how do I recover a deleted signature in preview?

Hi Scott_R,

We appreciated you posting here in Apple Support Communities. If you were unable to access a previous version of Preview then you will need to create a new signature.

See: Fill out and sign a PDF form in Preview on Mac

Kind regards.

If you whack a Preview signature in its Annotate > Signature > Manage Signatures… panel by clicking the ⓧ symbol adjacent to the signature, then it is unrecoverable from Preview and you will need to create a new replacement signature. Preview does not store these signatures as discrete images in the filesystem either.

If you have permissions in the PDF, then you can remove the individual signature annotation from the document itself by choosing cmd+i and selecting the signature as shown below, and pressing backspace:

This is where you can also remove other annotations too.

Personally I think "signing" with a fat finger on a trackpad with zero visual feedback is a poor substitute for using a real pen and ink. Unfortunately the best workaround I have to suggest is to use a cheap rubber-tipped stylus and an iPhone. At least it provides immediate visual feedback directly on the surface being used. Among other disadvantages, no iPhone has sufficient dimensional area for my signature. Unless I'm missing something it doesn't seem to obey a "landscape" orientation either.

In their defense storing a retrievable image of an actual signature presents an obvious security threat. Given Apple's near-maniacal approach to security I can't blame them for encrypting it.

Due to some bad advice here in the forums I deleted a couple of signatures in Preview ...

Understandable, but that's another reason it's best to post your own Discussion — as you did here. I have no idea what the original question may have been, or what may have been misunderstood.

Since you mentioned Time Machine, did you try restoring a "local snapshot"?

If you just recently deleted those desired signatures (say, within the last 24 hours or so) restoring a "local snapshot" will restore the entire contents of that Mac — possibly — restoring them as well.

Try it. It only takes a minute or two.

Then create a more recent Time Machine backup to fall back on. One has probably already been created; it just takes longer to restore than a local snapshot.

You have absolutely nothing to lose by finding out the dates of those local snapshots. If none exist prior to the 26th then cancel the restore. Or, restore a TM backup from the 26th followed by individually restoring items backed up subsequent to that time. Again, nothing to lose, it's just more work.

Another thing to keep in the back of your mind, for future reference: If you do something you regret always try Edit > Undo or ⌘ z or whatever is appropriate.

I have no idea if that would have worked in your particular circumstance, and it's too late to find out now, but it's a good thing to keep in mind if you should ever have an OMG moment.

Time Machine is of course the ultimate "undo".