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User profile for user: Stylax
Stylax Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Disappearing Files ?

I have tried to ignore this problem but now it has started on a second M1 Mac, I need to see how to deal with it from some helpful soul.


If I create a Pages or Numbers document which is shown as saved to Documents, I can click on File - Open Recent and it will be there at the top of the list. If I then go to File - Open, my Documents file list opens in alphabetical order but the document does not show in there. What am I doing wrong ? I used to be able to do this operation with my old iMac and never noticed a problem. It has only started, or so it seems, since I bought 2 M1 Macs. Help !

iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021, 2 ports)

Posted on Mar 3, 2023 2:56 AM

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User profile for user: Will_G_Astro
Will_G_Astro
User level: Level 3
590 points

Posted on Mar 3, 2023 6:08 AM

When you are in Finder > Recents - right-click on the Pages or Numbers document and in the pop-up context menu select "Show In Enclosing Folder", when the enclosing folder opens the banner at the top of the window will tell you where the document is stored.


Most likely you will see that the document has been stored in your iCloud Documents folder, which is the default location for Pages and Numbers documents, unless you configure iCloud otherwise.


There is a small "gotcha" with the save file routine in Pages and Numbers in that it remembers your last choice of Documents folder location, either local or iCloud, even if you shut down Pages / Numbers and restart, so if you save one document to iCloud - Documents folder then every subsequent document goes there too, unless you manually select the local Documents folder on the first time that you save a new document.


At least, the above is how I find the behaviour of Pages and Numbers document saving with OS Ventura.


HTH.

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User profile for user: Will_G_Astro
Will_G_Astro
User level: Level 3
590 points

Mar 3, 2023 6:08 AM in response to Stylax

When you are in Finder > Recents - right-click on the Pages or Numbers document and in the pop-up context menu select "Show In Enclosing Folder", when the enclosing folder opens the banner at the top of the window will tell you where the document is stored.


Most likely you will see that the document has been stored in your iCloud Documents folder, which is the default location for Pages and Numbers documents, unless you configure iCloud otherwise.


There is a small "gotcha" with the save file routine in Pages and Numbers in that it remembers your last choice of Documents folder location, either local or iCloud, even if you shut down Pages / Numbers and restart, so if you save one document to iCloud - Documents folder then every subsequent document goes there too, unless you manually select the local Documents folder on the first time that you save a new document.


At least, the above is how I find the behaviour of Pages and Numbers document saving with OS Ventura.


HTH.

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User profile for user: Stylax
Stylax Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Mar 3, 2023 6:40 AM in response to Will_G_Astro

Thank you for this explanation. One thing I don't understand is why when I select Pages or Numbers 'Open' I get a list of documents most of which are greyed out and only a handful are in black text. These in black look to be fairly recently opened documents but when I have done this operation in the past, all the document names have been black as far as I can recall. Is there some setting which will make all the documents in the list accessible because the greyed out ones are not ?


Stylax

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User profile for user: Will_G_Astro
Will_G_Astro
User level: Level 3
590 points

Mar 4, 2023 12:34 AM in response to Stylax

When you open a location from a finder screen in some applications, such as Pages or Numbers, you will see a complete list of files in that location.


Only the files that are compatible with the application you are searching from are shown in bold text, the “greyed out” files are files that are stored in the same folder but aren’t compatible with the application you are searching from and can’t be opened in the application you are using at that time.


An example might be: if you had Numbers running and tried to open a document from a folder that contained Numbers documents and photos. The Numbers compatible documents would be visible with dark, bold text, the photos would be visible as “greyed out” ghosts because you can’t open a photo in Numbers.

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User profile for user: LSilva76
LSilva76
User level: Level 1
13 points

Mar 17, 2023 3:33 PM in response to Stylax

This is something weird,

I had a very similar issue.so far one of my numbers spreadsheet, which was saves in iCloud documents in a folder.

completely disappeared (the folder as well).

I see this file when I ask numbers to show all windows, but cannot open it.

tried to recover files with no luck.


I am pretty sure I have not deleted this file..


not sure if its some king of virus that deletes files?


anyone with the same weird issues?


Thank you

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Disappearing Files ?

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