How to Delete a PDF Page in Preview (The Detailed Guide)

If you have a Mac, it can be very easy to delete a PDF page in Preview when you're working with a multi-page document. Preview is Mac's native PDF viewing tool, and in Preview you can do some simple document editing, such as marking up a PDF document, rotating pages, or rearranging the pages within the document. However, sometimes there are some issues with using Preview on a Mac for deleting PDF pages.

In this post we'll talk about how to delete a PDF page in Preview, and discuss some common problems that you might run into, and an alternative for using Preview on Mac to work with PDFs.

Part 1. Which PDF Page-Deletion Method Should You Use?

Preview is the best first choice for a quick Mac-only deletion. Use a dedicated PDF page organizer when deletion is part of a larger cleanup job rather than a one-page correction.

Part 2. How to Delete Pages from a PDF in Preview?

Deleting pages from a PDF in Preview is fairly simple. You can follow the steps below to delete a single page within a PDF.

Step 1: Choose the PDF that you want to work with, right click, select "Open With" and open it in Preview.

Step 2: Click View, then Thumbnails so you can see a preview image of every page of the document you're working in at the left side panel.

Step 3: Select the page of the PDF that you want to delete. You can choose one single page by clicking on it, or you can choose multiple pages by pressing down on the Command button, and holding it while you click on several different pages. When you've chosen all the pages you want to delete, you can let go of the Command button.

Step 4: Once your pages are selected, you can press the Delete button on your keyboard, or go to Edit, then select Delete.

And remember, once you've deleted a PDF page in Preview, all of the annotations and markups on that page will also be deleted!

Part 3. How to Delete PDF Pages Faster with UPDF on Mac?

If you want to solve all of the problems above with deleting pages from a PDF in Preview, then the process is very simple! You can use UPDF as an alternative to Preview. UPDF allows you to delete a single page, delete all odd or even pages, or delete a specific range of PDF pages without having to manually select each PDF page.

UPDF also has many other features to help with all of your PDF needs. With UPDF, you can rotate PDF pages, replace individual PDF pages, extract information from a PDF, insert new pages, and so many more powerful features.

Click the button below to download UPDF.

Follow these simple steps for deleting pages from a PDF with UPDF:

Step 1: Download UPDF, and open the PDF you need to delete pages from. The first way to do this is by selecting a single page you want to delete, right-clicking, and selecting Delete. This is the best method for deleting a single page.

Step 2: If you need to delete more than one page, select Organize Pages from the left side menu. At the top of this page, you choose Select Pages, and pick a specific page range, all odd pages, all even pages, portrait pages, landscape pages, or all pages. Once your desired pages have been selected, you can press the Delete key on your keyboard, or select the red trash can to delete those pages.

And that's it! It's super simple to delete however many pages you need from a PDF with UPDF. UPDF also has many other features to help you with your PDFs, including editing tools, annotation tools, OCR ability, and AI-powered tools for explaining, summarizing, and generating content. You can use all of the features to help make your work and study life easier and simpler.

You can read this review of UPDF or watch this video tutorial to learn more.

Click the button below to download UPDF and customize your PDFs today!

Part 4. Why Can't I Delete PDF Pages in Preview?

The thumbnail is not actually selected

If the insertion point is inside a note, signature, or text box, the Delete key applies to that object. Click the page thumbnail until the thumbnail itself is highlighted, then use Edit > Delete to confirm which command Preview will run.

The file is locked in Finder

Close Preview. In Finder, select the file, choose File > Get Info, and inspect the Locked checkbox. Clear the checkbox if the file is yours and you are authorized to change it. Apple documents this file-level control in its Preview locking guide.

The PDF restricts page editing

A PDF can open normally while still blocking page extraction, assembly, or deletion. Making a Finder copy does not remove those document permissions. Ask the owner for an unrestricted copy or the correct permissions password.

Only remove PDF restrictions when you own the document or have explicit authorization to edit it. UPDF cannot legitimately replace a password you do not know; its password-removal workflow requires the applicable password.

The PDF opened from a read-only location

An email attachment, mounted disk, shared folder, managed work account, or restricted cloud location may not allow Preview to save changes. Copy the PDF into a writable local folder, rename the copy, reopen it, and try again.

Preview has not saved the visible change

After deleting a page, choose File > Save. If Preview cannot overwrite the source, use File > Export as PDF and save a new file. Open the exported PDF once to confirm its page count before sending it.

For a local page-management workspace that makes multi-page review easier, download UPDF for free and test the deletion on a duplicate—installation is free, and Pro removes the trial watermark from exported files.

Part 5. How to Fix Can't Delete PDF Pages in Preview?

If a PDF is password-protected and you can't delete it in Preview, then you can use UPDF to remove the password, and then directly delete the PDF pages, or you can save the PDF without the password and open it in Preview to delete the pages.

Follow the steps below to remove the password-protection from a PDF with UPDF:

Step 1: Open UPDF and open your saved, password-protected PDF. You will have to provide the required password before you proceed it has open password.

Step 2: On the right menu of UPDF, you can click on the narrow next to Save. From those security options, you can select Remove Password.

Step 3: If it has permission password, you need to enter the permission password. Then, you have to choose the Remove option and you will need to save the document as a new PDF file.

Now that you have a new PDF document without a password, you can open the new PDF in UPDF and delete whatever pages you need to, whether that's one single page, odd pages, even pages, or a specific range of pages. Or you can open the PDF in Preview and delete pages from there. This should work now since you will not have a password preventing you from making edits and changes in Preview.

However, you may still run into some difficulty using Preview for deleting PDF pages because of the issues mentioned above. Because of those issues, we highly recommend using a Preview alternative, such as UPDF, for deleting PDF pages.

FAQs

Conclusion

To delete a PDF page in Preview, show the thumbnail sidebar, select the page, press Delete, and save the file. Preview is the right tool for a quick correction on a Mac. Before editing, duplicate important PDFs, avoid Command + Delete, and distinguish Finder locks from internal PDF permissions.

When the document needs more than a quick trim, UPDF’s Organize Pages workspace keeps deletion, replacement, extraction, splitting, rotation, and reordering together. For that broader cleanup, download UPDF for free and work on a copy—installation is free, and Pro removes the trial watermark from exported files.