Troubleshoot common issues

Fix the most common problems with Kiwi PDF — slow performance, missing annotations, file errors.

Annotations are missing after sharing

Kiwi PDF saves annotations as standard PDF annotations. If they are missing in another app:

1. Check that you shared the file from Kiwi PDF (not a cached copy). Open the file in Kiwi PDF and use Share from the ••• menu to ensure annotations are embedded.
2. Some very old PDF viewers do not support all annotation types. Try opening in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Google Chrome instead.
3. If the recipient sees blank boxes, the viewer may not support the annotation's appearance stream. Try sharing a flattened copy (Tools › Flatten).

The app runs slowly on large PDFs

• PDFs with many high-resolution images can be slow to render. Use Compress to reduce the file size first.
• Scanned PDFs with no text layer require rendering every page from scratch — running OCR adds a text layer that speeds up navigation.
• Close other apps running in the background to free up memory.

A file will not open

• The file may be password-protected. Enter the password when prompted.
• The file may be damaged. Try Tools › Repair PDF.
• Very old or non-standard PDFs may not open. Contact [email protected] with the file for investigation.

Annotations disappeared after reopening

Kiwi PDF saves changes automatically. If annotations are missing:

1. Check that the file was not replaced by a cloud sync (iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox) while the app was open.
2. Make sure you are viewing the same copy of the file — cloud services can create duplicate copies.

Kiwi PDF does not appear in the share sheet

Contact support

If none of the steps above solve your issue, email us at [email protected] with a description of the problem and, if possible, the PDF that causes it.