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Large PDFs slow in Preview

B

Burnsey

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 1, 2007
572
67
Canada
I seem to be having trouble with large PDFs in OSX. Everytime I open such a PDF file, either under Preview or Adobe Reader, ATSserver and mdworker begin taking up 60-80% of the CPU. Can someone please shed some light into what is happening? I understand that OSX is indexing the PDF file, but it indexes it everytime the PDF is launched, instead of just once.

For example, I open Textbook.pdf (50mb) in Preview. As soon as it opens, the above two processes take up 60-80% of the cpu and seemingly dont stop. I wait, and wait, and eventually they do. So then I search for a word in the PDF file, and those processes start up again, searching becomes painfully slow as each instance of the term is searched for (I thought it indexed it). Once the searching for one term is done, and I decide to search for another, the two processes come on again, and everything slows down again. If I close Textbook.pdf and open it again either immediately or at a later date, the same things happen again.

Isnt it supposed to index once, and then be indexed forever? Instead of indexing everytime the pdf is launched, and everytime a term is searched for? This has made large PDFs almost unusable in OSX, unlike in Windows which doesnt seem to have this problem. Is there a solution?
 
spinnerlys said:
Have you repaired permissions and seen if that helped?
Click to expand...

The machine in question is my sister's brand new unibody Macbook, I do not think permissions are at fault. Also this happens both with the iMac (sig) and my MBP (sig).

In Windows, even with an old Pentium M Dell, you double click Textbook.pdf, it opens in Adobe Reader, you select Find, and you type in what you want, and almost instantly it finds all the instances and your free to browse the file, and everything is snappy. I'm hoping I can make it that way under OSX.
 
Would it be possible to give us a link to one or two of those taxing PDFs if it's not private or not public?

The biggest PDF I have currently is 46MB (FCP manual) and it takes a while to load (less than 10 seconds) and when I enter something to find, it indexes, and after that the search functions quite normal, without high CPU usage.

It has 2033 pages full of text and some drawings, so it might be not as taxing.

Do your PDFs have many pictures or so?


I run Mac OS 10.5.7 with a 2.53GHz MBP and 4GB RAM.
 
spinnerlys said:
Would it be possible to give us a link to one or two of those taxing PDFs if it's not private or not public?

The biggest PDF I have currently is 46MB (FCP manual) and it takes a while to load (less than 10 seconds) and when I enter something to find, it indexes, and after that the search functions quite normal, without high CPU usage.

It has 2033 pages full of text and some drawings, so it might be not as taxing.

Do your PDFs have many pictures or so?


I run Mac OS 10.5.7 with a 2.53GHz MBP and 4GB RAM.
Click to expand...

There are some images but the file is largely text based, and it's not just this file, it happens with every large PDF file I've tried. Does OSX index your PDF file only once forever, or does it do it everytime you open it?
 
Burnsey said:
There are some images but the file is largely text based, and it's not just this file, it happens with every large PDF file I've tried. Does OSX index your PDF file only once forever, or does it do it everytime you open it?
Click to expand...

It indexes my bigger PDF documents when I search the first time, and after that it will wait some time (weeks, or even after a reinstall, I can't remember when I opened the FCP manual for the last time) for indexing it again.

In short: it does it once when I use the search the 1st time.

You can maybe try the PDF, and see if it behaves the same or if it differs, so that way we can eliminate possible factors.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Final_Cut_Pro_6_User_Manual.pdf
 
spinnerlys said:
It indexes my bigger PDF documents when I search the first time, and after that it will wait some time (weeks, or even after a reinstall, I can't remember when I opened the FCP manual for the last time) for indexing it again.

In short: it does it once when I use the search the 1st time.

You can maybe try the PDF, and see if it behaves the same or if it differs, so that way we can eliminate possible factors.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Final_Cut_Pro_6_User_Manual.pdf
Click to expand...

When I load that file on my MBP, and search for a word an indexing bar comes, and the computer quickly indexes the document and then searching is snappy. This does not happen with my sister's Macbook, with that computer the computer searches for every instance of the term and shows them in the side bar, but its painfully slow. The indexing bar does not appear. This is very odd...
 
So, have you tried repairing permissions yet?

Even though the MB is new, doesn't mean something might be not wrong.

It won't hurt.

Or you could try Onyx for some system maintenance.
 
spinnerlys said:
So, have you tried repairing permissions yet?

Even though the MB is new, doesn't mean something might be not wrong.

It won't hurt.

Or you could try Onyx for some system maintenance.
Click to expand...

Nope! I found the problem! On my sister's Macbook, when searching for something in Preview, the little "group by page" option was not selected, where on my MBP it was selected. So now when I search for a term in a PDF on her computer, and select the "group by page" box before searching, the index bar appears and the document indexes and everything becomes good!

Thanks for your help though, and good night :)
 
Thanks for the 'group by page' tip -- saved me from having to wait for re-index of a large pdf (medical dictionary) every time I open it.
 
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