Critical Bug: Preview App Crashes During Markup on iPad Pro (4th Gen)
Device Details:
- Model: iPad Pro 12.9” (4th Generation)
- Model Number: MXAV2NF/A
- iPadOS version: 18.5 (Issue present approximately since iPadOS17 )
Issue Description:
While annotating documents in the native Preview/Finder app, the app regularly crashes. This results in a complete loss of all annotations made during the session.
Impact:
This issue is highly disruptive and unacceptable, especially considering that the iPad Pro is marketed as a reliable device for professional and academic digital note-taking. The consequences can be severe — for example, losing all annotations for a lecture or meeting minutes.
Additional Constraints:
I am required to use native Apple apps for professional reasons due to GDPR-compliant encryption policies. Therefore, alternative apps such as GoodNotes are not an option.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Open a PDF (a larger file size seems to increase the probabilities of triggering a crash) in the native Preview/Finder app on iPad Pro.
- Begin annotating using the Apple Pencil or touch input.
- Continue annotating for several minutes.
- The app crashes unexpectedly, resulting in loss of annotations.
Expected Behavior:
The app should remain stable during annotations and preserve all changes without data loss.
Additional Information:
This issue has been reported previously by other users, for example in this Apple Discussions thread: Persistent Crashes and Markup Loss Issue … - Apple Community (user hugonnn, 2024). The fact that the bug persists across multiple updates indicates it is not an isolated incident and not a hardware limitation either since hugonnn describes the same issue on his 6th gen iPad Pro.
Request:
Please prioritize a fix for this issue as soon as possible. The current bug significantly undermines the reliability of the iPad for professional workflows.
iPad Pro