PDFpen is unresponsive. How do I fix this?
If you are experiencing continuous freezing or crashing and cannot properly launch the app or use PDFpen, it is possible PDFpen is stuck in a crash loop.
PDFpen is trying to open a file on launch that crashed the product prior, especially if you have the "Close windows when quitting an app" macOS setting under System Preferences > General unchecked.
To resolve this problem, please check whether PDFpen launches if you hold down the Shift key while it is opening. This will ensure that PDFpen doesn't attempt to reopen any windows.
If that fails, we can do a more thorough job by trying a clean install of the app.
To do so:
First, if you have any items saved in your library that you may want to save, like signatures, you may want to back them up if you don't have the Mac App Store version (the Mac App Store version does this automatically through iCloud). To back them up, simply save the PDFpen folder at the end of this path:
To do so:
First, if you have any items saved in your library that you may want to save, like signatures, you may want to back them up if you don't have the Mac App Store version (the Mac App Store version does this automatically through iCloud). To back them up, simply save the PDFpen folder at the end of this path:
For PDFpen:
~/Library/Containers/com.smileonmymac.PDFpen/Data/Library/Application Support/PDFpen/Library
for PDFpenPro:
~/Library/Containers/com.smileonmymac.PDFpenPro/Data/Library/Application Support/PDFpen/Library
The easiest way to get to ~/Library is by going to the Finder, selecting Go in the menu bar, hold down the option key, and then click the Library menu item that should've appeared.
Then quit PDFpen and move it from the Applications folder to the trash. Also, move the following folders to the trash:
~/Library/Caches/com.smileonmymac.PDFpen
~/Library/Containers/com.smileonmymac.PDFpen
~/Library/Preferences/com.smileonmymac.PDFpen* (all files with this prefix)
Please note that it you may see something different to com.smileonmymac.PDFpen depending on whether you use this or the Pro version, or whether it was bought from our website or the Mac App Store. The best rule to follow is to simply look for anything beginning with com.smileonmymac.PDFpen.
Afterwards, empty the trash and restart your Mac. Then try reinstalling PDFpen afterwards.