I imported a bunch of TIF files into Devonthink today and converted them to searchable PDFs. Then I went through them and highlighted portions (still in Devonthink). Each time I highlighted something, that file lost the OCR.
Is this connected to the Sierra PDF/OCR issues?
Yes. It is exaclty the issue in 10.12.2. Our Lead Developer has noted the most recent beta of Sierra is not exhibiting this issue, so we are hopeful it will be fixed in the next OS release. However, we are still going to be issuing another maintenance release as well, so stay tuned for that too.
I’m having the same issue currently on Mac. Highlighting PDFs in DT (latest version) is removing OCR. Is this an issue in DT or due to Preview being bugged? Is there a known workaround?
The thread you’re posting in started NINE years ago. I would suppose that the issue described there and identified as related to macOS Sierra is not related to whatever you’re seeing – unless you run a very old version of macOS.
I suggest you start a new thread where you describe exactly what you’re doing to which files (where do these PDFs come from? Did you OCR them yourself or did they already include a text layer) and which versions of macOS and DT you’re using.