Written by
Sherry Song
Losing a file you've been working on in the Mac Preview app can be so annoying, especially if it contains important edits of information.
Is there any way (without downloading software) to recover a PDF in Preview on Mac? -discussion.apple.com
Files in Preview can be occasionally unsaved or lost due to accidental changes or system crashes. Thankfully, macOS provides several solutions to help recover files from Preview on Mac.
Follow us at iBoysoft, we'll walk you through step-by-step solutions to retrieve your Preview files.
How to Recover files from the Preview app
Whether you are recovering a recent edit or locating a misplaced document, just keep reading below:
# Check the Recent list
Preview keeps a record of recently opened files, making it easy to find files you've accessed.
- Finder > Applications > Preview.
- Click File in the top menu bar.
- Select Open Recent to view a list of recently opened files.
- Locate the file you're looking for and open it directly from the list.
# Restore from "Revert to" changes
macOS's Revert to feature allows you to revert changes to files in Preview.
- Open the file in Preview.
- Go to File > Revert to > Browse All Versions.
- A timeline view will appear, showing different saved versions of the file.
- Select the version you need and click Restore to recover it.
For the last saved or open version in Preview, you can open the file, then click File > Revert to, then choose Previous Save/Last Saved/Last Opened.
# Recover from the Autosave folder
For unsaved files of Preview, the autosave feature might have created a backup, you can try to recover files from Preview on Mac.
- Finder > Go > Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Containers/ and press the Enter key.
- Open com.apple.Preview > Data > Library > Autosave Information.
- Look for files named Unsaved Preview Document.
- Open the file to confirm it's the one you need, then save it to a secure location.
However, this feature doesn't exist in every MacOS version due to the constant updates.
# Use Time Machine backup
If you have set up an external hard drive for Time Machine backups before, you can recover Preview files here.
- Connect your Time Machine backup drive.
- Open the folder where the file was originally stored.
- Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select Enter Time Machine.
- Navigate through the timeline to find the image or PDF file in Preview.
- Select the wanted one and click Restore to recover it.
Have you got all the methods to restore Preview files on Mac? Share our post to help more ones.
Bonus: How to recover deleted files on Mac
After losing data or checking Mac Trash, you may not find the needed files. You'd better use some professional software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, which can help Mac users get all missing/deleted/lost files even you deleted them permanently.
It can not only recover the HDD files but also the external hard drives. Download it and have a try～
With these strategies above, recovering files from Preview on Mac should be a hassle-free experience. Happy file hunting!
