Text search error in macos Mojave and Preview when opening from Zotero

Hi folks

When I upgraded my Mac to macos Mojave last November, I encountered a problem in trying to search PDFs. When opening files in the default app, Preview, and entering a search term in the search field, I get no results. I found a workaround: instead of opening the file and using the search box to search, I've been using Quick Look to preview the file, and then open the file and use the search box to search (this always returns results if the text in the file is searchable).

I've narrowed the problem down further, and it seems that this happens only when I open files from Zotero which, as Zotero is how I organise PDFs, is awkward. Does Zotero add a transparent layer to PDFs? I use the ZotFile add-on to modify the filename at time of import. Does this affect PDF content?

Thanks!
  • instead of opening the file and using the search box to search, I've been using Quick Look to preview the file, and then open the file and use the search box to search
    Are you referring to the Zotero QuickLook extension, or are you using Quick Look from the Finder? And you're clicking Open in Preview from the Quick Look window, and that results in the search working? What about if you do right-click → Show File → double-click.

    Searching works fine for me on Mojave simply by double-clicking on the PDF in Zotero, and it's the same PDF either way, so it shouldn't make a difference how you open it.

    Is your Zotero data directory in the standard location (/Users/:username/Zotero)?
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