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Search in Preview is not working

I am having problems making the search function of Preview work. There was a previous post that suggested several options to "fix" the problem such as using Command W to shutdown, or switching to Table of Contents view, or exporting the PDF, in order to get the search function to work again. None of these options work for me.


As another user suggested, there seems to be a difference on whether the function works based on the encoding software used to create the PDF. I found this to be true. I have two similar PDFs. One allows the search function to work and the other does not. When I used "Get Info" to see the differences between the two documents, I see that the one that allows searches has the Adobe Acrobat encoding software and the one that does not has MacOS PDFContext. I am running macOS Mojave V10.14.5


Have there been any updates or fixes to this issue that I am not aware of? I have several large documents that it would be helpful to be able to use the search function.


Thanks.

MacBook Pro 15", OS X 10.10

Posted on Feb 20, 2020 5:43 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2020 7:58 PM

SGS12 wrote:

I am having problems making the search function of Preview work.

As another user suggested, there seems to be a difference on whether the function works based on the encoding software used to create the PDF. I found this to be true.



No updates. Not all PDF's are created equal.


You can try a true PDF editor and see if you have an improved experiences:

Adobe Acrobat Reader

PDFpen

pdfExpert


to name a few.


Preview User Guide for Mac - Apple Support


Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 20, 2020 7:58 PM in response to SGS12

SGS12 wrote:

I am having problems making the search function of Preview work.

As another user suggested, there seems to be a difference on whether the function works based on the encoding software used to create the PDF. I found this to be true.



No updates. Not all PDF's are created equal.


You can try a true PDF editor and see if you have an improved experiences:

Adobe Acrobat Reader

PDFpen

pdfExpert


to name a few.


Preview User Guide for Mac - Apple Support


Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback


Mar 25, 2020 1:32 AM in response to SGS12

A temporary work-around: close the file, customize the toolbar (add or remove an icon from the toolbar, say), reopen the file -- and it works! Sadly, it does not work for long. Sooner or later the problem comes back.


This behavior suggests to me the problem is not the file format or PDF version - but the corrupted Preview preferences. But I cannot find the Preview plist ...

Search in Preview is not working

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