How to set Preview to always open files in a new window?

When I open a .png image with Preview , it reuses the last window instead of opening the image in a new window. I can right click > "Open in New Window", but that is annoying to do every time.

Preview Version 10.1 (944.6.16.1)
macOS Mojave 10.14.6

asked Feb 5, 2021 at 7:30 5,345 5 5 gold badges 34 34 silver badges 35 35 bronze badges

Well, I am confused, I open many png one after another and each comes open in a new window - such that either I have to close all or quit.

Commented Feb 5, 2021 at 14:16 After selecting "open file in new window" did you restart Preview? Commented Feb 5, 2021 at 16:53

Same problem here. I have two user accounts, it works in one, but not in the other. I cannot find the setting to change that behaviour. Hugely annoying, espacially as the tab doesn't even get activated, so whenever I double click a file, I then have to search for it in Preview.

Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 8:37

Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't and no setting seems to really be consistent in working.

Commented Aug 25, 2022 at 1:15 I'm wondering if opening many windows forces Preview to open a new file in a tab. Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 2:43

2 Answers 2

OK, I have been fighting this problem for (literally) years. No matter what preferences I set, Preview insisted on opening new documents in a tab of a (random) window of an already-opened PDF. I finally decided to fix this, no matter how long it took. I created a “test” account, and determined that Preview would open PDFs in either tabs or windows, depending on the setting of the “Prefer tabs. ” System Setting. I also determined that Preview would honor the state of AppleWindowTabbingMode using defaults write :

defaults write com.apple.Preview AppleWindowTabbingMode -string never

So, the behavior of Preview in the test account was correct.

But, copying the preferences from the test account to my main account did not change Preview’s behavior. In my main account, Preview ignored the state of AppleWindowTabbingMode. I finally decided to close every PDF that Preview had open, quit Preview, and then wipe every preference for Preview. These preferences are:

 /Users/[yourname]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist /Users/[yourname]/Library/Containers/Preview

For the one in Containers, I threw the entire Preview folder away. When I re-launched Preview, it would now open PDFs in windows, and honor the settings in both System Settings -> Prefer tabs. and the defaults write AppleWindowTabbingMode preference.

I hope this helps someone else.