Q: Pages won't open document

This fault is intermittent. I can create a document in Pages and save it but can't then re-open it. I can however open it in iCloud, which isn't ideal but a solution. I can sometimes open it again in Pages (as installed on my Mac) but it's choosy, more often than not it refuses.

Amazing really, take a great program and break it.

I have approximately 20 macs that it's happening on.  When I safe boot pages loads but when I normal boot it doesn't the same goes for KeyNote.

Hi

None of my documents will open in pages on my Mac - however, they will on my iPad! Very strange and very frustrating - when trying to open, a message just pops up saying 'cannot open filename' and if you hit cancel it just closes the open page. It is the same with every file I have but without explanation.

I have closed pages from my iPad and rebooted the mac but still no joy.

Any ideas please anyone???

Emma

Hello

It seems I was having the same issue with not being able to open my docs on my Mac in pages after just creating it on the same Mac in Pages. What's even more frustrating is that I get a message that the doc. cannot be opened in pages but there is no reason why. After hours of no answers from apple tech support or online support on how to resolve this, I went looking for a work around.

Since the documents are being stored in iCloud I decided to signed into iCloud.com with my apple I.D and open the pages app there. I was able to edit my document and print it from there as well. Out of curiosity I decide to see if I could download the doc. from iCloud and than open it in pages, and I was able to.

It's a bit annoying to have to go through so much just to get my documents, especially if you have the pages app on the Mac, but it was either that or starting all over.

It seems that the issue is that the file is being saved directly to iCloud with no extension to it. Since the file is actually in iCloud you have to retrieve it from iCloud. To test this I created a new document in pages and saved it than tried to open it again and it would not open. I than went to iCloud.com open the pages app and downloaded the document. I was able to open it and edit and save it. And to put the icing on the cake for me, I was able to open the document again and again in pages on my mac with no problem.

I also took a look in finder under All file on this mac and found that I now had two of the same documents the one just created in pages on the mac did not have an extension at the end of it and the one downloaded from icloud.com had the .Pages extension at the end.

So as in the world of Apple, the issue seems to have been isolated to the way the file is being saved. When you are saving a file in pages there are 2 options for saving the document. You have either Pages-cloud or iCloud drive as your choices and neither one will allow you to open a document on your mac since they are actually not on your mac but in the iCloud where the birds get to keep it protected for you.

Hope this helps who ever needs it.

on ipad i was woeking on a document (pages), i went to the home screen and then came back to pages and the document had closed, i tried to open it again and it said "Document can't be opened." can someone help me? I really need this document (please tell me i can get it back)

Hello,

Earlier you wanted clues on what might be happening with this issue for people.  Here are my observations: I created a Pages document on iMac and it opens fine in iOs but not anymore on iMac.  I tried to open it in Preview on iMac which was successful.  Still can't open it in iMac through any method.  My big wish is for Apple to put more care into the basics and make them work. 

So. After combing thru numerous inquiries and replies into the burning question of “Why won’t blankety-blank Pages suddenly open any of my older documents?” on the Apple Support Communities (in some cases, even freshly created documents), I stumbled across a 17 Feb 2015 reply by one ‘RizQue’.

He had discovered that documents are being stored in iCloud and that he could open, edit and download documents that heretofore he was completely unable to access. WHO KNEW? So, I tried it. I signed onto iCloud (my first experience in ‘the Cloud’ - which I don’t trust in the slightest - call me paranoid if you want - I’m 71). I was able to upload a doc I had just tried to open on my iMac - unsuccessfully - open, edit, and print it. GREAT! So far, so good. Then I tried to save it. RizQue was able to save his as a .pages doc. I was not. The only choice was a .pdf. Voila! Saved AND ‘permanently’ (hopefully) accessible into the future.

Call me paranoid (again), but this appears to me to be an Apple power-play to force long-time users of their iWorks apps to use their iCloud (whatever that is). Like RizQue, I find this work-around to be tedious (marginally), since I already had a word processing app (Pages 3.03) that had worked flawlessly from 2000 thru 2013 - until Apple changed the game by releasing the new Pages - 5.2.2 - without warning us that we would now be unable to open our old files. How many tens of millions of us have been sorely inconvenienced by this unilateral action on Apple’s part? According to RizQue and many others seeking an answer to this frustrating issue: “After hours of no answers from apple tech support or online support on how to resolve this, I went looking for a work around.”

His experience rather supports my paranoid suspicion that Apple really doesn’t much care. If they did, would they not have moved mountains to fix this ‘bug’?

The trouble with file opening of Pages files started few days ago. I find out that I have in my iMac in the program folder two versions of Pages installed, beside the latest version 5.5.3 also an older version 4.2.

After de-installation of version 4.2 was the file opening of Pages files possible without any problem.

It is Thursday, May 28, 2015 and around 11:00 PM EDT, I went to open my manuscript for a short story I am writing. I did allot of work on the story this afternoon. I closed out the file on pages on my iPad 1 that is using OS 5.1.1. I don't use iCloud because Apple decided only OS 8 users can use iCloud now. When I first used iCloud years ago, it wiped out all my files and I never got them back. I saved my backups to my desktop computer. I transfer my manuscripts to Dropbox. This way, I can edit it in Word on my PC. Today, I had not had the chance to transfer it to Dropbox. When I tried to open the file in Pages, I received a message that "Document can't be opened. I tried to send it to another app but it reports that "No app available - Install an app that can open your document in Pages, PDF, or Word format. WHich is BS since the iPad has all those apps on it. When I try to email the document to myself, it just continues to run forever. I am really PO that I lost a whole day of work today.

I cannot upgrade to iCloud because I do not have a device with iOS 8 or MacOS. It is kind of shady if Apple made my app on my iPad 1 obsolete and not accessible to the documents I created on it. I am not sure why I have to be forced to use the newer software when I was perfectly fine using the older software. If I cannot trust them to safe guard my documents, then why would I hand them more money?

iCloud needs (at least) IOS 5, not IOS 8.

Not 'shady' at all, just your misunderstanding.

It states on the "upgrade to iCloud Drive" on iCloud for Windows that, "After upgrading, documents in iCloud will only be available on devices with OS X or iOS 8." How is that a misunderstanding? The message on the tool clearly states will not be available for iOS 5.1.1.

Why would there be any other interpretation for an iOS 5.1.1 user? Since, the iPad 1 cannot use iOS 8. That is shady. Since, we could use it before.

You said:

I cannot upgrade to iCloud

iCloud and iCloud Drive have different requirements, something you seem to be unaware of.

I don't even know the difference between iCloud, iCloud pages and iCloud drive: I was looking around to find out why my MBA can store pages docs both in documents folder and the cloud, but when I retrieve the doc from cloud on my mac it won't store in both folders unless I turn off the macbook.

I'm guessing only one machine can use the cloud at a time with my apple id, or a lack of patience waiting for things to happen but I'm probably wrong as my iPhone opens them anytime I have wifi or 3G/4G no matter what else is switched on - although I'm not convinced it stores docs on the phone anyway.

Please tell me if I'm wrong and perhaps be kind enough to let me know why, I already know I'm not a whizz with computers but still believe the Apple community will provide less abrasive answers than some of the insults I suffered when I tried to ask for help on MS forums years back....