You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Pages on MacBook

Hi!

I am a uni student who's just made a silly mistake.

I was drafting up a new sheet. When it was time for me to save it, I had named it exactly the same as another file I had. When asked if I was sure on replacing it, I had accidentally selected "Yes" & now I need help retrieving the old page that I had already saved! Is there any way I can restore the file that's now replaced? I've tried playing around with Time Machine but it doesn't seem to work! Help!

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 31, 2020 3:08 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 31, 2020 4:33 AM

You will be able to retrieve the old Pages document from Time Machine, only if a backup was made by Time Machine, when the old documented existed. Can you confirm that a backup was made prior?


Otherwise you have replaced, but not necessarily overwritten, the old document with the new one.


Data Recovery software might be useful but cannot guarantee the retrieval of the old file.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 31, 2020 4:33 AM in response to mshnguyen

You will be able to retrieve the old Pages document from Time Machine, only if a backup was made by Time Machine, when the old documented existed. Can you confirm that a backup was made prior?


Otherwise you have replaced, but not necessarily overwritten, the old document with the new one.


Data Recovery software might be useful but cannot guarantee the retrieval of the old file.

Aug 31, 2020 8:21 AM in response to mshnguyen

It would be a waste of time and money attempting to recover an overwritten document that was not backed up to to Time Machine. This is especially true if much time has elapsed since the overwrite, and whether any data recovery software could reconstruct a valid Pages document — which I doubt.


So this does not happen again, see Back up your Mac with Time Machine. You will need an external USB3 or USB-C external drive (depending on the available Mac port type) that is 2.5 - 3 times the storage capacity of your internal drive. You would use Disk Utility to erase that external drive as macOS HFS+ journaled (case-insensitive - default), with a GUID partition scheme. Mine is named simply TM. Once it is connected to your Mac, visit System Preferences : Time Machine, and click Select Disk… pointing it to your external TM drive. Then click Back Up Automatically. Also, select Show Time Machine in menu bar. You can see backup progress, and last backup timestamp.


Your first Time Machine backup will backup your entire Mac including the operating system. This will take awhile… . Approximately every hour that your Mac is powered on, and Time Machine is working, changes to your home directory, or operating system will get backed up. These incremental backups are smaller, and take less time.

Aug 31, 2020 4:56 AM in response to mshnguyen

From the image you have sent, it is clear that Time Machine has not been set up or active - that means no backups are available from where you can go back and view/copy the old Pages file.


Data Recovery software might be helpful in retrieving deleted data or data from corrupted or failed storage mediums. You can search online for some. These softwares are not 100% successful all the time, it all depends on whether your file was overwritten by new data, etc.

Pages on MacBook

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.