PDF content disappear after a period of time not been used SOLVED

[ndtdanh]

Hello,

I have been encountered a problem with PDF-Exchange Editor recently. If I open a PDF file and let it unread for a long enough period of time (~ 30 mins), it would lose almost the content (mostly the text and shapes). This issue is fixed everytime I reopen the file. I attached 2 images for comparison. Does anybody know the solution for this bug ? I am using version 8.0 Build 336.0. Many thank and wish you a good day.

Before.png

Regards,
Danh,ndt

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello ndtdanh,

Welcome to our forum.

Is it possible for us to have a copy of your file so we can test it at our end?

If the file contains any information that you do not want to be displayed in public, please send it to: support@pdf-xchange.com


Regards.

[ndtdanh]

Hello ndtdanh,

Welcome to our forum.

Is it possible for us to have a copy of your file so we can test it at our end?

If the file contains any information that you do not want to be displayed in public, please send it to: support@pdf-xchange.com


Regards.

This issue happen every day, with every PDF files that I open. So I think no need to send you my file.

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello ndtdanh,

Since we are not able to reproduce the problem at our end with any of our files, we need it, so we can investigate the reason for this issue.

Also, such a problem has not been reported until now, so we definitely need an example file so we can be sure that the problem doesn't come from the file.



Regards.

[ndtdanh]

Hello ndtdanh,

Since we are not able to reproduce the problem at our end with any of our files, we need it, so we can investigate the reason for this issue.

Also, such a problem has not been reported until now, so we definitely need an example file so we can be sure that the problem doesn't come from the file.



Regards.

Hello,

I've just sent an email to you. Or you can check the attachments here. They are the same. I used featured "word count" to check the difference and you can check the images attached

Application of Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industries - ISA.pdf

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello ndtdanh,

Thank you. I got the file.

I will now try to reproduce your situation and get back to with the results.

Regards.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Just for information and request for a test ...

This problem was also reported in the following topic, but no solution yet:
viewtopic.php?f=62&t=31083

Question for ndtdanh (just for a test):
Please verify via File (or Edit) > Preferences > Page Display > Rendering (button) > Smooth text:
> In case "ClearType (for Laptop/LCD screens) is ON, then change it to "None" and click OK, Apply and OK

Does this make any difference (after +/- 30 minutes)?

Best regards.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hi, all

Willy, do note that the original issue in that topic was resolved in this post: viewtopic.php?f=62&t=31083#p125344
The cause of the issue was most likely using an installer which was downloaded from at third party website.

ndtdanh, As we still cannot reproduce this locally, please try uninstalling the software and then running the latest installer directly from our official downloads page here: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/downloads
After that version is installed, please test the issue once more and confirm if it is resolved.

Kind regards,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Thanks Daniel for your reply, but I do not agree completely.

aestra_tech replied that the portable version did not seem to have the problem, but later never confirmed this for the installable version. The last sentence was: "I will proceed with those reinstall steps outlined above when I get enough time."

Myself, in all the time that I have been working with PDF-XChange Editor, I have seen this phenomenon only one single time.

Best regards.

[Roman - Tracker Supp]

Hello ndtdanh,

When you see the issue next time please make a memory dump of the Editor process. Please look here on how to do this.
Then zip the resulting .dmp file and upload it to the Tracker Software File service.

[ndtdanh]

Hello,

I have good news for you. Thank Daniel for your idea. I followed the post you gave me above and I think it worked, at least until now. (sorry but I tried to find similar post in forum but somehow I didnt see this post, so I created this new post). This's what I did:
- Uninstall all Tracker's applications
- Delete relevent registries
- Delete Tracker's folder at C:\Program Files\Tracker Software
- Restart and reinstall Tracker install pack downloaded from Tracker's website.
- Done.

However, there is another little issue happened after I'd reinstalled the sofware. When I use the mouse to pan the file up and down, some time it happen to be lagging, not as smooth as before uninstalled. I tried to change some configuration such as: Performance, Page display/Rendering, but nothing changed. So please advise me.

Update: this issue come back again. so boring (

Thank you.

[Roman - Tracker Supp]

Hello ndtdanh,

this issue come back again. so boring

Please see my post above with the instructions.

[ndtdanh]

Hello ndtdanh,

this issue come back again. so boring

Please see my post above with the instructions.

Hi Roman,
I have uploaded the dump file that you requested. I also attach a video below to demonstrate the nature of my problem so that you can understand better. Thank you.

Capture.PNG

Video_2020-04-04_212902_Trim.zip

[Willy Van Nuffel]

If I understand it correctly, the problem is only there at specific zoom levels (100%, 150%, ...) ?

It would be interesting to know, if you see a difference in the Word count while the result is correct, and when it is bad.

Myself, with PDF-XChange Editor V8.336.0, I have not been able to reproduce the problem with your test-PDF.

Let's hope Tracker Software Developers can find a reason.

Regards.

[ndtdanh]

If I understand it correctly, the problem is only there at specific zoom levels (100%, 150%, ...) ?

It would be interesting to know, if you see a difference in the Word count while the result is correct, and when it is bad.

Myself, with PDF-XChange Editor V8.336.0, I have not been able to reproduce the problem with your test-PDF.

Let's hope Tracker Software Developers can find a reason.

Regards.

Hi Willy,
Glad to see your feedback. The video above just shows one of the matters this error may cause. Here are all the cases that I am facing with:
- Contents disappear and never come back until I reopen the file (almost the cases)
- Sometimes contents go and come back when I change zoom level (as you saw in my previous post)
- Sometimes the fonts and positions of the text are not as correct as the original.

These bugs come when the file is left unused for some time.

I've made an video to record this problem but I cant upload here because of the big size of the video. So I've uploaded to Youtube. Here is the link if you are interested in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX6JWob9R0w

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hello,

Myself, I have the impression that it is probably a rendering problem.

1) Can you please post a print screen of your settings in Edit > Preferences > Page Display.
In the Page Display-dialog-box, click the "Rendering" button and also make a print screen of the settings here.

2) In case you can reproduce the problem with different results (good or bad) when changing the zoom level, it would still be interesting to know:
a) if you see a difference in the Word Count.
b) when the text becomes invisible: does it become transparent or is it really missing. You could check this by activating the "Edit" mode and verify if you can still select the missing text, or does it really disappears like it has been deleted ?

Best regards.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Myself, I have the impression that it is probably a rendering problem.

No, it is not a rendering issue.

Unfortunately, the installed application was altered (possible reasons are: hardware issue, malware, or you are a victim of software piracy) and we cannot guarantee its correct behavior.

[bynkook]

Compared to r322 - which has no issue, yesterday i reproduced same issue with r341. I was presenting 60+ pages of drawings of high complexity, switching between applications like Google Earth, Excel, Edge Browser.

Issues was part of figures and texts are disappeared and never came with zooming in and out.

Since I've been seeing this issue with every updates after r322, and I can assure that It was never fixed.

Rendering error? Poor memory handling?

I don't know.

[Roman - Tracker Supp]

Hello bynkook,

When you see the issue next time please make a memory dump of the Editor process. Please look here on how to do this.
Then zip the resulting .dmp file and upload it to the Tracker Software File service.

[sjy]

Hi Ivan, are you saying that ndtdanh's issue was diagnosed from the supplied dump file and confirmed to be the result of a modified software installation?

I've been experiencing this issue for some time as well, most recently on a Windows 11 ARM64 computer running PDF-Xchange Editor Plus 10.5.0.393. I downloaded the installer (EditorV10.ARM64.msi, sha256sum b5c4d7f5 ... 0f8cb2e4) from your website on 25 January 2025. This seems like another thread from 2018 about the same problem.

My observations align with others – it seems like a rendering/memory issue. I've seen it happen to many different PDFs, always when switching back to PDF-Xchange after it's been open for a while in the background. If I switch tabs the other PDFs are usually not affected; closing the affected PDF and reopening it restores the text. Sometimes the text is missing altogether, sometimes it's replaced with garbled text (ie "mojibake").

I'm going to try disabling ClearType in the rendering options, and I also see that 10.5.0.395 has been released so I'll update to that now. I will post my own dump file if the problem recurs.

Edit: It's just happened, with the "Smooth Text" option set to "Antialias (for monitors)". I've created a dump file, but I'm reluctant to share it as the document is private. Here is a screenshot with the filename and bookmarks redacted:

eZtwJ91.png

This is a scanned and OCRed document, and I can scroll up and down and see that about half of the pages look normal, while others look like this. The yellow bars are from an annotation I created with the highlight text tool, but the text I highlighted is obviously not visible. The 36s are printed page numbers, and the grey stripe on the right is a scanning artifact which forms part of the PDF as a background image, so it looks like something is going wrong with the text layer.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, sjy

Thank you for the Follow-up.

In this particular case, since you mentioned you have already captured a dump file while the issue is present, you can upload that dump, as well as the sample document you were using to our secure fileshare service here:
https://files.pdf-xchange.com/s/5i3azLeHm3N3PZE
(Note that this link will expire in about 3 weeks)

After you have done so, please let me know with another post here, and I will forward it to the Dev team for review.

To answer you initial question, yes, Ivan was able to identify the cause of the issue as a damaged installation specifically. If the issue was simply a rendering error, than its effect would not appear after a random amount of time, but would instead be tied to a direct action. It would have to be missing the moment you open the file, or when you make a change to that specific item, or perhaps it could be zoom level dependent, etc. (All three of which could also be a document specific error, and not in any way related to rendering).

For anyone else reading this in the future...
In all cases where disappearing content occurs, the first item you should try is:

1. fully uninstall all of our software from your device, and
2. restart the system, then
3. Download and run the latest installer we offer directly from our official website: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/products

(never use a third party download site or service [including dedicated update utilities] when troubleshooting errors that could be installation related)

Kind regards,

[sjy]

Hi Dan, sorry for the delay – I've uploaded the dump file.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, sjy

Good timing, that link is very close to expiry! I have passed the files along to Roman, who wants to further investigate the cause here.
If we hear good news, I will be back to let you know what he has found.

[Edit]
I have just heard confirmation, Roman was able to find a likely cause, and it will be resolved in our next official release. As always, do ensure you are downloading directly from our official website, or using out PDF-XChange Updater when new releases come out.

Kind regards,