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Hi, all. I have just updated to Big Sur and Pages will not open my old Pages documents. Pages will open and create a new document, but it will not open documents created in Catalina -- UGH!!! I found a way around it for the moment, until they make an update. I share the old document by sending it to email, then open the email attachment, copy it, and paste it into a new Pages document. I hope they put out a new Pages update soon that fixes this bug!
Dear All -- Just wanted to update the Pages situation. I cleared out more files from my iCloud Desktop file, and now my existing Pages files are opening properly from the desktop without Pages crashing...I do not have to move the files to an external disc to open them, and I have successfully opened an existing Numbers file from the Desktop without having Numbers crash. The problem seems to be with iCloud storage limits being exceeded and not being handled correctly by Big Sur. My storage limits manager now seems to be reading my existing iCloud storage space correctly. If anyone is in contact directly with Apple Tech about this, you might mention it to them! HAVE A GREAT DAY, and I hope this helps some folks get back in business -- thanks to Hotcmel1 and his post above!
OK thankfully I've managed to fix this, as found the error this morning, when I needed to open a work document in Pages quite urgently and it sat there saying "Downloading" and nothing else ..... VERY frustrating.
Shut your mac down.
Boot in Safe Mode (Hold shift key down until bootup) - once in, retest Pages and documents etc, it should open and work.
Restart machine normally.
Should be fixed - believe it's some app cache error that above fixes, but VERY poor from apple.
My pages would not open either... By updating my iCloud and resubscribing, it started working... This is only a temporary fix as I'd rather not pay for iCloud at the moment. But happy to see that my Pages is working again as I do enjoy using it to write. Hopefully, on the backend they will fix this issue soon so that one doesn't need free iCloud storage for it to run.
Hi, All -- The only thing that I had to do with iCloud was clean out files that were bringing it past the free storage limit. I did not resubscribe, nor did I have to pay for any additional storage. I continue to clean out and move files to external drives from my desktop, which I admit was overloaded, and now Pages, Number and Keynote are working. I personally think that it's a problem with Big Sur having a conflict with an overloaded iCloud capacity. This was never a problem before with Catalina, etc., but with Big Sur it is -- I hope they will fix it soon, but for now, everything is working for me.
I realized my iCloud storage was full and pages would not open any files that were not downloaded and saved in icloud Drive. I'm not sure why it worked, but the documents with a cloud icon with an exclamation were the ones not working, but I duplicated them and the copies opened and worked fine. The thing is, I'm not sure why they worked because they had a cloud icon as well but without the exclamation. Not sure if this works for everyone, but it worked for me.
TL;DR Duplicate your files and the copies will open
I rarely, if ever, had a problem with Pages prior to the Big Sur update. However, I began experiencing problems with the Pages app this afternoon, and I have been receiving the same error messages as the others on this thread have posted. I am using the current version of the Pages app. I do all of my work in Pages, so this is very frustrating, especially with the spring semester right around the corner. I am hopeful that Apple will resolve this issue quickly. The only approach that has worked for me thus far is duplicating the document. After the file is duplicated, I can open the copy, but not the original.
Dear XoPatty -- I'm glad that you are able to work with a duplicate -- the only thing that worked for me was cleaning out my iCloud overloaded files. I am now able to work with Pages, Numbers and KeyNote without problems, at least for the present. I don't know what will happen if iCloud is overloaded again...I will just have to clean out files until it works! HAVE A GREAT DAY, and good luck with the spring semester!
I was having this problem since updating to Big Sur in November. The only work-around I was able to find was emailing pages documents that wouldn't open on my computer to my partner's email, opening them, re-saving them as word docs, and then emailing them back to myself.
Fortunately, the latest pages update that I just downloaded mid January seems to have fixed the issue completely. I can now access all my old pages documents that previously would not open.
I have not had any problems since clearing out some space in iCloud, removing some big files to make room. Also, Big Sur has been updated several times, and I believe that Pages was also updated I'm working on version 10.3.9 (7029.9.8). which is the latest. I am having no problems with Pages, Numbers, or Keynote at this time. Have you updated Big Sur and your apps?
Numbers is opening for me, but Keynote and Pages aren't. Super frustrating!
update: even new documents i just created and saved can't be re-opened with pages or numbers.
Barbara,
Just solved some Pages v10.3.5 issues this morning in this post. You might try the green solved steps to see if your Pages v10.3.5 begins to work again.
Hi there, I have been having a similar issue. I tried what you said and am still receiving the crash. Here is my crash log.
Are you getting this?
Pages not opening documents in Big Sur
