Does anyone know if there is a way to stop macos from detecting phone numbers?
For example I open a PDF in Preview and usually try to copy text out of it - however apple is ‘detecting’ what it thinks is a phone number and making it into a link - so I can not longer double click the text to select it since it tries to pass me to a url.
Not a direct answer to your question, but you can copy text that includes a link by starting your copy outside the link, then drag the selection over it.
There’s no universal setting to deactivate data detectors in macOS but there may be settings inside individual apps, as there are for TextEdit, Pages and Messages.
Not Preview, however.
FYI the SnipNotes app for Mac/iOS/Watch just updated to let users granularly opt in/out of data detectors - either as an app-wide setting or for selected notes. Would be a nice feature to see in Apple Notes too…
Thanks. Update needs to be done manually.
I have changed PDF Reader to Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - I can double click on the number with no issue (also when opening it via preview)
If there was an solution to this , it would be worth its weight in gold. It’s very irritating for the OS/Apps to guess what you want to do. For me it’s 100% select and copy plain text.
I’m trying to remove my social security number from 100+ pages of tax documents, and I can’t use MacOS Preview app’s redact tool because it thinks that my SSN is a phone number and won’t let me select the text 
We’re okay with reviving old threads on these forums, right?
I had this same issue, and the best solution I found was to disable “data detection” (Apple’s name for this kind of behavior) in the particular app I was working in (DEVONthink). This was suggested in the thread above, but the way to actually do it was not described. Here’s how to do it: un-check this menu item: Edit > Substitutions > Data Detectors.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, Preview does not give you access to this setting. Ie, the above menu item does not exist in that app. Who knows why.
I also noticed that PDF Expert seems to not have data detection enabled at all (and hence has no setting to turn it off). So that’s an option.
I hope this is helpful to someone.
