Pages document exported to word, minimized, can't find it

I worked on a legal document for 3 days. Exported to word and saved with a name. Saved it also in pages. Today I opened them both. After viewing, I minimized the one that was exported to word so I could look at something on the one saved in pages. The one saved in pages did not have all of my latest edits for the last 3 days. After minimizing the document exported to word, I could not find it to un-minimize it. It disappeared. I did not close it, just used the yellow minimize button.

It is not in trash, not anywhere. I googled it and tried every solution I found, it is nowhere on my laptop. Please help!

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 3, 2020 10:12 AM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2020 5:37 AM

Pages probably would save that exported Word document in the last folder that you used to save any previous document — unless you explicitly changed the save destination folder. So, if you are using iCloud, or any other Cloud destination, it might be worth looking there.


Check in System Preferences : Spotlight : Search Results. At minimum, are Documents, Folders, and Others selected? if so, and you are unsure if you have been using Spotlight to index your startup drive, click on the Privacy tab in Spotlight, and then drag and drop your Macintosh HD drive icon onto the open Privacy panel. Wait 10 seconds, and then select it, and click [-] to remove it from the Privacy panel. This will start Spotlight indexing your startup drive. After about 15 minutes, do the following Spotlight search from the magnifying loop in the top right menu bar:


kind:word created:>01/01/2020
kind:pages created:>01/01/2020


You can press the ⌘ key to see the path to the document, and ⌘+R to open a Finder window with that file icon selected.


These two Spotlight searches will locate any saved .pages, or exported .doc/.docx documents that were created since the first of the year. If you were saving to the Pages folder on iCloud Drive, and subsequently unchecked that entry in System Preferences : iCloud : iCloud Drive : Options…, then that Pages folder would not be shown, or available for search.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2020 5:37 AM in response to kathie273

Pages probably would save that exported Word document in the last folder that you used to save any previous document — unless you explicitly changed the save destination folder. So, if you are using iCloud, or any other Cloud destination, it might be worth looking there.


Check in System Preferences : Spotlight : Search Results. At minimum, are Documents, Folders, and Others selected? if so, and you are unsure if you have been using Spotlight to index your startup drive, click on the Privacy tab in Spotlight, and then drag and drop your Macintosh HD drive icon onto the open Privacy panel. Wait 10 seconds, and then select it, and click [-] to remove it from the Privacy panel. This will start Spotlight indexing your startup drive. After about 15 minutes, do the following Spotlight search from the magnifying loop in the top right menu bar:


kind:word created:>01/01/2020
kind:pages created:>01/01/2020


You can press the ⌘ key to see the path to the document, and ⌘+R to open a Finder window with that file icon selected.


These two Spotlight searches will locate any saved .pages, or exported .doc/.docx documents that were created since the first of the year. If you were saving to the Pages folder on iCloud Drive, and subsequently unchecked that entry in System Preferences : iCloud : iCloud Drive : Options…, then that Pages folder would not be shown, or available for search.

Apr 3, 2020 1:55 PM in response to kathie273

Minimizing the window does not close the app or affect the actual file in any way. You can always open it from wherever it is saved on your hard drive, by looking for it through Finder.


When minimized a preview of the document will be shown on the right most side of the dock. Look for the file there to open it again.


Or simply open the Word app again, and open it form the recent menu.

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Pages document exported to word, minimized, can't find it

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