Preview .pdf annoying slowness since Yosemite

[navarretemarce]

I am experiencing a very annoying issue, with large pdf files the preview app is almost unusable. Zooming and scrolling is terrible slow and the app becomes unstable. Preview in Mavericks handles the same files on the same hardware without issues.

MacBook Pro Retina 13 Late 2013
8GB RAM 2.5GHz i5
150GB free on 256GB SSD

Please help!.

PS: other apps based on the Mac pdf kit like Pdf Pro and the Graphpad Prism viewer behave the same.

 

[lun]

Can you please try and turn on "reduce transparency" under accessibility? Does that change anything?

It seems to change the way preview handles pdf. I can finally scroll my ocr pdfs again (up to 300MB each). But that might be the result of my mac being too slow for the transparency thing (MBA 2012).

 

[navarretemarce]

Can you please try and turn on "reduce transparency" under accessibility? Does that change anything?

It seems to change the way preview handles pdf. I can finally scroll my ocr pdfs again (up to 300MB each). But that might be the result of my mac being too slow for the transparency thing (MBA 2012).

Hi lun, I tired reduce transparency. It improved a very little bit. Turned off Filevault with an additional little improvement. However, is still far from being even usable. I have tried other tricks like repair disk, repair permissions, and finally clean reinstall. Nothing really helped.
Finally I have rolled back to Mavericks and everything is going smooth and fast with my pdf. I will stick to Mavericks until this is solved.

My only issue is that I don´t know how to use my iCloud files since Mavericks does not have iCloud Drive.

PS: My files are .pdf prints from complex .cad files (plans and designs).

 

[adhir]

I've noticed the same thing. I also typically view large building drawings and it has become almost unusable in Yosemite.

Interestingly, my iPad Air 2 views the same files without any issue at all. It is smooth as butter zooming/panning/etc.

 

[smithrh]

It's - unfortunately - a well-known problem.

It isn't fixed in 10.10.1 either.

 

[magiaros]

apple is not in a hurry to fix this issue by any means

is interested more in "apple pay"

that is : how we can pay better

we have already paid for retina macbook pro(pro is for "professional",a professional laptop that cannot read files)which we cannot use but this is our problem

all these remind me of microsoft's lack of respect for customers

microsoft has changed however apple is trying to imitate microsoft's policy : we do not care about our customers as long as we are paid.only money is important

with disappointed customers i can not see how they can make money

 

[randolorian]

I no longer have this issue in the 10.10.2 betas.

 

[magiaros]

I no longer have this issue in the 10.10.2 betas.

really?

good news

have you tried with large pdf files (over 500 mb)?

i am asking because i had no issue with small pdf files

for example some pdf files 1-2 gb are very fast on mavericks or on my surface pro 3 however yosemite cannot read them

 

[adhir]

really?

good news

have you tried with large pdf files (over 500 mb)?

i am asking because i had no issue with small pdf files

for example some pdf files 1-2 gb are very fast on mavericks or on my surface pro 3 however yosemite cannot read them

I installed 10.10.2 beta because of this report. Unfortunately, it is not fixed. Preview is still painfully slow in Yosemite.

A workaround for those of you who haven't found it - at least for viewing - is just to use quicklook. PDFs are as fast as they were in Mavericks this way. Just find the file you want to see in Finder and hit the spacebar.

 

[magiaros]

I installed 10.10.2 beta because of this report. Unfortunately, it is not fixed. Preview is still painfully slow in Yosemite.

A workaround for those of you who haven't found it - at least for viewing - is just to use quicklook. PDFs are as fast as they were in Mavericks this way. Just find the file you want to see in Finder and hit the spacebar.

it would be fair and honest for apple to announce it officially that they do not support pdf files anymore

students,doctors and professionals must know it before they buy a new mac

i'd never buy my macbook pro if i knew that i could not read pdf files

my macbook pro is beautiful however i need my laptop in order to work ,not for decoration

i must study my medical pdf files every day

"cut the rope" runs perfectly on my retina macbook pro but this is not enough

the "most advanced operating system in the world" (says apple) does not support pdf files!!!Great news for students,doctors etc.Supports "cut the rope", "cut the rope 2","angry birds", and "angry birds HD".Great news for education!!!That is why it is called "retina macbook pro"("pro" is for "professional")

 

[ijha]

I'm really worried if Apple will ever be able to fix these graphical issues for retina MBs. Through the second update, nothing related to the graphic issues has been mentioned/addressed....

 

[Mattstrete]

It's not only happening on the rMBP. I have the exact same problem zooming and panning large PDFs - in fact, today, with large plans produced from CAD software - on both my rMBP and my nMP (D500). I am running a TBD on my mac pro, in other words, I'm viewing the PDFs at native, non-scaled resolution. The same problem is exhibited on my Samsung 4K display at scaled resolution.

 

[dyt1983]

It's not only happening on the rMBP. I have the exact same problem zooming and panning large PDFs - in fact, today, with large plans produced from CAD software - on both my rMBP and my nMP (D500). I am running a TBD on my mac pro, in other words, I'm viewing the PDFs at native, non-scaled resolution. The same problem is exhibited on my Samsung 4K display at scaled resolution.

Have you tried Adobe Reader?

 

[JohnOCFII]

It's not only happening on the rMBP. I have the exact same problem zooming and panning large PDFs - in fact, today, with large plans produced from CAD software - on both my rMBP and my nMP (D500).

My co-workers and I are having the same issue. I didn't squawk before, as I assumed it would be fixed by 10.10.2, but no dice. We've seen this problem on a rMBP as well as an older 2012 MBP.

Just to be clear, for a "standard" PDF of a Powerpoint display, or other normal size output, Preview works fine, but for a PDF of a large CAD or Visio drawing that has been saved as PDF, the performance is awful. These are drawings where it would be common to have to zoom in 8 levels to see things in detail. Historically, it would be common to zoom in 6-7 levels, scroll around, zoom out, move over, and scroll in. Now with Yosemite it can take 8-10 seconds to zoom in 8 levels. Not usable.

John

 

[magiaros]

the first and only operating system in the history of the earth that cannot read pdf files

including Windows,Android,windows mobile,windows phone,chrome,Tizen,Web os,ubuntu,palm,firefox and others

great job Tim!

at the same time Tim Cook wins CEO of the year award!

 

[smithrh]

the first and only operating system in the history of the earth that cannot read pdf files

including Windows,Android,windows mobile,windows phone,chrome,Tizen,Web os,ubuntu,palm,firefox and others

great job Tim!

at the same time Tim Cook wins CEO of the year award!

I've told you a million times DO NOT EXAGGERATE!

But seriously, yes, Preview stinks at the moment but there are alternative readers out there for free. Take a chill pill.

 

[magiaros]

I've told you a million times DO NOT EXAGGERATE!

But seriously, yes, Preview stinks at the moment but there are alternative readers out there for free. Take a chill pill.

i have asked you 2 million times to name another operating system(smartphones included)that cannot read pdf files

you cannot find

hence i do not exaggerate(learn the meaning of the word "exaggerate" and rethink)

unfortunately it is the truth

 

[magiaros]

I've told you a million times DO NOT EXAGGERATE!

But seriously, yes, Preview stinks at the moment but there are alternative readers out there for free. Take a chill pill.

Again:unfortunately i have tried a plethora of pdf readers and encountered the same issue

the issue is not solely with preview

if this was the case we would be happy

which pdf reader worked for you on yosemite?

 

[unobtainium]

Again:unfortunately i have tried a plethora of pdf readers and encountered the same issue

the issue is not solely with preview

if this was the case we would be happy

which pdf reader worked for you on yosemite?

Using another PDF reader will not fix the problem because any app is forced to use Apple's PDFkit built into the OS. Your only option is to use Bootcamp and read your PDFs in Windows. Either that or sell your Mac and buy a PC, as I plan to do if this problem persists much longer.

----------

Have you tried Adobe Reader?

All apps are forced to use Apple's PDFkit, which is baked into the OS. There's no way around it.

 

[Beavix]

All apps are forced to use Apple's PDFkit, which is baked into the OS. There's no way around it.

That's not true. Acrobat (thankfully) has its own rendering engine. It's not iOS you know.

 

[MisterMe]

The problem here is not an issue with the OS. PDF is a standard, but it is a standard by a very loose definition. Every developer seems to implement it differently. If you generate your PDF files from PostScript files using Adobe Distiller, then they will be read anywhere. If you use different method, then you run the risk of having an issue somewhere. My experience is that not even other Adobe applications are as certain as Distiller

 

[magiaros]

can someone confirm that Adobe Reader works flawlessly on yosemite even with large (over 500 mb)scanned and annotated pdf files?

i have returned to mavericks and cannot test it

i think (99%)i have tried abode reader with no result

i am not sure 100%

i have definitively tried preview 8,preview 7,skim and pdf pen with the same results

 

[unobtainium]

The problem here is not an issue with the OS. PDF is a standard, but it is a standard by a very loose definition. Every developer seems to implement it differently. If you generate your PDF files from PostScript files using Adobe Distiller, then they will be read anywhere. If you use different method, then you run the risk of having an issue somewhere. My experience is that not even other Adobe applications are as certain as Distiller

If it's not a problem with the OS then why does it occur across multiple third party apps in Yosemite? And why do the same PDFs, when opened in Mavericks, not cause the same memory crunch and system slowdown requiring a restart?

It is an OS problem.

 

[magiaros]

If it's not a problem with the OS then why does it occur across multiple third party apps in Yosemite? And why do the same PDFs, when opened in Mavericks, not cause the same memory crunch and system slowdown requiring a restart?

It is an OS problem.

reminds me of microsoft

there always was a third-party problem for nothing to work properly

not microsoft's issue

writes apple it works(till yosemite)

 

[nerowolfe]

This is one of the issues I frequently read about but never experienced myself. I mainly use skim for reading and preview for erm previewing.

Off xcode's instrument's preferences I played with active cores and hardware multithreading settings for a while. It does slow scrolling down a bit but never to the point where it becomes completely unusable. dGPU vs iGPU, turbo-boost enable vs disable all have yielded similar results.

Now, I have adobe reader (11.0.10) installed but almost never use it. Loaded the same 700mb pdf file, huge lag. Not sure if it's App or OS related since I hadn't used it on Mavericks.

2012 15" rMBP/8gb/512. Anyone with a 15" rMBP with this particular issue?