Pages Template Chooser opens the wrong template

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Level 1

18 points

Pages Template Chooser opens the wrong template

Saved user templates no longer behave properly. This has been raised in older threads. User templates for both Pages and Numbers seems to have moved several times.

Recent posts suggest they are stored in <$USER/Library/Containers/Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates> and there are templates here, but I think they are redundant. If you click one directly it doesn't seem to open in Pages despite being ID's as a Pages document. When I deleted a local one manually, it offered me a download option, so it's clear that the Cloud is also involved.

However, if you sign in to Pages in iCloud, there is no option for 'My Templates' - they don't show up there, which is surprising. However the same set is visible on Pages on my iPad as on the MacBook.

Anyway, 'My templates' icons do not always match what opens and I'm thinking it's probably easiest to delete them all (from wherever they are kept) and start again.

Anyone else had similar problems and found a way through?

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 5:12 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 24, 2024 5:41 AM in response to IainB333

Pages on macOS stores its templates in one location (when you select Add to Template Chooser) after selecting File menu > Save as Template… menu item. The correct path, which you shouldn't need to know anyway) is:

/Users/$USER/Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates/

I have never experienced Pages (any version since Oct 2013) arbitrarily changing its user generated Templates folder location based on the first paragraph conditions.

Optionally, you can store user generated Pages templates anywhere you want as the associated panel gives you that freedom, but then it is your responsibility to keep track of that alternative template location.

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Answer 2

IainB333 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 25, 2024 2:10 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks Viking, but I'm not sure you are completely correct. I have dug a bit further and sorted it out. Obviously iWork is long since deprecated and if you get a new Mac now it will default your templates to <$USER/Library/Containers/Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates>.

In an earlier OS/Pages update transition all your 'compatible' templates would have been updated and moved to this location from the iWork folder. Unless you choose manually to keep your templates elsewhere, which, as you say, is always possible.

Saving a new template so it is available in the Template Chooser gives it a file name like <8B899EEA-AF83-4C6B-94B8-A686E0339765> no matter what you call the template in Pages.

Templates in <Containers/Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates> then appear to be synced via iCloud so they are available on other MacOS and iOS devices.

My folder had a jumble of legacy templates and new ones. I saved document copies and then deleted all the templates using the management function in Pages and could watch them immediately disappear from the template chooser on my iPad. I then opened Pages on all my devices to check that there was no rubbish in 'My Templates' that would attempt to upload and re-sync.

I have now reimported the documents I want for templates, cleaned them up and saved them afresh into My Templates (they all have long alphanumeric file names if inspected in Finder) and are available and matching on all other devices.

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Answer 3

Nov 25, 2024 6:15 AM in response to IainB333

When one has the iWork '08/'09 applications installed on a compatible operating system (ending with 10.14.6), those Pages templates are stored here:

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/iWork/Pages/Templates/{Journals, My Templates}

and the iWork Applications would be stored in the Applications folder.

The first time one installs Pages v5 or later, it moves the iWork '08/'09 applications into the Applications/iWork 'YY folder, and then attempts to convert existing Pages templates into the new application format. Because the older and newer Pages are entirely different applications and the newer does not (and still does not) have the same application functionality — it will only convert custom user templates that are compatible with the newer version of Pages features and ignore others, leaving them in their path location above in this post. The newly converted templates are placed in the path location of my previous post on Nov 24.

Older Pages templates not stored in the linked location above are not converted into the newer Pages template format automatically on installation of the newer Pages application. If you drag and drop these into the current Pages User Templates folder, they may be converted by the current Pages when used, or that conversion may fail owing to unsupported features of the older templates.

Since Pages v5 or later is now in the Applications folder, it becomes the default Pages document opening application. Pages '09 cannot inherently open Pages v5 or later documents.

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