How to restore precise text selection in Preview after macOS Tahoe update?

Question

How to restore precise text selection in Preview after macOS Tahoe update?

I had hoped that the recent update to Tahoe 26.1 would have fixed the text-selection issue with Apple Preview but, sadly, it's still the same problem. Let me explain: prior to the Tahoe "upgrade" (the scare quotes are intentional) I was able to select text from PDF documents in Preview in a nice, precise fashion. That is, place my cursor where the selection began and drag it to the end. The selection would highlight in blue allowing me to inspect the range of my selection and then make the copy. As an academic, this was particularly useful, drawing down quotations from a huge range of online PDF publications to create my own. Since the "upgrade" that's not how text selection from PDFs in Preview works. The selected text disappears as one drags the cursor over it. One has to "click" out of Preview in order to go back and see the selection blacked out (for want of another description)before adding the copy command. It's all so arduous and inelegant; clumsy and un-Apple like.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Text Selection in Preview

iMac 24″, macOS 26.1

Posted on Nov 15, 2025 9:53 AM

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Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

56,783 points

Nov 15, 2025 12:18 PM in response to Nicholas Baker

Preview text selection is working the same for me in macOS 26.1 as it did in all the previous macOS versions.

I click and hold my mouse button down (in my case, my trackpad), then drag to the end of the range I wish to select. Everything is highlighted, and remains highlighted until I do something to dismiss the highlighting.

I suggest you boot into macOS Safe Mode: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

And see if the behavior works as expected.

If Safe Mode restores the behavior you desire, then it is most likely some 3rd Party addition that is interfering.

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Answer 2

Nov 23, 2025 9:58 AM in response to Nicholas Baker

Does not appear to be a general problem since selection in a PDF works fine for me and others.

See if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

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Answer 3

AlWeir

Level 5

4,880 points

Nov 15, 2025 10:10 AM in response to Nicholas Baker

The only work around for that is take a screenshot Shift+Command+3 and then highlight the text in the screenshot. That being said, I can open up a .pdf on my Mac in Preview, and right click and drag it across a line and right click on it and copy it. I can also do it in Adobe Reader.

Not sure if this will help but you might try a SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

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Answer 4

steve626

Level 6

13,695 points

Nov 15, 2025 10:15 AM in response to Nicholas Baker

It should be an upgrade, not a downgrade!

That said, Preview has had its quirks for some time, this might be a new one. In any case, I suggest that you try using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader and compare results. There are some things that seem to work better with Acrobat.

Also, have you tried adjusting the selection highlight color; this was copied from LeroyDouglas's post here

Mac os 26 preview can't show how much tex… - Apple Community:

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Answer 5

Nov 15, 2025 1:23 PM in response to Nicholas Baker

What has changed is that the default text selection color is darker in Preview with Tahoe than it was with Sequoia. I suppose depending on your color choice, it may be too dark to read the text under it but mine is set to Automatic (in the setting posted as a screenshot by steve626) and the underlying text remains readable under the selection highlight. IMO, this is a graphical bug in Tahoe. Bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

For reference, a snippet of a paper I am reading Tahoe:

The same snippet in Sequoia (with the same Automatic setting for text highlight color):

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Answer 6

Nov 15, 2025 1:25 PM in response to Nicholas Baker

ref similar

Mac os 26 preview can't show how much tex… - Apple Community

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Answer 7

Nov 16, 2025 11:34 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Thanks for this, neuroanatomist. I think that's probably it, too. However, the text's temporary disappearance is not explained. One of the reasons I loved Mac (past tense) is the ease with which it handles PDFs as if it was "native" to the OS. It was just so much easier working with online intertextuality having this wonderful ease to draw in referent without constantly switching into one app or another to do this. The whole Mac was a PDF reader! Such a shame...

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Answer 8

Nov 22, 2025 10:17 AM in response to BobHarris

Thank you for your advice but, frankly, this is a fundamental action that has been a feature of iMac since their earliest inception. Twenty-five years ago, I can vividly remember this aspect of Mac being flawless. What went wrong?

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Answer 9

Nov 22, 2025 10:25 AM in response to AlWeir

Once again, many thanks for everyone's interest in this but it's more of a what's-Apple-all-about? issue. Apple were always good at getting the little things right; flawlessly. Every time I'm forced, in work, to deal with Windows, I'm reminded about how intuitively good the Apple OS is... until now. For those of us who work in the Arts, text is not just "content" but written speech. Its visual representation should flow as effortlessly as the human larynx. All this ended with Tahoe.

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Answer 10

Nov 22, 2025 10:37 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Thank you. However, that's not quite all of it. One must click out of Preview in order to see the selection. How inelegant? How (I repeat myself) un-Apple like? Clumsy, comes to mind. Indifferent to those who love text, comes to mind. I don't suppose Tahoe damaged their streaming capabilities? Did Tahoe prevent users from scrolling, endlessly? Did it obstruct their podcasts, video-channels or texting capabilities? Imagine the outcry?

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Answer 11

Nov 22, 2025 10:42 AM in response to Nicholas Baker

Nicholas Baker wrote:

Thank you. However, that's not quite all of it. One must click out of Preview in order to see the selection. How inelegant?

I can see where that would be inelegant, except I can’t reproduce that aspect of the issue. In Preview, I drag the selection cursor, and the text is selected immediately. Darker, as shown in my screenshots, but no need to click out of Preview to see the precisely select text.

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Answer 12

Nov 22, 2025 10:51 AM in response to steve626

Thank you for your suggestion. Please allow me to use your advice to send Apple a message (if they can be bothered reading these posts): I paid considerably more for an iMac, than a common-or-garden Windows computer, precisely for the seamless way it handles this sort of fundamental action. Text processing seems like such a completely conquered realm of the digital era that it must seem barely worth noticing when it goes wrong. Completely inconsequential considering the vast array of other medias digital has mastered. To Apple, Preview must appear to be some sort of Cinderella app that hardly anyone uses anymore.

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Answer 13

Nov 22, 2025 12:11 PM in response to Nicholas Baker

Nicholas Baker wrote:

To Apple, Preview must appear to be some sort of Cinderella app that hardly anyone uses anymore.

Perhaps you’re unaware that with the launch of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple highlighted the inclusion of the Preview app for those devices in addition to Macs. That would lead me to a conclusion diametrically opposed to yours.

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Answer 14

Nov 23, 2025 9:26 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Well, perhaps you're right. As of 23rd of November, I still cannot select some text from a PDF without first having to click out of Preview in order to see what it is I've selected. If I click back into Preview, the text selection disappears again, along with the text selected. I can copy it and paste it into a Pages or Word document: that's fine. Once again, just clumsy and un-Apple like.

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Answer 15

Nov 23, 2025 9:39 AM in response to etresoft

Let me show you a small movie of how it looks for me...

https://youtu.be/NIeBvXM78gM

Traditionally, the selection just highlighted in light blue and the highlighting followed my cursor until the end of the selection. That doesn't happen anymore. Now, I have to click out of Preview to see the selection. When I click back in the selection disappears again. All of this commenced with the first Tahoe upgrade. Prior to that, it all worked normally.

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