inch Retina

Posted on Nov 18, 2015 2:08 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

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Nov 18, 2015 8:55 AM in response to adamdddave

Do you have trouble with other PDF files, or only the output of the LaTeX interpreter?

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Answer 2

adamdddave Author

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Nov 18, 2015 11:14 AM in response to adamdddave

So I looked through all the moderately large PDFs that I had. There is a moderate delay with 30 MB PDFs (one image, delay of 4 seconds, regardless of if I've opened it before), but that's it. This PDF was not generated using TexShop2015. The other document which I posted pages from contains a relatively large PDF like the tested one I had.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

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Nov 18, 2015 12:09 PM in response to adamdddave

a relatively large PDF like the tested one

And how large is that?

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Answer 4

adamdddave Author

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Nov 18, 2015 12:38 PM in response to Linc Davis

20 MB

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

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Nov 18, 2015 2:47 PM in response to adamdddave

Please back up all data. Quit Preview if it's running.

Hold 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.savedState

Log out and log back in. Launch the application and test.

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Answer 6

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 2:13 AM in response to Linc Davis

This had no effect.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2015 2:56 AM in response to adamdddave

Try opening the same pdf with TeXShop, or Skim.

Do they have the same problem?

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Answer 8

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 3:06 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

As it turns out, in TexShop, the PDF loads just fine until the large PDF image in the document is displayed. This results in a blank page, which after loading, displays the rest of the document. If I re-typeset on that page, all pages are blank until this image loads.

As it turns out, there is an update discussing a similar problem in TeXShop 3.57, which is addressed partially in 3.58:

3) In several situations caused by loading a new file, PDFKit displays a blank page rather than the correct content on the page. This seems to be caused by a new Apple design to speed up pdf display by creating and caching bitmaps of recent pages. When the bug occurs, the bitmap is displayed too soon.

When this bug occurs, it is fairly easy to obtain the missing image. With the blank page active, type command-shift-+ to zoom in and then command-shift-- to zoom back out. This causes the page to be displayed correctly.

After the update, I still reproduce the same behavior. So this must be something to do with PDF display, as discussed above.

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Answer 9

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 3:09 AM in response to adamdddave

Funny enough, I also open in Safari, and reproduce the same effect as TeXShop, though it loads much faster (1 second when I come to the big PDF image).

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Answer 10

Nov 19, 2015 3:36 AM in response to adamdddave

FWIW, I just created a large 94MB pdf with two included large images, and there is only a slight pause (less than one second) before Preview shows it.

Safari takes a little longer.

I use a 2014 rMBP.

Are you using 10.11.1?

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Answer 11

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 3:44 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes, 10.11.1

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

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209,739 points

Nov 19, 2015 8:21 AM in response to adamdddave

You seem to have created PDF's that Preview can't handle very well. Any other PDF viewer will behave the same way, except perhaps Adobe Reader or Acrobat, because apart from those two, they all use the same back-end code to render PDF's. Whether there are any changes you can make in your workflow that would make a difference is a question that only the developers of your LaTeX interpreter, or perhaps other users, could answer.

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Answer 13

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 8:55 AM in response to Linc Davis

OK, but I don't seem to understand why it would work fine in previous versions of OSX. If there was a rapid redesign, this must be a bug introduced in the caching, no?

Personally, I also find the idea that I should use a third party viewer as opposed to the standard Preview a bit disappointing.

The large file (20 MB) was not produced using this LaTeX interpreter, but rather root (root.cern.ch), which is completely detached, and was generated on a different OS all together (Linux server at my university). So it cannot only be the interpreter.

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

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209,739 points

Nov 19, 2015 11:21 AM in response to adamdddave

this must be a bug introduced in the caching, no?

That's quite possible. There are known bugs in PDF rendering in the present version of OS X. You can register for a free account on the Apple Developer site and file a bug report, if you wish.

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Answer 15

adamdddave Author

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Nov 19, 2015 12:21 PM in response to Linc Davis

filed a bug report. Will update as things become available.

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