The Preview app crashes
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laogou
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Truagg Posted messages 1 Status Member -
Truagg Posted messages 1 Status Member -
Hello everyone,
The preview app recently crashed on my Mac.
After opening a .pdf that took forever to load (which I will refer to as toto.pdf), and then moving it to the trash, I now get an error message every time I try to open a .jpeg or .pdf:
A window tells me that the document toto.pdf cannot be opened because it does not exist.
This happens regardless of the name and extension of the files.
I’ve browsed some forums where I found the tip to delete the Library/preferences/com.apple.preview.plist file, but I can't find that folder...
The Mac is a late 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.9.5
Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any responses I may receive.
The preview app recently crashed on my Mac.
After opening a .pdf that took forever to load (which I will refer to as toto.pdf), and then moving it to the trash, I now get an error message every time I try to open a .jpeg or .pdf:
A window tells me that the document toto.pdf cannot be opened because it does not exist.
This happens regardless of the name and extension of the files.
I’ve browsed some forums where I found the tip to delete the Library/preferences/com.apple.preview.plist file, but I can't find that folder...
The Mac is a late 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.9.5
Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any responses I may receive.
2 answers
Hi,
Is it the file "com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist" that you put in the trash? With Preview closed (quit)?
Just in case, boot from the recovery partition (Recovery HD) by holding down the cmd and R keys until you see the utilities window:
Launch Disk Utility/select the hard drive (HD) click on "Repair Disk" and then right away on "Repair Permissions"
Then restart normally and try to open Preview again. Result?
--
When it's urgent, it's already too late (Talleyrand)
Is it the file "com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist" that you put in the trash? With Preview closed (quit)?
Just in case, boot from the recovery partition (Recovery HD) by holding down the cmd and R keys until you see the utilities window:
Launch Disk Utility/select the hard drive (HD) click on "Repair Disk" and then right away on "Repair Permissions"
Then restart normally and try to open Preview again. Result?
--
When it's urgent, it's already too late (Talleyrand)
For those who might have the same issue with Preview crashing in a loop (for me on OS X Sierra after opening 500 images at once), I downloaded the free app Onyx. Once Onyx was installed, I ran most of the targets from the 8 tabs of its Cleaning tool, as well as the Permissions and Rebuild tabs from its Maintenance tool. As soon as the computer was restarted, I was able to use Preview normally again.
Thank you for your response, which allowed me to move the file com.apple.preview.plist to the trash.
However, the problem persists, with the same error message, and I have to force quit the app that gets stuck.
Are there any other steps?
Thanks again.
Do you still have that file toto.pdf or have you already emptied the recycle bin?
If it is still in the recycle bin, open it and right-click on the file toto.pdf and choose the "Restore" menu.
If it no longer exists because you've emptied the recycle bin, create a file toto.pdf and place it where the previous toto.pdf file was when you opened it with Preview.
Then restart Preview which should find and open the file toto.pdf.
Give it time to open (so be patient).
Once opened, close the file via the File menu -> Close in Preview.
Quit and then restart Preview: if Preview behaves normally (no attempt to open the file toto.pdf), then you can put the file toto.pdf back in the recycle bin.
Ritchi
Thank you for your reply. I tried the workaround but to no avail. Preview is still stuck. I must have upset him with this story.
The mystery remains unsolved... :-)
Laogou