Problem

Users report that they can no longer highlight text or add annotations in the preview. The PDF attachment is displayed with a cloud icon at the bottom of the reference entry. The issue is often described as "write protection," although no actual file system protection is in place. The root cause is an outdated local attachment cache of the cloud project that was not automatically refreshed after an upgrade. As a result, the text content of PDF attachments is not loaded correctly in the preview and is unavailable for highlighting. 

Solution

Manually reload the cloud project's attachments to refresh the cache:

1. Open Citavi 7 and load the affected cloud project.
2. Select a reference that has a PDF attachment.
3. In the right panel, click Preview > [attachment name] > Open in Preview.
4. Citavi will now reload all attachments in the project.
5. Check whether text in the preview can be highlighted again.

Further Troubleshooting

If text is still not highlightable after reloading the attachments, check the following:

• Write protection in file properties: Right-click the project file in Windows Explorer, select Properties > General, and make sure the "Read-only" checkbox is not checked.
• Insufficient permissions in the cloud project: Go to Project > Manage Members and confirm that your role is at least "Author." Read-only permissions do not allow annotations.
• Citavi not up to date: Make sure you are using the latest version of Citavi 7 (Help > Check for Updates).

Best Practices

• After a Citavi upgrade, always perform an initial Open-in-Preview test to ensure the attachment cache is refreshed correctly.
• Keep Citavi up to date, as updates frequently resolve cache and compatibility issues.
• Use Help > Collect Support Information to quickly gather relevant diagnostic data for support when issues arise.