Troubleshooting and FAQ

Probably not. While a document has unsaved changes, MarkupRight keeps a recovery copy every 60 seconds. The next time you start, the Recover Unsaved Changes dialog lists each document with its original location and when it was last saved.

1. For each document, leave Recover chosen to get your work back, or choose Remove to discard it.
2. Click OK. Recovered documents open marked as unsaved; save them to keep them. Later keeps everything for the next start.

You can open the dialog yourself at any time with File ▸ Recover Unsaved Changes…. Recovery copies are kept for 30 days and aren't made for files on network drives. The setting is Preferences ▸ General ▸ Document ▸ Enable Document Recovery (on).

Another program (or a colleague on a shared drive) saved the file you have open. If you haven't changed it in MarkupRight, it simply reloads, keeping your page and zoom. If you have unsaved changes, choose Reload to take the other version (losing your changes) or Keep to keep yours; then use Save As if you want both.

Another program has the file locked. Open it read-only to view and mark it up, then use File ▸ Save As… to keep your changes in a new file.

MarkupRight writes a new file safely and only then replaces the old one, so a failed save leaves your original intact. Choose Save As… from the message to save somewhere else, and check that the folder isn't read-only or full.

MarkupRight fixes common damage, such as a broken cross-reference table, as it opens a file, and Document ▸ Document Properties lists what was repaired. Save the file to keep the repaired version. For drawing problems inside pages, try Document ▸ Repair PDF….

Hover over it: the tooltip says why. The usual reasons are:

• Viewer mode. Without a licence (for example after the trial), you can open, view, search and print, but not change documents. A bar under the toolbars says so, with Register…. See Install and activate.
• The document's security. A permissions password can forbid editing, page changes, copying or printing. See Security and signatures.
• It's signed or certified. Signed files allow markups and form filling but not page or content changes, because those would break the signatures.
• It's an archive (PDF/A) file. These open locked so they stay compliant. Choose Document ▸ Unlock PDF/A if you really need to change it.
• It needs a selection or a scale. For example, Align needs two markups selected, and measure tools need the page's scale.
• It arrives in a later version. The tooltip says "Arrives in version 2".

• Single-letter keys (such as V or C) only work when the page has focus. Click the drawing and try again.
• On macOS, the system may claim some keys first (for example ⌘H or the function keys). Rebind the command in MarkupRight ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.
• Check the key in Keyboard shortcuts, or press Ctrl+K and type the command's name to see its current shortcut.

Press Shift+F4 in case Hide Panels is on, or F11 to leave Full Screen. To put every panel back where it started, choose View ▸ Reset Panel Layout. Toolbars are listed under Tools ▸ Toolbars.

In MarkupRight, Esc cancels what you're doing and picks the Pan tool. Press F11 again (or the last button on the floating toolbar) to leave Full Screen. In Presentation mode, Esc does exit.

That's on purpose, so you can adjust what you just drew. Turn on Reuse (Tools ▸ Reuse or the Reuse toggle in the status bar) to keep the tool until you press Esc.

It's probably locked: a locked markup shows no handles. Right-click it and choose Unlock, or untick Lock in the Properties panel. In a Collab Session you can only change your own markups unless you're the host.

• Check the page's scale in the navigation bar. If it says Scale Not Set or doesn't match the drawing, set it with Tools ▸ Measure ▸ Set Scale…, preferably by calibrating on a long dimension you trust.
• Measurements made before you changed the scale keep their old values until you choose Tools ▸ Measure ▸ Recalculate.
• Sheets with details at different scales need viewports: a measurement takes the scale of the viewport its first point is in.
• The Dimension markup always shows the length on paper, not at scale. Use Length for real-world distances.

The file is protected, signed, certified or locked, so MarkupRight can't store a scale in it. The scale works for this session only. Save a copy you're allowed to change if you need the scale to stick.

Turn on Snap to Content Ctrl+Shift+F8. Snapping works on vector lines, not on scanned images or text. On very dense sheets the status bar says Snap limited on this page, and only part of the drawing is used for snapping. Pen, Highlight and text tools never snap.

MarkupRight draws with your graphics card. If the card can't start, it switches to OpenGL by itself and tells you. You can choose the engine yourself in Preferences ▸ Advanced ▸ 2D Rendering ▸ Rendering Engine; restart MarkupRight after changing it.

The page is probably a scan: a picture of text, with no text inside it. Run Document ▸ OCR… to recognise the text, then search again. See Pages and document tools.

Check View ▸ Hide Markups, and the eye button in the Markups List: both hide markups from view without deleting them (they come back when you restart). A filter in the Markups List dims markups it leaves out. Markups flattened into the page can be brought back with Document ▸ Unflatten if they were flattened with recovery allowed.

WebTabs use your system's web engine. On Windows that's the WebView2 runtime, which Windows Update installs; on Linux it's WebKitGTK 4.1, in an X11 session. On macOS the system engine is always there.

MarkupRight couldn't find a valid licence, so it lets you open, view, search and print but not change files. The bar says why: the trial ended, the licence ended, it couldn't renew for 30 days (connect to the internet, or load a licence file), the licence is for a different computer, or your computer's clock is behind. Fix the reason, then use Help ▸ Licence ▸ Register…. See Install and activate.

For an individual licence, the Register dialog lists the computers using it; deactivate one to use this one. For a Team licence, ask your MarkupRight administrator to free a seat. Before replacing a computer, choose Help ▸ Licence ▸ Deactivate This Computer on the old one.

Choose Help ▸ Check for Updates. Copies installed with the Windows MSI are updated by your IT department, and your administrator may have turned updates off. If an update fails to install, MarkupRight tells you at the next start; checking again retries.