Preview has "memory"

[Rain]

Hi! Just upgraded to Mavericks (from Snow Leopard).

A few days ago, I opened one particular PDF file on Preview (through iBooks). When I tried to close the PDF's window, I couldn't; my only option was quitting Preview. Whenever I open Preview again, however, the window is still there and I can’t close it without quitting Preview. It’s annoying as hell.

I’ve restarted my computer and deleted the file from the iBooks library, but none of that worked. Obviously, minimising the window whenever I open Preview is not the solution I’m looking for. It doesn’t do that with other PDF files, just the one I mentioned above.

Thanks for any help.

/ Rain

 

[oldscribe]

Hi and welcome,

As far as I remember Preview has always had memory but what you are describing is very odd. When you open preview and right click its dock icon you should see my first screen shot which shows your file navigation and recently opened fils.
If you go to file in the Preview menu bar as second screen shot you should be able to delete its memory (past opened files)

 

[Rain]

Hi! Thanks for the warm welcome and for your reply.

My "recents" menu is empty (I've attached a screenshot). Looking at the File menu, I tried "close window" (which has the same effect as clicking on the leftmost little circle at the top-left corner of the window or pressing cmd+W) and "close selected PDF document" (cmd+shift+W); they aren't greyed out, but when I select those options nothing happens (other windows close normally).

The context menu that comes up when I right-click Preview in the Dock is the same as yours.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

This defiantly is strange, I would use disk utility and repair permissions first, once done reboot and see what the result are. If no change log on as another user and open preview. Please post back results re both.

 

[Kaveman]

Close the window before Quitting Preview

 

[Rain]

Obviously, I tried that, Kaveman. As I mentioned in my first post, Preview wouldn't close that particular window, no matter which window-closing method I used (command+W, selecting "Close window" from the File menu, or clicking on the little button at the corner of the window).

I would have tried what you said, oldscribe, but my computer's HD died (see https://www.mac-help.com/threads/problem-reading-imac-hd.214705) and I just got a new one. Since I had nearly everything (including system prefs and other system files) backed up, the issue continued to appear at first when I restored from the backup (so it was probably a corrupted/silly file). However, the problem disappeared by itself yesterday. Very strange, but I'm not messing with files anymore (and I'm definitely not opening that particular PDF in Preview again).

Thanks for everything!

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

This is good news