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User profile for user: 0minous1
0minous1 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Pages couldnt communicate with helper application

Hello, We are having an issue with pages and cloud storages locations. When trying to save to OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox we receive an error. This happens when creating a document.


We are trying to create a file in OneDrive from the pages application and the error is "Couldn't communicate with a helper application". and further down it says "pages couldn't read the file. you can try restoring to a previous version."


If I check the OneDrive folder it shows a blank document was created but like the error message it couldn't be opened after being created. We have been able to recreate this error on multiple iOS devices on iOS 16 & 17 and old and up to date OneDrive apps.


Anyone have this happen and able to get a fix in place? Thank you for any and all help!


Test device spec:

Device: iPad 7th Gen

iOS Version: 17.1.2

OneDrive Version: 15.1.3

iPad (7th generation)

Posted on Dec 14, 2023 11:11 AM

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3 replies
User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,753 points

Dec 14, 2023 12:19 PM in response to 0minous1

Microsoft did not create OneDrive for storing Pages documents and it is my understanding that anything written to OneDrive is automatically encrypted — and not de-encrypted without passing back through the One Drive application on macOS. It is my believe that Pages simply doesn't know how to access its documents that have been encrypted by One Drive and Apple does not do One Drive de-encryption.


Things will likely work better with Pages when using iCloud Drive.

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,753 points

Dec 14, 2023 2:19 PM in response to 0minous1

You are welcome.


Although I have Office 2021 for Mac installed in addition to Pages on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, I purposely do not use One Drive for anything. Whether this is the root main cause of the help application notification you received or not — I cannot test. If creating/saving/editing the Pages document on iCloud cures the issue, that may be as close to an answer as you can expect.

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Pages couldnt communicate with helper application

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