To reopen a PDF at the page you last read, turn on Preview’s Start on the last viewed page setting. Open Preview, choose Preview > Settings > PDF, and select the checkbox. Then close the PDF and open it again in Preview. Apple documents this setting specifically for returning to the page you were on when you closed a PDF. Open PDFs to the last viewed page in Preview on Mac

Turn on Preview’s last-page setting

  1. Open the Preview app. If a PDF is already open, click Preview’s window or choose Preview from the Dock so its menus appear in the menu bar.
  2. From the menu bar, choose Preview > Settings. On older macOS versions, the window may be called Preferences instead.
  3. Select PDF in the settings window.
  4. Select Start on the last viewed page.
  5. Close the settings window, open the PDF you want to read, and navigate to a page. Close the PDF; when you reopen it in Preview, it should return to the last page viewed.

The preference is controlled in Preview’s PDF settings, rather than through a command in the document window. Apple’s instructions also explain the reverse: deselect the checkbox if you want PDFs to open at the first page instead. This is a Preview behavior setting; it does not add a visible bookmark or change the PDF’s page content. Apple’s Preview instructions

Close the PDF and quit Preview are different steps

If you only need to resume one document, close its window or tab and reopen the same PDF. You do not need to restart the Mac. If you quit Preview and later launch it again, macOS may also restore application windows from the previous session, depending on the system’s window-restoration settings. That is separate from Preview’s last-viewed-page preference: Apple documents macOS controls for whether apps restore windows at login or when an app is opened again. Prevent apps and windows from reopening on Mac

For a reliable test of the preference, open the PDF from Preview or Finder after closing it, then check whether it returns to the page you last viewed. Avoid changing the PDF or moving to a different copy while troubleshooting; those actions can make it unclear whether you reopened the same file. The documented feature is about the last page viewed when closing a PDF, and Apple does not describe it as a guarantee that every window, tab, or whole-app session will always be restored.

If it opens at the first page or a different page

First, confirm the checkbox is selected in Preview > Settings > PDF. Then open the intended PDF in Preview, move to a recognizable page, close it, and reopen that same file. If you had quit Preview, distinguish the PDF’s page position from whether macOS restores its old window: macOS has a separate Close windows when quitting an application setting, and its behavior varies by macOS version. On macOS Ventura or later, Apple lists it under System Settings > Desktop & Dock; in earlier versions, it is in System Preferences > General. Apple’s window-restoration guidance

If you cannot immediately return to a reading position, Preview has two documented ways to navigate directly: select View > Thumbnails and click the page, or choose Go > Go to Page. Apple notes that a PDF can use logical page numbers that differ from physical page positions—for example, front matter may use Roman numerals before page 1—so the number printed on a page may not match its position in the file. In that case, Preview’s Use logical page numbers setting can affect what Go to Page means. View PDFs and images in Preview and If Go to Page shows the wrong page of a PDF

Use a bookmark when you need a named return point

The last-viewed-page preference is convenient for one continuing reading position. If you need to return to a particular section later, add a bookmark instead: open the PDF and choose Tools > Add Bookmark. To find it again, choose View > Bookmarks and select the bookmark. Bookmarks are useful when the last page you read may change, or when you want to retain several named places in the same document. Bookmark PDF pages in Preview on Mac

Where Wallo fits

Wallo’s Mac workflow library is relevant when you want to organize existing open windows and to-dos by goal, then focus a window with the keyboard. Preview’s last-page checkbox handles the specific PDF-reading position; Wallo does not restore a closed Preview session or reopen a closed PDF. You can use the Preview setting for page continuity and Wallo to organize current work windows around the task you are doing.

The simplest setup is to enable Start on the last viewed page once, then close and reopen the same PDF in Preview when you want to continue. Use Preview bookmarks for named reference points, and use macOS’s window-restoration controls only when the separate issue is whether app windows return after quitting or logging back in.

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