Highlighted text not saved on pdf

If you're having so much problems with Preview why not try one of the other PDF markup apps: Skim (free) or Adobe Acrobat Reader (free). I use Skim and it's an excellent app.

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Don’t know if this applies to your situation …

I regularly use “annotate” on pdfs with an Intel MBP from within Preview and have found that I must explicitly “Save” for any changes to “stick.”

Inafvertantly “closing” Preview doesn’t prompt for a “Save”, and it seems to remove any annotations since the last previous “Save.”

The latest update, 13.4, was released a short time ago and fixed a lot of issues. Update to that and give Preview another try at highlighting. I'm running 13.4 and highlighting is saving for me.

It’s 12 September 2023. I am college student and usually face this problem while working on my iPad and iPhone. I lost my data on multiple occasions and now I’m so scared that I take screenshot of important notes I have written. Why apply with so much of R&D has not been able to rectify this major problem.

Yeah, I have macOS Bigsur 11.7.10 IMAC, mine was working until last week perfectly fine and the new updates make the system not save the highlights. I am utterly disappointed that I've lost two days of complete work on a professional book.

I have 3 Apple devices and understand it's a software error which Apple should immediately rectify. We don't need to buy Apple to be relied on another app as the system was working fine until the last update. Kindly rectify the error as soon as possible.

Not really a solution to Preview but I might suggest that you try out Adobe Reader which is free. I use it and it always remembers my saved highlights.

https://get.adobe.com/reader/