Why won't a Word docx open in Pages on my new MacBookPro, like it did on my ancient

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Level 1

7 points

Why won't a Word docx open in Pages on my new MacBookPro, like it did on my ancient

I have just updated from an old MacBook Air to a new MacBook Pro. I don’t have Microsoft Word but that wasn’t a problem before, as Word docx would simply open in Pages without any issue and I could save back to Word to return to clients. Now I get a note that the application is invalid. I have tried dragging and dropping the docx to the Pages app in the dock, as Apple Support says. Still get invalid. I have tried Open with Pages app default, nothing. Hm. Any thoughts?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Mar 13, 2024 4:12 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 13, 2024 7:44 AM in response to CDalloway

Close all of your open documents and quit your applications. As you are on Sonoma 14.1, I recommend that you visit System Settings : General panel and click on Software Update. It will check for updates and should present you with an update for macOS Sonoma 14.4 which is current. Proceed with that update. It will not touch your documents, but if you feel it necessary, perform a Time Machine backup before proceeding with the operating system update.

Once you have updated to Sonoma 14.4, visit the Mac App Store, sign-in with your Apple ID if requested, and then click on Pages. There should be an update button as the current version (as of today) is v13.2. You may want to do that with Numbers and Keynote as well — if you use them.

Once you have the operating system and Pages updated, try opening that same Word document again in Pages v13.2. I have never seen LibreOffice Writer fail to open a Word document even as far back as Word 6 from the 1990s.

Did you install LibreOffice 24.2.1?

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Answer 2

Mar 13, 2024 6:34 AM in response to CDalloway

…Now I get a note that the application is invalid.

The application or the Word docx document? What specifically does the dialog state? That the document is too old, that Pages cannot open the document at this time, or that the Word document is invalid.

What version of Pages do you have installed on that new MacBook Pro and what version of the operating system?

In a Finder Window's sidebar, click Applications and scroll down in the list of applications. Single-click on the Pages application icon and press option+cmd+i. On that resulting information panel, what does it say for version?
Apple () menu : About This Mac. What version of the operating system is shown?
In the Finder, single-click on that Word document that is giving you problems and again, press option+cmd+i
1. What is the Created Date?
2. What is the kind reported for the document? (e.g. Office Open XML word processing document).

When you open a Word document in Pages, it attempts to translate from the Word document format to Pages internal .pages document format. If the document is too old, or it cannot manage the translation because of that document content, it may give up and mutter something about the document is damaged or wrong type.

More often than not, one can open these documents in the current version of the free LibreOffice Suite, and then save them again as a Word 2010 - 365 .docx document. Pages will open these updated documents.

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Answer 3

Mar 13, 2024 7:29 AM in response to Alex_kam

Alex_kam wrote:

Convert it to pages

How are you suggesting they accomplish this if they can't open the file?

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Answer 4

Mar 13, 2024 11:46 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

A very good question. I have the same problem - also with xlsx.

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Answer 5

Jun 11, 2024 12:08 PM in response to Chastity_100

What did work perfectly? I can’t see the proposal.

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Answer 6

CDalloway Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 13, 2024 7:07 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for this!

So, the pop-up says: ‘File X can’t be opened right now. The file format is Invalid.’ By the way, it’s not just one Word document. It’s all of them. Perhaps the client is running and olde worlde Office that my new Mac is too fancy for? Shame on my new Mac if so!

1 Pages version: 13.1 (also, down below it says I don’t have sharing and permission for ‘wheel’ and ‘everyone’, whatever that is, just ‘read only’. I don’t have permission to change that curiously).

2 MacOS version: Sonoma 14.1.

3 a Word doc was created Tue 12 Mar 2024 (ie yesterday).

3 b Word doc Kind: Microsoft Word document (also, down below in Sharing & Permissions says I (personally) can read and write. It also has ‘Open with Pages app default’ just to taunt me.

I downloaded the LibreOffice suite this morning, after reading about it on here from your good self. It would not open the Word item.

Incidentally, the new machine won’t open Jpegs, I have since discovered. Sigh.

Really appreciate your replying. Thank you.

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Answer 7

Mar 13, 2024 12:49 PM in response to StefanKarneback

Open the Excel .xlsx in LibreOffice and then save as a differently named Excel 2010 - 365 .xlsx document. Try opening it in Numbers again.

It is my understanding that documents saved to Microsoft's OneDrive are automatically encrypted and they need to be brought back to macOS via the Microsoft OneDrive application to decrypt them. Then Numbers can open them without encountering an encrypted OneDrive document.

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Answer 8

CDalloway Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 13, 2024 4:52 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for this. I was about to try this earlier when I thought: I copied the Word doc from a client Dropbox, and I realised this evening I wasn’t properly synced to the client Dropbox following migration. I am now properly synced to it, so have recopied the document over and... it still won’t open in Pages, nor in LibreOffice 24 2 1.

A new pop-up says “File x can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Mac OS can’t verify that this app is free from malware." I have Googled this and should be able to override it in Privacy and Security setting, but even though I followed instructions to do that, it refused, didn’t open and went back to ‘invalid’ message.

Lovely that Apple is concerned re malware, but I have opened Word documents (via Pages) from this client’s dropbox without any harm for aeons on my old machine. Perhaps Sonoma has very high standards, but it seems to be stopping me doing my work...

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Answer 9

Mar 14, 2024 4:46 AM in response to CDalloway

If I encountered a document that could not be opened in Pages or LibreOffice, I would suspect it is infected with some malware, or damaged and delete it. Then ask the client how they generated that Word document and if they had checked it with their (Windows) anti-virus software. Ensure that they are not generating the document on OneDrive, and then copying the encrypted document onto DropBox without decrypting it first. Nothing will open it under those circumstances.

For macOS to flag that Word document as from an unidentified developer is a serious red flag that the document is not what it seems. I would ask the client to regenerate that document.

Do you still have an older Mac on which you could try opening that client Word document?

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