Disappearing Markups on PDFs

Hi all,

just worked on a PDF for quite some time and now all my markups are gone.

I tried to create a new PDF with visible markups without success, but I realized that the actual filesize increased from 1MB to 40MB. So I think all my markups are still somewhere...

On the good side, I was able to reproduce this problem multiple times.

Opening a PDF, creating some markups on page 1, closing it and reopening it works perfectly fine.

Multipe iterations with markups on page 1 : no problem.

But as soon as I open the PDF, create markups on page 2 and close the file, all markups on page 1 are gone after reopening the file.

I was able to reproduce this with local files, files on iCloud and files on a different server.

If someone was able to resolve this issue in the meantime using iOS 11.3, that would come in very handy.

To everyone: This happened on first version of iOS11, but was fixed in first apple ios update.

Last update before 11.2.2 files pdf annotation was unastable (closing,dissapearing when not wireless connection..) and after last update we are back to the first bug.

The others sittuation mentioned (email annotation etc) i think are solved (remember to update your computers to Sierra because in Capitan annotaions doesnt show in Preview App) , but this one is not.

So, i hope Apple actualy reads this forum because the only way to solve is in next update, and i just lost 8 months of work because this bug.

(ps: sorry for my english)

This is a frustrating activity. I created a roster using Excel spreadsheet and saved it as a PDF on OneDrive. I opened the PDF roster, and had people signing next to their name as receiving a document. Well, there are no signatures to be seen on that PDF at all. What a waste of time. I would like to use the Apple iOS 11 version of markup, but seeing all the complaints/comments/notification about this problem, I am moving back to old faithful -- Readdle's PDF Expert. I can mark that up all day long with no hiccups at all. That is what I recommend until Apple gets their act back together. Sure do miss Steve Jobs.

When you markup a PDF as an attachment, it's intended for filling and then sending to someone.

The attachemnt will remain as it was received, see: Use Markup in Mail on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

If you want to markup and change a PDF to be saved with your markups, you need to make a copy of it from the attachment, and then mark up the copy.

Tap the PDF attachment in the email, tap the export button (square with arrow pointing up), then choose where you want to save the copy (import with iBooks, or Add to iCloud Drive or antoehr location of your choice.)

The markup the PDF there.

I recently ran across this problem trying to sign a PDF. It would not save the signature or create the return mail. I discovered this was caused by the fact that the PDF I was trying to mark up had security setting on it for read only. It was a vehicle registration that I wanted to sign and print but, because the DOT put security on it wouldn't work. Apple needs to have something pop up and tell you when a PDF has security restrictions on it. Hope this helps.

Found a work around. Ran into this same issue with a PDF for an IRA application. The markup was retained on the original device (MBa) but even in iCloud Drive (on iPhone, iPad) would lose markup. Tried saving the original, marked up PDF to a new file as nameofthefile2.pdf - no luck. However, if you open with Preview and do File > Print > Select PDF > Save as PDF to create a new copy, this one retains mark up. This one I was finally able to email to another of my accounts and verify it went through. Hope it helps.

It’s a basic principle of system (incl. app) development that no user entered information is allowed to be discarded without the confirmation of the user —at least for the last fourty years. It is fightening that this way of operation of ibooks is intentional, and not an implementation failure. It is obvous that there were no independent user test: only the developer and the architect tested the app, and the test scenario was set up according to the failed design.

I am sure that Apple will review this concept soon and this dangerous approach to user entered data will not sread to other solutions of the company, hopefully disappear from here with the next release.

i am having a problem with whole files disappearing! I thought iBooks was maybe working again. It was allowing me to rename files (though when I went back, some changes were gone!) so I spent hours redoing my categories. I like to use iBooks for my pdf crochet patterns. Tonight I went to move a pattern from Dropbox to iBooks but not only did the pattern disappear when I opened it, so did the two patterns I had in one of my categories. Just vanished! I am so totally fed up with iBooks! It has been getting worse and worse and Apple doesn’t seem to care about fixing it. I’m off to find something comparable! I would just leave them in Dropbox, but I can’t access the files when offline.

i used to love iBooks but not anymore. Now I hate it!

Thanks for the trick to get edit back - kill & restart ibooks. What a nuisance. I wonder whether at Apple there aren’t too few people working on too many projects. Sloppy implementations. Reminds me of Maps - pressure to get something out, buggy or not.

OUCH!

DON'T TRUST SAVE OPTION ON MARK UPS IN PREVIEW!

Just lost an hour and a half of markup work on a screen shot of my architecture firms building drawing. ... lost similar work the day before and thought it was my fault. So I made point of checking and saving. No Record of progress saves in the the "File - Revert To - Browse All Versions" But the file exists but all but the first version are blanks with the background shade set in preferences. Only the first screen shows the original drawing without any of the 90 minutes of mark ups. Not Good.

A work around is to take a second screen shot of the work and review to confirm it worked. Do this before closing the app. But in the meantime Apple Preview has a serious reliability problem. Hope this helps Jc

OUCH!

DON'T TRUST 'SAVE' FILE WHEN USING MARK UPS IN PREVIEW!

A second work around is to doIntermittent saving works but if and only if (iff) you can see each saved version in a finder window. Sometimes I needed to save it twice before seeing it show up in the finder window. WARNING this is a buggy issue. Otherwise beware! saving at the end of your work is NOT dependable.
Apple Preview has a serious reliability problem!

Hope this helps Jc

If you’re doing a lot of PDF markup, it’s worthwhile in my opinion to buy one of the apps designed specifically for that, like GoodReader, PDF Expert, iAnnotate PDF, etc. These apps have been designed from their inception for detailed and complex PDF markup work, not just reading PDFs with some markup features tacked on.