Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Annoying freeze and spinning wheel in Preview (Catalina)

A

augu2000

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 18, 2008
38
2
Hi,

I recently upgraded my MBP retina 15' 2015 to Catalina. Everything was working well for a few days, but now every time I open a PDF file Preview freezes for a couple of seconds with the file blurred, then shows the spinning wheel, and only then the file becomes usable. Following suggestions in other posts I reseted the PRAM and SMC, but neither reset helped. Any ideas on how to solve this?

Thanks!
 
Are these PDF files located on local volumes or on Network shares - and what's the size of them?
 
I had trouble with PDF's in preview in 10.15.2 until I ran font book app and validated all the fonts again, something I hadn't done for a couple of years. It may have been something to do with external volume I hadn't for a while too?
 
Last edited:
Experiencing exactly this since yesterday. Weird!
i have tried the guest mode and it works fine.
i tried safe mode, but didn’t help.
i ran onyx, didn’t help.
I removed temporary all my fonts, didn’t help.
i removed pref files for preview app, didn’t help.

im on Catalina 10.15.2 and a MBP16.
my wife mbp13 on Catalina too, doesn’t do this at all.

there is definitely something up, as I cannot remember having preview beach balling for a second each time I open a document, going from slightly blurry to cristal clear.

Also, if i quit (cmd Q) and re-open the document it does this every time.
but if I only cmd W on the current opened document, preview actually disappea from the doc (but is actually still there if checking cmd alt esc) then open another pdf, this time it works fine.
so if preview is already opened, any document you open don’t do the beach ball.

so here is my personal analysis. But no solution.

Creating a new user account and move all the stuff would be a drastic solution.
I may wait for another macOS update combo see if it does something.
if not... any idea is welcomed!
 
after further investigations (I know...obsessed geek here!) I think I found the issue, at least in my case, but I will be very interested to know if this applies to you too!!:

1) since we are apparently a few experiencing this roughly the same time (Wednesday/thursday) this tells me that this isn't macOS related, since no big updates have been rolled out.
So...
2) I started to look elsewhere! any of you having this issue, are by any chance opening files in Preview that are located in ...dropbox?!

If you do, do this test! drag any file you open with Preview that causes this beachball outside your dropbox folder, and try again.
Works like a charm (for me at least!)

Dropbox was updated this Wednesday to v89.4.78 (what a coincidence...)

I have moved back these very same files back in the dropbox folder, and here we go again, beachball.

So this it to me, a dropbox issue.
Console is also displaying the following message when Preview is beach balling at the start:

Jan 24 15:36:26 MBP-16-JU com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.getdropbox.dropbox.garcon): Caller wanted oneshot behavior for pre-existing instance: caller = Preview

Waiting on your feedback here, then we should start contact the dropbox support.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BetaZehn
Can you just go into the 'settings' > extensions and under 'Finder' make sure that 'create pdf is checked?
It affects the preview pane and quick look
I can't tell you if it'll help but I think it's worth a check.
 
It's checked. @FreAk6767, yes, it seems to be a coincidence but in my case dragging a file out of Dropbox (that I indeed use a lot!!) doesn't work. I also completely closed Dropbox, but to no avail. It behaves like this also with files outside Dropbox.

My temporary solution is dumping Preview and using Skim. No alternatives.
 
fcorm said:
It's checked. @FreAk6767, yes, it seems to be a coincidence but in my case dragging a file out of Dropbox (that I indeed use a lot!!) doesn't work. I also completely closed Dropbox, but to no avail. It behaves like this also with files outside Dropbox.

My temporary solution is dumping Preview and using Skim. No alternatives.
Click to expand...

Hummm interesting then.
Closing dropbox doesn't make any change either here, but dragging the file outside the dropbox does for sure as far as I'm concerned.

I tested this on my wife MBP on Catalina, and no issue, but her dropbox version hasn't updated yet.

Let's wait for another one or two feedback on this test, see if 'im just the only one here (I keep on searching /testing for now too)
 
Anyway, the culprit might indeed be the latest version of Dropbox, since it started behaving like this only yesterday; I didn't notice the automatic update.
 
Update: dragging the file out of my HOME (and not simply Dropbox) folder does make the problem disappear. In particular, I dragged a PDF file to /Users/Shared and the beachball was gone.

Anyway, I keep thinking that the culprit is some Dropbox process, since it started two days ago.
 
fcorm said:
Update: dragging the file out of my HOME (and not simply Dropbox) folder does make the problem disappear. In particular, I dragged a PDF file to /Users/Shared and the beachball was gone.

Anyway, I keep thinking that the culprit is some Dropbox process, since it started two days ago.
Click to expand...

Now that's interesting!
This is at least going toward the same conclusion that I found so far.
Let's see what the dropbox support is saying.
 
I had issue with spinning "beachballs" while opening PDF's either in Preview or Adobe Acrobat Reader. I deleted EVERY file associated with Acrobat and have had no problems since.
 
FreAk6767 said:
Now that's interesting!
This is at least going toward the same conclusion that I found so far.
Let's see what the dropbox support is saying.
Click to expand...

I uninstalled Dropbox and the problem died out (for any PDF, even those in the no-longer-synced Dropbox folder). We now know for sure the culprit. Wanted to revert to an earlier stable build, downloaded it, but then it automatically updated to the latest build and the problem started over again.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FreAk6767
Awesome! Thank you for the update.
Uninstalling dropbox was the ultimate test as quitting the app wasn't enough (dropbox installs files in the finder which may explain the issues).
Didn't want to do it with 2To to sync all over again, so thanks for that!
 
Found this, it helped me revert to the latest earlier stable build. Now the auto-update feature is freezed, and with build 88.4.172 it's working again!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FreAk6767
Thats actually awesome fcorm, well done for finding this!
Looks like it is also slowing down photoshop and illustrator upon first launch of a file within dropbox. So there is definitely more to this.

But with your solution, it will do for the time being! Thanks!
 
A similar problem occurred in my environment.
My workaround is as follows.
Uncheck the "Dropbox" setting in "System Preferences > Function Extensions > All ".

Please refer to the attached file. However, please understand that macOS is used in a Japanese environment.

Environment : macOS Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76), Dropbox v89.4.278
 

Attachments

  • 20200131-01.jpg
    20200131-01.jpg
    151 KB · Views: 5,124
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: desmortum
Ryo@ryomac said:
A similar problem occurred in my environment.
My workaround is as follows.
Uncheck the "Dropbox" setting in "System Preferences > Function Extensions > All ".

Please refer to the attached file. However, please understand that macOS is used in a Japanese environment.

Environment : macOS Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76), Dropbox v89.4.278
Click to expand...

OH MY GOD This fix worked for me too! It's been irritating me for at least 2-3 months! I'm so grateful to you! Thanks! Now should we complain to apple or Dropbox about this bug?

Secondly, what does disabling this "Finder Extensions" for Dropbox do? Some clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ryo@ryomac
shankar2 said:
OH MY GOD This fix worked for me too! It's been irritating me for at least 2-3 months! I'm so grateful to you! Thanks! Now should we complain to apple or Dropbox about this bug?

Secondly, what does disabling this "Finder Extensions" for Dropbox do? Some clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...


I'm happy that the problem no longer occurs in your environment.

At least I think it's better to report the problem to Dropbox. But, I think it is difficult for me.

Even if I disabled the "Finder Extension" of Dropbox, I did not understand the difference in operation. For that reason, I corresponded by disabling the "Finder extension".
 
Right click on any file in your dropbox folder when the extension is activated and when it's not, you will spot the difference in the menu, with the added dropbox action ;)

We have reported this to dropbox (I did), but knowing how slow and poor Dropbox support is, I wouldn't hold my breath.
At least we have to workaround mentioned here for the time being.
 
FreAk6767 said:
Right click on any file in your dropbox folder when the extension is activated and when it's not, you will spot the difference in the menu, with the added dropbox action ;)

We have reported this to dropbox (I did), but knowing how slow and poor Dropbox support is, I wouldn't hold my breath.
At least we have to workaround mentioned here for the time being.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information.

When the extension is active, a synchronization status mark is displayed in the Dropbox folder, and a Dropbox-specific menu is added to the context menu.
I don't have any problems if they don't work. Therefore, I will continue to turn off extensions.

We hope that Dropbox will respond quickly.
 
Actually my mac has become more responsive after turning off Dropbox Finder extension feature! Especially the file / open windows, this bug of beachball .. I too don't need the finder integration! Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chrisjmv
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back